When the state of Hawaii went under ‘shelter in place’ orders in late March due to the rising threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, no one really knew what would happen with the real estate market - but it seemed to be a safe bet that the impact would be quite negative. Up until that point, sales in 2020 had been healthy, with both the number of sales and average sale prices on the Big Island higher than the same period the year before. I had just listed the spec house in Ola Hou Estates that I had been working on for the past nine months at the end of February. My open house on March 1 was very successful - drawing more than 20 groups of people - even in the pouring rain. I felt confident that the house would sell quickly, given all of the positive feedback I had received from everyone who saw it, including my fellow real estate agents who toured it on what turned out to be the last Realtor caravan before the shutdown. I held a second open house on March 15. Even though just two weeks had passed since the first one, things were already different. The term “social distancing” had just been introduced, we made sure to have hand sanitizer on hand, cleaned every surface and door handle thoroughly, and served pre-wrapped snacks instead of my mom’s awesome baked goods. We had a decent turnout, but nothing like the first one - people were starting to get wary about going out. Ten days later, the shelter-in-place order came down from the governor’s office. I had very mixed feelings. On one hand, I felt lucky that I had been able to get the house listed and have a couple of successful marketing opportunities before the shutdown happened. On the other hand, I felt cut off at the knees because, who was going to be buying a brand new house - especially a large, fairly expensive one - with so much uncertainty out there? There wasn’t much I could do except to make the best of it and try to keep a positive attitude. I worked on my digital marketing skills (as outlined in my previous blog post) and just kept plugging away. I participated in a ton of Zoom calls on the state of the real estate business, both locally and nationally. A lot of agents all over the country were worried about how the pandemic would affect sales and ultimately, our livelihoods. I applied for, and received, a PPP loan from the SBA, just in case things went south. Then a funny thing happened - things started selling, and I found myself busier than ever. In fact, I’m on track to have my most successful year so far in real estate. I certainly hadn’t predicted that as a potential outcome at the beginning of all this. And the most exciting bit of news is that the house is in escrow and scheduled to close by the end of July! In talking with others in the real estate business - including agents, escrow officers, and lenders - I found that I’m not the only one who has stayed busy during the pandemic. In my opinion, a few factors that have helped the market stay strong here are:
Whatever the reason, I am so grateful that the dire outcome that many of us were afraid of (both in terms of infection rate and effect on the real estate market) hasn’t come to fruition (so far, knock on wood). I feel truly blessed to live in such a beautiful place where we have plenty of space for social distancing, and the vast majority show their aloha for others by complying with mask-wearing requirements (and not complaining about it). As we see infection numbers rise on the mainland, my only hope is that we can keep our successful track record here going until the Coronavirus threat is extinguished once and for all.
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It’s mid-June 2020 as I write this, and we are in the midst of the Covid-19 worldwide pandemic. Life as we knew it has changed dramatically since March - many businesses were forced to shut down and we were all ordered to stay at home for the entire months of April and May unless deemed “essential” by the local government. For those of us in real estate, this meant that we could no longer rely on many of our normal tools, such as realtor caravans and open houses, to market our listings. For many agents, myself included, the shutdown not only provided us with an opportunity to expand our toolboxes, it made it a necessity. I found myself being more busy during the shelter-in-place period than I was in the months prior, when I was able to roam freely wherever and whenever I wanted. Being forced to stay at home gave me the structure I needed to focus on learning new things. I made a list of the tasks I wanted to accomplish during the shutdown and set about plowing through them. The first priority on my list was creating a virtual tour for my house listing, since most people would now be home shopping via the internet instead of in-person showings. I taught myself how to build a single property website and created a video using the photos I had taken for the listing. My principal broker was so impressed, he asked me to put together virtual tours for a couple of his listings. It was actually fun to put my new skills to good use and help out a colleague at the same time! The next order of business was to work on my online presence. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) offered some great deals on continuing education classes to support their members during the pandemic. I took advantage of the free e-Pro certification course, which teaches digital marketing techniques needed in today’s world. I revived my languishing Facebook business page and created a realtor Instagram account. As an early adopter of Instagram (I joined in 2010 when the company was only two months old) it’s ironic that it took me so long to get around to using it for work. My personal account has a rather narrow focus on a certain style of photography, so I’m having a lot of fun with my professional account as I’ve given myself the freedom to post a wide range of content. Plus, I finally learned how to use Stories on Instagram and Facebook, so that’s opened up a whole new rabbit hole to explore. The final piece of the online puzzle is the creation of this website. I’d been thinking about making one for years and never got it together. Nothing like a global pandemic to motivate you to get your marketing butt in gear! Big mahalo to Hawaii Information Service’s Ian Ho (sales) for guiding me through the process and Gail Matsushima (designer) for doing all of the heavy lifting in making this site come to life. I’m most excited about this blog section as I’ve been wanting a space for me to exercise my writing skills. I plan on updating it regularly and the vision is for it to be a mix of real estate and “real life” content, much like my Instagram feed. I hope that I can keep it up and keep it interesting and engaging. Feedback and ideas on content are always welcome!
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