Murphy – Within a half-hour after posting a real estate listing, “Big” Frank Schuler gets his first call on the property. It’s a seller’s market in Cherokee County, and the coronavirus may have played a role.
“We thought the virus would slow us down,” local Realtor David Ritz of ReMax said.
It did for the first couple of weeks, but now he, Schuler and other local agents are as busy as ever.
Ritz said he’s seeing the same people from the same areas moving here as he had for the last few years. He thinks all the virus has done is sped up some people’s plans to move to the mountains.
Schuler, of Exit Realty, added that people are finding that living in metropolitan areas is not as desirable as it used to be. As a result, more people are heading to the hills – literally.
“It has gotten extremely busy,” he said.
Schuler said in the past, those coming to buy would be mostly from Florida. He’s still getting Floridians nowadays, but he’s also seeing a greater number of buyers from Michigan, Kentucky and Texas. A lot are Baby Boomers, and they are not waiting for the economy to turn around.
The only dilemma is inventory is very tight, as Schuler said it’s the first time he’s seen inventory low in all price ranges. Ritz said while he sells a lot of small cabins in the $100,000-150,000 range, the most popular price range for the area is $200,000-250,000.
Ritz said buyers do have to be prepared, as lenders are more cautious.
One thing that has changed is how they show homes. For example, buyers today follow in their own cars to see properties.
“We use as much precaution on that as possible,” Ritz said.
Schuler said it’s sometimes difficult, as the buyers’ cars may not be able to navigate the mountain roads as his truck does.
Schuler said he’s been doing a lot of virtual tours, because buyers want to get the house they want before someone else does. He even recently did a closing on house for which buyers saw it in person for the first time during the walk-through.