Virtual Listing Appointments

Virtual Listing Appointments for Home Sellers

The world has changed, at least for the near term, and how you choose a real estate agent to list your home likely looks different than it would have just a few months ago. Historically, most home owners contacted multiple real estate agents, had them come to their home, interviewed them, and had the real estate agent walk through the house in order to supply a price recommendation. During this visit, a good real estate agent would also give advice on repairs and staging that would help with the sale of the property.

Although this is still an option, many home sellers don’t feel comfortable having multiple real estate agents walk through their home. Also, there are many real estate agents who don’t feel comfortable visiting multiple homes for listing appointments. These conditions present a unique challenge for home sellers in their efforts to find and vet the best real estate agent for them.

In order to assist current and prospective clients, agents have developed a new option for conducting listing appointments. Real estate agents are now able to conduct listing appointments via video conferencing. The process is similar to a traditional listing appointment, with a few exceptions.

The Virtual Listing Appointment Process

In a traditional listing appointment, real estate agents would meet you at your home. At that time, they would provide you with material illustrating our strategies, marketing, and track record. Then, real estate agents would walk through the home with you in order to gather information about the condition of the property, upgrades, and amenities. During the walk through, real estate agents would also take the time to answer any questions you had about repairs and staging as well as offering their own suggestions. Typically, real estate agents would provide an estimated listing price recommendation at the conclusion of the appointment and then follow up the next day with a final recommendation. The time after the listing appointment allows the real estate agents to do in depth research using the condition and amenities discovered during the appointment to arrive at a listing price recommendation.

In a Virtual Listing Appointment, real estate agents will provide the same material. However, you have the option to receive the material via mail or digitally via email. Real estate agents will set an appointment with you to connect via the video conferencing app of your choice (Zoom, Skype, Facetime, etc). Real estate agents use video conferencing instead of just voice because it gives them the ability to virtually walk through your home with you and provide the same review and input they would during a physical listing appointment. Using this methodology, real estate agents are still able to provide an estimated listing price recommendation at the conclusion of the appointment.

It is still important for real estate agents to physically view the property to ensure they have given the best possible advice for your specific property. This can be done after you have decided they are your most likely choice for listing your home. At that time, they are able to minimize visits by arriving at your home at a designated time, viewing the property, confirming their listing price recommendation, and installing signs and lockboxes.

Showing Your Home

As part of the home selling process, real estate agents and potential buyers will still need to physically view the home. Although this is a necessary part of the home selling process, there are steps that can be taken to minimize traffic and create safer conditions when visits do occur.

Great real estate agents will take professional quality pictures and videos to showcase your home on the most visited real estate websites. Allowing home buyers to virtually view your property eliminates unnecessary visits by buyers who might not be a fit for your home. It also allows buyers to spend less time in your home when they do visit.

Some sellers choose to establish specific days and times for home showings. The concept being that by allowing showings only during specific blocks of time, the need to clean and sanitize the home is reduced. Instead of feeling the need to clean the home many times, after each visit, home sellers are able to only do so on designated showing days.

In order to reduce contact with the surfaces in the home, great real estate agents recommend having all interior doors open and all lights on in the home. This allows potential buyers to view the entire home without having to contact any door knobs or light switches, thus reducing surface contact in your home. In some cases, home sellers ask all potential buyers and agents viewing the home wear masks and/or gloves to further protect the interior of the home.

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