Covid-19 has changed the way many buyers search for a property. Dominic Parravani from Durrants explains.
 
Before Covid-19, most home hunters physically visited all the properties in which they were interested. They felt they had to as a way of drawing up a serious shortlist of contenders.
 
To a large extent Covid-19 has changed all that. Three months of national lockdown has profoundly affected the way buyers look for a property. During the lockdown, when buyers couldn’t and didn’t want to leave their homes, viewing online became the default method of visiting properties: this is where our excellent photography and virtual tours really came into their own.
 
Armed with a great virtual tour, Google street and satellite views, maps, floor plans and even – when appropriate – drone video photography, our buyers have never been so visually informed about property.
 
Now that buyers are freed from lockdown, will they revert to their old viewing ways? It is doubtful.
 
The large amount of time buyers have to spend in looking around properties – which frequently they won’t in the end buy – is now mostly a thing of the past. For them the saving in time, money and emotional energy is colossal. Our sellers also benefit because only highly interested and well-informed buyers will visit their homes. After all, that final physical viewing is the all-important one: it is the visit when the buyer’s heart confirms what their eyes suspected from online visits. The physical viewing will almost certainly not be the first – or even the second, third or fourth time the property has been seen.  A buyer might have been inspecting a chosen property online for several weeks.
 
In the post Covid-19 property world, all estate agents are online agents. It’s just that some, like us, have offices in high profile street locations, providing our clients with the very best of both worlds. Not that one has to visit our offices to speak to us – Zoom meetings are another change that Covid-19 has brought to the property market.
 
We have all come out of lockdown modernised in one way or another. In addition all of us at Durrants have emerged as energised and as passionate as ever to provide the best service, advice, marketing and results for our clients.  Call us now at any of our branches in Beccles, Diss, Halesworth, Harleston, Southwold or our Mayfair Office in London   We very much look forward to hearing from you.