Selling in the Portland Metro Area Right Now: May 2020
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I sold a house during the pandemic, in a state with a Stay Home executive order. Contact me today to set up your free virtual home selling consultation, and I will sell your home too.
First, let’s start with a disclaimer! This is my opinion and experience as a Realtor with over a decade of experience. This is not a blanket plan for every home, or what every seller should do! I am licensed in Oregon and Washington, and focus on the Portland Metro Area, including Vancouver WA.
Marketing: Marketing has always been a strong point for me, and the transition for marketing during Covid-19 was simple. I have had 3D Matterport scans of my listings for years now, and am really excited that they are actually being used by buyers and buyer’s agents now! Please take a few minutes to explore this 4 level home. You can “walk through” like Street View on Google Maps, you can see it like a dollhouse, and you can view from above.
2. Open Houses: Open houses are currently not allowed in Oregon and Washington, and I don’t see them encouraged or appropriate for the rest of 2020. So what can we do? Virtual Open Houses! Yes, a Facebook or Instagram event where I walk the viewers through the house, answer questions, show off specific areas people ask about (how big is that closet? What’s the view from the kitchen sink? How sunny is the back patio?). This special time to focus on the property for sale can get people excited, let the neighbors get the inside scoop, and provide a video we can reuse in marketing. This is a short example of a quick video walk through, I didn’t talk because I used it in Instagram Stories with no sound, and notes and info added in that application.
3. Pricing: Pricing a listing is based on several factors: comparable sales in the area, the marketing and investment to sell, buyer demand and behavior, and how long the sellers want to be on the market. This year we are adding Covid-19 conditions to the outside factors that affect the listing price on a house! In the Portland Metro Area we are seeing even higher demand for many homes, so we are not automatically reducing list prices on houses. Setting the list price of a house for sale is a very technical aspect of my job, so I’m not going to take you through the steps one by one, but contact me to see what I would list your home for! Check out the page for all the listing info, and the home of all the incredible marketing I do for every home I sell.