A survey by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) [1] found 81% of respondents said COVID-19 has impacted the traffic of prospective buyers.
The survey collected 308 responses with 51% of them coming from single-family builders.
Forty-six percent of those surveyed said the virus has had a “major” impact on the reduction of traffic and 35% said there has been a minor impact. Also, 18% said it had no impact on prospective buyers.
The survey found that the willingness of workers to report to construction sites was the least common problem, with 42% of respondents saying that has had a negative impact on their business.
Five other factors were grouped together in having an adverse effect: the supply of respirator face masks, how long it takes to review a plan for a single-family home, the supply of building products and materials, the amount buyers are willing to pay, and how long it takes to obtain an inspection from the local building department.
While the traffic of prospective buyers might be impacted by the virus, those that are still interested are doing their searching online.
Redfin reported [2] that it has seen a 494% weekly increase in requests for agent-led video home tours.
As of March 22, 18.9% of tour requests for agents were video-chat tour requests, which is up from 0.2% at the beginning of March.
Redfin encouraged buyers to ask for video-char tours on March 3 and on March 17 Redfin upgraded its tour-request forms to let buyers choose a video-chat tour. Redfin allowed users to choose their preferred video-chat tool on March 19 and on March 22 video-chat tours are available on the iOS app. A release states this will soon be available on the Android app as well.
"The future of real estate has come earlier than any of us could have anticipated," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. "The way things are during the pandemic won't last forever, but at the end of all this, things won't go back to the way they were either. We hope we're well prepared."