Buying or selling a home in the midst of a nationwide pandemic may sound like a terrible idea, but according to local real estate agents, there is no better time than now.
"It is a very good time to sell your home because the inventory is low and the price per square foot has been on an upward trend," said Century 21 United Realtor Marty Reed of White Hall. Reed has been an agent since 2012 and noted that from a buyer's standpoint, interest rates are low right now.
A colleague agrees.
"People are getting 30-year home loans under 3 percent, said veteran real estate agent Rodney Rodgers, former owner of Wilson-Rodgers and Associates before selling to what is now Century 21 United in 2014. "That's almost unheard of, so it's a great time for buyers to buy homes."
Kay Lawrence, executive director of the Jefferson County Realtors board of directors and a 40-year agent, said there has been plenty of business in the region.
"Every indicator in Jefferson County and certainly around the U.S. at this point is very positive towards purchasing a home," said Lawrence. "We have had amazing sales."
Lawrence said that by May, when the pandemic began to settle and interest rates dropped, houses were in high demand.
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Before then, the housing market wasn't favorable for buyers or real estate agents. Rodgers said that at the beginning of the pandemic, he lost several contracts that were very close to closing.
"I had three contracts on the books that I lost when this first started because people got laid off from their jobs when they started shutting down restaurants and other things," said Rodgers, who has been in real estate since 1983. "Things were slow for a while. People were not wanting to get out, myself included."
Rodgers said because he is in a high-risk category for covid-19 at age 77, he didn't work regularly for quite some time. He also said that because of the uncertainty of the virus when it first hit Jefferson County, sellers didn't want strangers in their homes.
That doesn't seem to be a problem now, as there are 171 homes for sale in Jefferson County, 12 of which were just listed within the past week, according to realtor.com.
"The agents are using a lot of protective measures, making sure everyone has a mask on," said Lawrence. "We also talk to the sellers about what they need to do when they come back home after a showing as far as sanitizing."
With a diverse selection of homes in Jefferson County, Lawrence said, some have sold for as low as $40,000 to as high as $400,000.
According to realtor.com, the median list price in August was $106,700, with homes selling quicker than they were pre-covid-19.
Grant Medford knows all about inventory moving quickly, as he was a buyer and a seller at the same time. Selling his home in Central Arkansas and moving to Southeast Arkansas, Medford said because the market was doing really well during the pandemic, financially it was a good time to make that move.
Putting his home on the market in June, Medford said he had an offer within three days.
"Our home moved very quickly, and it took about six weeks for us to go from contract to signing closing documents," said Medford.
"We had an offer on our home that we accepted, so we knew what we were going to be getting with our house, so then we started the process of looking for our new home."
Reed advises buyers to get preapproved and when they find the right home, be ready to make an offer immediately. Low interest rates are bringing people to the housing market in droves, but having a preapproval, Medford says, is what moved his offer forward.
"That makes you a much better buyer," said Medford.
"If you're preapproved for a home loan, that makes the process so much easier once you actually sign a contract to purchase a home, because a lot of that work has been done on the front end and they know you're a legitimate buyer."
He also suggests buyers turn in their requested documents to their mortgage lender as quickly as possible so the process can move in a timely manner.
"If they ask for copies of your W2s or copies of your pay stubs, make sure you get that information turned in to them as quickly as possible, because that really helps expedite the process," said Medford, whose process took longer than expected due to lenders and title companies working remotely.
What used to be an in-person transaction has now become an online home-buying experience. Medford said 95% of his documents were e-signed and the ones that he had to sign, he printed them out and then scanned them back.
"All in all, ... buying a home during the pandemic has been pretty good," said Medford.
Pine Bluff leads the available inventory with 127 homes for sale with a median listing price of just under $90,000.
According to realtor.com, Plum Bayou has a median listing price of $166,500, making it the most expensive city, while Redfield is the most affordable city, with a median listing price of $85,000.
"Business is good right now for buyers and sellers," said Rodgers. "It's good for sellers because the inventory is low and the demand is high. It's a good time for buyers because the interest rate is so low."