Lew Sichelman

"Who would have been stupid enough to buy a home based on a temporary situation?"

This question was recently asked at Inman Coast to Coast, a public real estate discussion group on Facebook. The answer, of course, is "a lot of people". And now, with the country reopening and some companies calling their employees back to the office, more than a few pandemic-inspired shoppers are experiencing a change of heart.

Christopher Paul, of Keller Williams Realty in San Diego, told the group his team had lost two deals in the past few weeks: one buyer got out because his employer "abruptly changed" its home work policy, while the other was a salesperson who was told he had to be in the office more often.

Todd Schroth of eXp Realty in Orlando also had a buyer terminate a contract because his company suddenly wanted employees back personally. And Hawaii Life's Maui agent Kinga Mills was turned down shortly before it closed because the buyer's New York employer decided that "everyone wants to be back in the office. Totally screwed my customer. "

Hardly a universal trend

This shift in thinking is hardly universal; Numerous agents said they haven't noticed any slowdowns recently due to employment issues.

Keller Williams' Vija Williams has never seen it in their Seattle market. Ditto for Joy Triglia from Better Homes and Gardens in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Mortgage specialist Jeff Chalmers of the Mortgage Network in Danvers, Massachusetts has not seen any slowdown on the financing side either.

While there has been no large-scale "return to the office" movement, some companies have clearly been calling their employees home.

"If you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office," said James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, in June. "Anyone who wants to get paid New York tariffs works in New York."

Other companies – Amazon, Nationwide, and American Express, among others – allow most of their employees to work from home. Still others have opted for a hybrid schedule where people work in the office some days a week and at home the other days. And some companies are still trying to figure out what to do.

Two surveys support the trend

According to a survey by Commercial Property Executive magazine last month (which I occasionally write for), nearly two-thirds of a collection of real estate firms, consultants, builders, and developers said their teams were being offered a hybrid schedule. However, 35 percent said their entire workforce will return to the office full-time.

The building owners and administrators association came to similar results in a tenant survey in spring. Almost 8 in 10 "decision makers" told BOMA that physical offices are critical to their business.

Maybe that's why the buying frenzy in metropolitan Detroit is waning, said Brandon Kekich of RE / MAX Dream Properties.

"People have changed their minds because COVID is drying up here and the Big Three" [automakers] let them know that the flexible schedule won't last forever, "he wrote on the Inman discussion group.

Employment factor played a role in a recent Fannie Mae poll, in which nearly two-thirds of respondents felt it was a bad time to buy and more than three-quarters said it was a good time to sell. And job security concerns were high, despite the fact that more people "were more confident about their household income and work situation than they were about this time last year," said Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan.

A good thing for locals

In Northern California, Tim Freeman of Vanguard Properties in Petaluma is working with a buyer looking for his "forever home" – one to spend his years in. But the client recently changed their mind and is looking for a weekend retreat in wine country instead. Why? Because of "a change in work attendance," Freeman told the discussion group.

In Southern California, Angelique Kenney of Jason Mitchell Real Estate said she saw "many" deals canceled.

"The market corrects itself," she said. "More will happen."

Matt Rillera, who works for consulting firm EntreTec, said two of his family members recently quit businesses. One was in Louisiana and the other in Sacramento, but both came with abrupt changes in the way relatives work from home, he said.

In Hawaii, Julie Chancerelle Ziemelis of MoveToHawaii365.com said, "The people here hope that the people who bought the houses [in the islands] during the pandemic, in the hope of being able to work from home for the foreseeable future, they are being called back so that we have more inventory! "

However, sometimes one's change of heart is another's happiness. In Dallas, Keller Williams' Nicole Arenas was lucky – or rather her client – when a buyer had to cancel an offer. The original buyer's company returned to the office three days a week and he was no longer allowed to work remotely.

The location no longer worked for this buyer, but it did for the Arenas buyer who signed up and closed the deal.

Lew Sichelman has been managing real estate for over 50 years. He is a regular contributor to numerous animal shelters and home finance publications. Readers can contact him at lsichelman@aol.com.

source https://seapointrealtors.com/2021/07/25/change-of-work-status-leads-to-buyers-change-of-heart/

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