Years from now—once the scourge of COVID-19 is in our rear-view window—US economists and public health experts will have the luxury of musing retrospectively on the high cost, both in lives and livelihoods, of the 2020 pandemic. They’ll also look back on a residential real estate boom that provided a remarkable bright spot in an otherwise dismal economy.
Today, ten months into the pandemic, realtors are racking up figures that rival those prior to the 2008 housing market meltdown. “I’m having one of the best sales years ever,” said Wilmington realtor Zulima Devia at Re/Max Realty “It’s buyers all across the board: from first-time homebuyers to people buying second homes for vacation getaways, to people moving south or out of big cities; they want more space and to maintain safety amidst the pandemic.”
According to a new report from real estate brokerage firm Redfin, “half of this year’s hot neighborhoods are clustered in Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee.” These areas are receiving the greatest year-over-year page views on websites. The National Association of Realtors includes Charlotte, NC, and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill areas among the nation’s Top 10 housing markets in 2020.
Along with the challenges of COVID-19 protocols, realtors must keep pace with customers clamoring for higher-end home features in more affordable markets. “COVID-19 has accelerated the use of technology,” said Devia. “The virtual open house is now the standard rather than something used just for ultra-high-end properties.”
Closings are increasingly conducted virtually with minimal contact, perhaps with just the buyer and title clerk or attorney present in one location. Even so, real estate transactions are notoriously paper-intensive. Closing documents contain sensitive customer information like signed applications, disclosure forms and financials, affidavits, assignment of liens, purchase or sales agreements. All of this must remain secure and organized for retrieval at a later time.
To that end, Kyocera’s suite of Managed Document Services (MDS), optimizes realtors’ document environment, converting that endless stream of paper into digital formats. The suite breaks down into these flexible phases:
With managed document solutions, real estate agencies reduce the costs of filing, searching, and retrieving documents. This also substantially eliminates the chance of lost or missing documents.
As nearly half (46%) of Americans are considering a move this year, Copiers Plus is pleased to offer our area realtors excellence in both products and service—helping them to thrive in this competitive marketplace.
