A Marin colleague made me laugh this weekend with the term he coined, “PEAD fatigue”. Buyers, Sellers and Realtors are all suffering from it. Common symptoms include anxiety, sudden urges to scream, words flying out of your mouth that don’t normally grace your vocabulary, and a sudden urge to bang your head against a wall! It is wild to think a Permission to Enter Form (PEAD) did not exist a year ago and quickly became mandatory for showing a home. While this process is tedious, we are grateful for the ability to show property. As many of you have witnessed, we have had to pivot all year with the changing COVID rules. With the planned reopening of California on June 15, there are three questions all Realtors have right now:
- Will the PEAD still be required?
- Will Open Houses and Brokers’ Tours return?
- Will private showing appointments prevail as the desired way to see and sell a home?
For planning purposes, we’d love to know but the answer is complicated as it will come from the Governor, Contra Costa County Health Director, our Real Estate Board and each Seller we represent. For now, we do know the system in place has been tolerated and is working. While our listing team Leads often feel like a hostess at the hottest restaurant in town, we are getting people in houses. In fact, with showings every 30-minutes we can accommodate 24 showings a day! When a house has been deemed a hot house by the marketplace, we fill these showings within hours. What can we learn from this?
- Buyers are willing to do everything they can to see a home regardless of how irritating the process is.
- Buyers must be organized and ready to see a home whenever they can get an appointment.
- Realtors quickly know just how competitive a home will be.
- If a home has a smaller Buyer pool and is not wild, hurry, it is a Buyers lucky day!
- There is plenty of Buyer activity in the marketplace making 2021 a great time to sell.
As your Realtors, while we patiently wait to learn how we will need to pivot next, we are grateful for your perseverance! Our team approach allows us to continually find success for our clients. Whether your path to buying and selling is long or short, we look forward to navigating this journey together and crossing the finish line.
Dana Green