July 24, 2020
My partner and I had been musing about the idea of buying a house for the past year or so. But it never seemed like it'd be a reality. Then COVID hit. And people began speculating that housing prices would drop and/or there would be more houses on the market. We started considering the notion of buying a house more seriously. Then, we started looking at house listings online and we began getting excited. After a few weeks we got in touch with my family's real estate agent.
He quickly informed us that after an initial drop in sales in April, the market was beginning to pick up and catch up to where it was expected to be. (Also, we later learned that in June 2020 home prices hit an all time high in Toronto!!) But by this point we were hooked on the idea of buying a new home and decided to continue on this emotional roller coaster ride.
Neither of us had ever been house hunting before, but we quickly learned that it is VERY different during COVID, than it was previously:
-There are NO open houses or double bookings allowed. You can only have one set of viewers in the house. And some sellers don't allow your family members to attend, either.
-The sellers CANNOT be home when you view their house.
-You MUST wear a mask and gloves.
-You CANNOT touch anything. You must ask your real estate agent to open cupboards and doors.
While previously, I think it would be quite common for realtors to drive you around, if needed, this was not something we felt comfortable with during COVID. However, we did see some prospective buyers being driven by their real estate agent, with masks on and windows down. When we didn't have a car available, we opted to bike to each house viewing, which meant madly pedalling between houses, so that we wouldn't keep our realtor waiting too long.
Many houses we entered, had sanitation stations by the front door, which included some combination of masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and booties. There were often signs posted that outlined the COVID-related rules for visiting each house. When the seller's real estate agent did happen to double book or we accidentally overlapped with other viewers, we had to coordinate; one group would look outside the home, while the other was inside.
After donning gloves and masks and checking out somewhere between 15 to 20 houses, and doing second viewings for 3 of these, we have finally found a house that we deem worth bidding on. We've opted to do a walk thru (ugh...yes, this is how they spell it) with the house inspector. He promptly informed us that only one prospective home buyer can view the house and we must confirm that we have not travelled or had symptoms of COVID in the past two weeks. We're waiting to see what will happen with this house, but fingers crossed we'll soon be done this house hunt.
-Roo