A Pandemic Side Effect
A Pandemic Side Effect
The other day, I asked a broker friend: Have you noticed we’re all nice to each other now? She had.
My phone and my inbox might be overflowing with work, but they’re also brimming with niceties: So good seeing you! Heard about your deal, good job! How’s your sister?
I’ve been asking around and heard an interesting theory about why well-wishes have appeared in the intro to emails and texts, and why everyone is willing to spend an extra few minutes on the phone lately. It is, of course, due to the pandemic. It’s a side effect, if you will. Maybe it’s because the flight from cities has resulted in so much business. There’s plenty to go around, so we don’t have to be so competitive.
I’m not completely sold on this theory, but I can’t dispute its effects. More than ever, it feels like those of us in the business are on the same team.
We’re all making the best of a difficult time
This sounds very rosy, I’m sure: an atmosphere of friendliness during a cutthroat real estate market in the Hamptons — sure! Another theory for the goodwill is that we’re all in this together. We’re all hustling for listings when there’s record-low inventory on the market. Even if we did not get that listing, we’re glad someone did so we can offer it to a customer. We’re all juggling multiple schedules to make a showing happen. We’re all breaking the bad news to customers that their budget isn’t going to stretch as far as they thought, and we’re all navigating reams of paperwork and unprecedented delays to close transactions.
And we’re all holding it together, too, in the face of frustrated, stressed clients who need a house yesterday (or to sell their house yesterday), and while we navigate and explain pandemic-induced obstacles and rising prices.
In this, brokers are aligned with everyone else in the business: local attorneys, mortgage brokers, inspectors, surveyors … the list goes on. We’re all doing the best we can for our clients, as fast as we can. To be honest: It’s harder than ever. Not only has work quadrupled while the workforce remains the same, but thanks to the environment of uncertainty, clients are more stressed and demanding than ever. So many change their minds and directions more than ever before.
I’m not blaming them for it; I think the pandemic has worn on all of us. We all feel out of control, and no matter what channel we’re watching we feel like we’re being lied to. We’re so lacking control in terms of what our life used to be like that although we want buying or selling a house to be fun, somehow, we end up feeling like we can’t have what we want.
For instance, you work with an agent who shows you a great house, but you can’t have it because other people outbid you. You work with a mortgage broker to get financing, but it takes months to come through and the seller starts doubting your ability to pay. So now you can’t have what you want, and it feels like the people you engaged to help you, however much time they spend with you and however hard they try, aren’t being helpful. Anyone would start feeling a bit distrustful, and a lot stressed.
Here’s a list of just a few of the things buyer and seller agents need to resolve together these days:
Furniture. Purchasers want to use the furniture all summer but won’t buy it; sellers want to sell their beautiful furniture. Add in the difficulty of getting a mover right now and the delays in shipping new furniture and things get frustrating, fast. This isn’t without precedent: Furniture causes a problem more often than not, even in normal times. It’s just worse now.
COVID safety. The potential buyers brought too many people into the house during a showing while the sellers were home. (Another good reason to recommend sellers leave the house for showings.)
The prices. Thanks to the feverish sellers’ market right now, sellers who don’t get more than the asking price feel like they’re getting the raw end of the negotiaton. This leads them to try and extract something else from the deal: more time in the house for the summer, or no updated certificate of occupancy.
The pace. Before COVID, you could get a mortgage commitment in two weeks. Now, it can take months. During this delay, the seller gets suspicious about the buyer’s finances, the buyer gets annoyed with the mortgage broker, and the real estate brokers hears complaints from both sides.
With any luck, this sentiment will last
A third theory for our newfound bonhomie is simply that absence makes the heart grow fonder. In the past year, those of us in the real estate industry haven’t seen each other nearly as much as we used to. There have been no in person office meetings (and no office politics), no open houses, and with so much business, there is less cause for jealousy. We’ve also had more time online. We see one another’s Facebook and Instagram posts and I am certain hit more likes and hearts than ever before.
In the case of those agents, we don’t prefer to spend time with, any difficult past becomes water under the bridge because now we’ve been through so much together. Plus: We need each other. Scheduling appointments is more difficult than ever. Updating a CO takes longer than ever. Who has the bandwidth to hold a grudge?
Speaking of: Send me an email or a text. How’s the season going? I’d love to hear from you.