Home Selling during a Pandemic

@ChristianMusuraca from The Lacek Group shows a successful way to sell a home during a pandemic by not only being proactive for his seller but prepared for the unknown. 

Musuraca, a full-time realtor from Piatt Sotheby’s International Realty and The Lacek Group listed a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home in Mt. Lebanon, a south suburban Pittsburgh neighborhood known for its blue ribbon school district and multiple offers due to lack of inventory. Unbeknownst of this current state of COVID-19, the start of spring real estate sales was beginning to ramp up right before listing went live on March 13th. Then the pandemic hit the United States and in mid-March a shelter-in-place order throughout Pennsylvania stopped any continued efforts to open houses and buyers from entering into the home. Mr. Musuraca immediately reacted and shot a video walk through of the home with the spite of matterport professionals being totally booked. The home was also pre-inspected with The Diamond Group, which is a tremendous benefit for sellers as part of the teams listing strategy. 

When asked about strategy, Mr. Musuraca said:

I was lucky to shoot and edit a virtual walk-through video (a combination of digitally-staged photographs of certain rooms, and live video) - this became the go-to strategy to reach out to agents via reverse prospect, and ultimately helped move a potential buyer - who had seen the house in-person once - to a signed buyer. Also, there was a noticeable uptick in video views when Real Estate activities started winding down.

Because of the suspension of nearly all Real Estate activities on 3/12/2020 and as part of the buyer's contingencies selected, the buyer could not hire a certified home inspection company. I provided them with a comprehensive Pre-Inspection Report from The Diamond Group when we had the home listed. The buyer accepted the report and requested only one remedy.

Also, I was fortunate to have a certified plumbing company perform Mt. Lebanon’s required Dye Test, and the buyer requested a pest and sewer camera test as part of their contingency — these businesses were exempt from the shelter-in-place order. I had them all schedule their inspections (staggered) in one day. The last contingency was a Radon test (a business that was also affected by the shelter-in-place order) – which both Buyer and Seller agreed to use an off-the-shelf test that was purchased at Home Depot. After 72 hours, the tests were capped and securely mailed to an offsite testing facility. To date, the property passed all inspections, and seller remedy has been completed. 

All signatures for both buyer and seller have been accomplished through ZipForms’ electronic signature feature, and at this point, we are waiting for clear-to-close/commitment letter. We expect the closing to be smooth given the circumstances affecting the PA Real Estate industry.

Thanks to Mr. Musuraca for being very proactive with listing strategy and effective virtual marketing, this property among others will be able to tell this story. It is an unusual way to do business but, will suddenly become the norm. Since mid-March, Piatt Sotheby's International Realty has launched an extensive Virtual Tour tool kit for all of the realtors which will be available for homes listed by the agents of the company. Leading the way for a professional marketing experience, we look forward to hearing your success story during this time.