Socializing " these days"

If you know me, you know I am a very social person.  I LOVE settling in for a nice meal with good friends and family.  This "distancing" has certainly taken a toll.  I think, having been quite sick the first weeks of March, has me taking more precautions than many.

This past weekend, we engaged in our first distanced socializing.  Boy did it feel good!

Saturday evening, after dinner, we went to some friends and socialized around the fire pit in their back yard.  They had thoughtfully placed the chairs substantially more than 6' apart (6' is a bit of a random number, which I take to be a minimum).  We brought our own beverages.  They had sterilizing wipes available so we could use their restroom and wipe surfaces on our way in and out.

Sunday evening we went to some friends deck for dinner.  We brought our own food and drink.  They have a nice large deck, and had two tables set up, so we had our own table.  In addition to food and drink, I brought sanitary wipes (also known as gold, these days ) in case they were needed.  It was a lovely evening, and so nice to catch up.

In a way, this is socializing in its purist form; it's not about fancy meals and slaving in the kitchen, it's not about showing off your fancy house.  And hey, you don't even have to clean the house! Simply, it's about spending time together.  I like this.  It is odd though, inviting someone over and letting them know they'll need to bring their own...everything.

For now, we'll stick with this kind of socializing; small groups, outside, distanced, and no shared food.

What have you been up to?  Have you come up with fun or innovative ways to safely hangout with folks?

Thinking about selling that rental property?

Many sellers, preparing to sell a property, will do some fix-up, repairs and cleaning.  Often a seller hasn't thoroughly inspected a rental property during a tenancy. Are smoke and carbon monoxide detectors up got date (they'd better be, if it is a rental), does the water heater have the required seismic straps, I'd bet a deep clean to the bath and kitchen would be good, and so on.

The City of Portland and State of Oregon tenant protections have made it tricky to sell an occupied rental property.  SB 608, known as state wide rent control, also placed restrictions on moving a tenant out to sell. An owner must already have an accepted offer from a buyer who plans to owner occupy the property.  This means, any pre-listing or marketing work would need to be done with the tenant in place, and showings and marketing could be affected by a tenant's housekeeping and allowed showing access.

Selling to an owner occupant means the buyer will want to move in.  But it can take months, and City of Portland relocation fees, to move a tenant out.  Better to sell when one unit, or the whole thing if it is a single family property, is vacant.

Other things to do.  Be sure you have up to date financial information on the property.  That is, a current profit and loss showing real maintenance costs, insurance, owner paid utilities, ledger of rent history (if selling an occupied unit), ledger of tenant paid deposits and a list of included personal property(stove, fridge, washer, dryer)  Spend a bit of time getting these items in order before you sell.

Smaller, independent rental property owners aren't always the best at this financial record keeping.  The lack of information can look, to buyers like disorganization or even dishonesty.  Better to avoid giving these impressions.

If you have an upcoming vacancy, think, if this is the time to sell.  If you are in the City of Portland, in filling your vacancy, be sure to abide by the new tenant screening and deposit rules, now in effect.  More on those rules later.

This real estate market is SO interesting

We now have the stats for the month of April, which was our first full month of a COVID-19 influenced market.

As expected, we've seen decreases in both new listings and pending sales, with new listings down 32.4% from April 2019 and 17.9% from March 2020.  Similarly, pending sales are down 34.2% from 2019 and 12% from March 2020.

Inventory bumped up a tad, to 2.4 months.  But...market time decreased to 44 days, from 61 from the year, and March.  What?  That's a pretty substantial change.

And, we're seeing an increase in the median sale price, up 3.9%  year to date compared to the same time period last year.  A 3.8% increase in the median price for the previous 12 months.    That's all greater than the 2019 median price increase of 2.5%.

So fewer new listings, fewer pending sales, shorter market time and higher prices.  What the heck?  And all this amid distancing and hygiene protocols including no in-person open houses, restrictions on the number of people in a house at one time, booties, masks, gloves etc.

Different from the recession, housing and lending didn't cause this "downturn" if it even is a downturn.  With decisive buyers and sellers still transacting real estate, pressure remains on prices and market times.

We often make assumptions about motivations and pressure on buyers and sellers.  How people feel about and are affected by COVID-19 seems to vary greatly.  Some folks are fully employed, some not.  Life changes continue to influence real estate, with people transacting depending on their specific situations.  Some buyers and sellers are sitting out of the market until things clear up, others are proceeding.

Its pretty clear to me that we'll have several months, if not longer, with some distancing guidelines and protocols.  Our challenge is to continue living our lives amid those guidelines and protocols.  The path I find, and the risks I choose to take may vary from yours.  I may add in a second or third grocery store trip per week, while someone else might attend a large gathering. Neither are right or wrong.  Similarly, some buyers and sellers may proceed to transact, while others aren't comfortable doing so.  Neither are right or wrong.

I am working, and should you be comfortable, I'm glad to help you transact real estate.  I do have a (small) supply of gloves, masks, booties and disinfecting wipes to help keep us safe.  If you've got questions about the market (or our protocols) get in touch.