A few weeks ago, I was speaking to my accountant, who had been speaking to his contractor. My accountant’s advice to the contractor was to pivot his business towards supplying and installing hands-free kitchen sink faucets (the ones where you wave your hand over them in close proximity to turn the water on and off). My accountant’s hypothesis was that the market for hands-free sinks will explode once we’re over the Covid-19 pandemic. He’s probably right. This got me thinking, as we enter Week 7 of the Covid-19 quarantine here in New Jersey, it is abundantly clear that this black swan event has irrevocably changed society, and business will never be conducted the same way again. In real estate, the emergence of certain solutions to respond to social distancing concerns give us some insight on how the industry will operate once we all emerge from our work-from-home caves. Some of these solutions may have been temporary stop-gaps, while others may have some lasting power to shape the business of selling homes for years to come.
While No One Has A Crystal Ball, It’s Important To Look At Some Of These Emergent Ideas, And Onsider How We Can Pivot Our Businesses To Best Prepare For Post-covid Society.
Agents across the state and nation have had to brush up on their video skills to continue showcasing their listings. Videos have already become a staple of real estate marketing, and virtual house tours can certainly become core content if agents start to develop skills and comfort with it.
Even before Covid-19, sellers were already closing by mail. With title agencies handling settlements and notarizing, buyers’ attorneys have a smaller role at the closing table. Is it conceivable that buyers attorneys would stop attending closings, or realize the efficiency gained by attending closings via Zoom?
The statute allowing for signers and notaries to execute and seal documents from different places will expire as soon as the State of Emergency in New Jersey is lifted. However, with some form of law allowing for remote online notarization or virtual notarization being in the books in over 40 states, either permanently or temporarily, has this technology trend finally hit its critical mass?
To respond to closures or restrictions to access to county courthouses and records offices, title insurance underwriters have loosened their underwriting guidelines considerably to allow agents to continue insuring through the pandemic. The question will be if this short period of relaxed guidelines will lead to a spike in title insurance claims, or if one or two insurers decide that the emergency guidelines will be a new normal for title underwriting.