{"id":17535,"date":"2025-12-02T12:29:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T12:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tst.wordpress.realogydev.com\/cartus\/uncategorized\/how-times-have-changed-buying-and-selling-during-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T12:29:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T12:29:01","slug":"how-times-have-changed-buying-and-selling-during-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tst.wordpress.realogydev.com\/cartus\/insights\/blog\/how-times-have-changed-buying-and-selling-during-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"How Times Have Changed: Buying and Selling During a Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":17537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,198],"tags":[232,366,427,215,428],"class_list":["post-17535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-real-estate","tag-covid-19","tag-home-sales","tag-homebuying","tag-real-estate","tag-virtual-closings"],"acf":{"blog_type":"Long Blog","category_type":"blogs","dont_display_published_date_in_blog_landing_tile":false,"hero_image":17538,"story_section_topic":"","story_section_description":"","rich_text_content1":"A Cartus employee shares her experience of selling and buying a home during the pandemic and how the process has changed to a mostly virtual experience. Read on for the good and the bad\u2014and helpful tips\u2014in this \u201cnew normal\u201d of real estate transactions.\n\nColleen Smith and her husband decided that it was a good time to upgrade from their townhome to a larger, single-family home. Great idea, except\u2026 it was during a global pandemic! We wanted to hear the details of her experience firsthand, and she was gracious enough to share them in this interview.\n\n","rich_text_content2":"To set the stage, both properties were located in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The biggest surprise to Colleen and her husband was discovering just how many people were relocating from New York to Connecticut at that time. \u201cIt\u2019s a sellers\u2019 market,\u201d she said, \u201cand this was evident on both the buying and selling sides. It was great when we were selling our townhome, but not so much when we were competing with so many others to find a new home. Many New Yorkers were bidding on properties sight unseen and they came with cash offers higher than asking. We lost out on several properties for this reason.\u201d\n\n","title":"read our White Paper Navigating Relocation Home Sales in Uncharted Waters","sub_title":"","sub_text":"\u201cAll in all, things worked out well for us, and we found our \u2019forever home\u2018\u2014but it was definitely a rollercoaster! I hope our experiences will help future buyers find their perfect homes.\u201d\n\n","display_primary_cta":true,"label_for_primary_cta":"download","download_pdf_or_link":true,"download_pdf":null,"download_link":"","primary_video_or_image":false,"primary_image":17539,"primary_video":{"video_title":"","video_type":"youtube","video_id":""},"rich_text_content3":"

Selling Side:<\/h3>What went well in the process?<\/strong>\n\n\u201cWe got an offer on our Townhome for full asking price five days after listing in September! Unfortunately, that sale fell through due to financing issues. We\u00a0listed again the day before Thanksgiving and had three more showings on Thanksgiving Day, which resulted in another offer.\n\nWe really didn\u2019t repair much prior to listing, either. We thoroughly cleaned and did minor paint touch-ups\u2014but no major work\u2014and we still got offers. We do wonder if we had made more repairs, would we have gotten more\u2014or higher\u2014offers?\n\nThe final closing itself ultimately went very smoothly with no hitch. Everything was done online. Super easy.\u201d\n\nWhat didn\u2019t go so well?<\/strong>\n\n\u201cThe appraisals were\u00a0tough because the appraisers were so busy trying to keep up with a rapidly changing market. Home values were increasing daily, so the appraisal would change from month to month. From our first offer in September to our second one in November, the appraisal increased by $10,000 in a 2-month period. We sold for less than we would have liked, simply because the appraisal was still slightly behind actual home values and our buyer needed financing. If we\u2019d had a cash buyer, we likely could have sold for a higher price.\n\nI still wish we had done a preemptive 'Make Me Move' or 'coming soon to market' option, where buyers would have been alerted prior to the home actually being listed.\u00a0Sellers that did this seemed to have buyers waiting in the wings when they finally listed.\u201d\n\n

Buying Side:<\/h3>What went well?<\/strong>\n\n\u201cEverything seemed to move quickly. We searched for homes on Zillow, saw the ones we could in person, and made offers. The virtual process seemed to speed everything up, including the mortgage and closing. We never even met with the sellers at closing\u2014everything was done virtually or through our attorney and agent. The home appraised exactly at our offer price. We also felt perfectly safe and secure uploading our information remotely for the mortgage.\u201d\n\nWhat were the challenges?<\/strong>\n\n\u201cToo much competition! I would find a house we liked and have a showing scheduled the same day, but the very next day it would have multiple offers. Many times we couldn\u2019t even get in to see the homes in person. Since we needed a mortgage to purchase, we felt we were at a disadvantage competing with all-cash, out-of-state buyers. Luckily, we did not need to make our offer contingent upon selling our townhome, so that helped. We did lose out on three homes we really wanted to out-of-state buyers, but ended up in a beautiful home in the end. We had put an initial offer on this home for $5,000 more than asking price. Then, we saw a car with New York license plates drive up for a showing and panicked! So we increased our offer another $4,000\u2014and included a very personalized letter to the seller. Ultimately, our offer ended up being accepted, but it was nerve-wracking!\u201d\n\n","secondary_video_or_image":false,"secondary_image":17540,"secondary_video":{"video_title":"","video_type":"youtube","video_id":""},"rich_text_content4":"","rich_text_header_with_bullet_points":"

What has changed about the overall process of buying and selling?<\/h3>