During the COVID-19 pandemic, do you have to postpone your plans of selling your home? Not necessarily. There are still buyers out there looking for homes for sale in Malibu CA. And thanks to technology, they can search for properties without stepping one foot outside of their current residences.
As you navigate the home selling process during the outbreak, here are five things you can do to increase your chances of a successful sale.
- Take great photos of your property
With the bulk of home buyers searching for properties online, you need to show your home effectively. One way to do so is to take great listing photos of your property.
You can do it with your smartphone. Simply pick the time of the day when the lighting is at its best, then tour your home like a buyer. Pick the best angles of each room and snap away. Close-up photos showing key features and details are also welcome.
Once the photos are uploaded, don’t forget to add captions. Describe the space in a sentence or two.
- Do virtual tours
Now that you have photos, why not go one step further with virtual tours? It’s another great way to show off your property to home buyers online. You don’t need to be in the video. Your agent can walk buyers through the virtual tour and talk about your property at length.
You can do virtual tours two ways. One, you make one video that can be played again and again. Two, you can also do live virtual tours where you or your agent can interact with online home buyers and even answer questions.
- Screen buyers for in-house visits
When buyers who are 100 percent interested in purchasing your home come knocking, you can no longer avoid in-house visits. To protect yourself and your potential buyers, you and your agent can impose a few rules before being allowed for a personal in-house tour.
For instance, a buyer requesting for an in-house visit must have already viewed the virtual tour. You can also add that they should have loan pre-approval. Other sellers send their property disclosure settlement to potential buyers and make it a requirement for buyers to read it before being allowed to visit.
- Disinfect your home
Before you welcome any buyer to your property, make sure to disinfect the entire home property. Wash surfaces and frequently touched areas with soap and water, then wipe them down with household disinfectant.
What are frequently touched areas? Door knobs, light switches, handles, faucets, and countertops count. If you want, you can limit what your visitors can touch during an open house to reduce the likelihood of infection, just in case.
- Prepare an open house kit
We trust that your potential buyers already did their part to make sure they’re clean and disinfected before an in-house visit. Still, it never hurts to prepare a showing kit that you can give to your visitors.
It doesn’t need to be extravagant. The showing kit must include a bottle of sanitizer or alcohol, gloves, a face mask or two, and booties to cover their shoes as they walk through the property. You can also include a pamphlet about your property as well as contact details if they would like to proceed with an offer.
Do you need help in selling your home during the COVID-19 pandemic? Marco de Longeville Luxury Realty would be happy to help! Just get in touch with us at [mail_to email=”marc.delongeville@sothebys.realty”]marc.delongeville@sothebys.realty[/mail_to] or give us a call at 213.675.0197.