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- What Are Netting Escrows & How Does It Work?: The Best Guide - January 2, 2024
- The Secret About Prescriptive Easement: Top Guide 1 Must Know - December 4, 2023
- About Home Equity Loans In Texas And How Can One Obtain It - November 27, 2023
List of Home Buying Changes During COVID-19
In the current world, we are living in between social distancing and quarantine, there have been some changes to the home buying process.
While there are still a lot of transactions going on, there have been also some adjustments that have needed to be made. In this post, we will learn the important home buying changes that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
1 - Virtual Home Tours
As far as looking at homes, everyone used online websites to find homes, however, now there is a lot more virtual home viewing.
Virtual home viewing not only includes the pictures but also includes a virtual home tour.
The most technologically advanced and innovative realtors and listing agents will be using these virtual home tours to help you feel like you are inside the home and move throughout the home on your device if you can’t be there physically.
2 - More Negotiation Power, Better Deals
Because there are fewer people in the market due to the uncertainty, there are better deals to grab and a lot more negotiating power for the buyer. Due to less competition in the market, there is a lot more room for negotiation.
If you are a well-qualified buyer, you have got a pick off the litter’ on properties, especially on the property with lower-end prices where there was a lot more competition before.
This means fewer offers for these properties and you get the upper hand for negotiating with the seller due to less competition.
3 - Online Document Transmission
As far as the mortgage process goes, most of the lenders have always used technology for processing mortgages. The traditional method of buyers bringing in the document to the loan officer’s office has come to a standstill.
More document transmissions are happening online, either through the lenders’ portals or emails. Everyone prefers to just use technology as a whole before it was possible but it was optional whereas now it is becoming a lot more of a norm.
4 - Delays With Title Searches and Recording
The other home-buying change you want to know is that because a lot of cities that need to be involved with title searches, there has been some delay lately.
Lenders used to get title searches back in just a couple of days, however, in certain jurisdictions these title searches are taking several weeks because of backlogs, limited hours, and limited resources.
So you want to make sure you are aware of those delays especially in the area you are planning to buy the property.
5 - Property Inspection Waivers / Exterior On Appraisals
One of the positive homebuying changes that have come out of this is appraisals. Before the pandemic, the lenders used to require the full appraisals of the property including exterior and interior.
Now, the lenders are doing a lot more of the exterior only appraisals, especially on the home purchases where the appraiser is not required to go into the property and they just do an exterior inspection from the front of the house.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have loosened their criteria for the property inspection waivers.
We are experiencing PIWs a lot more often now which definitely speeds up the process and makes it a lot more simple, also not have to deal with coming in to contact with people during the mortgage process.
6 - Tax Transcript Suspension / 4506T
The other home-buying change is that the IRS has come out and suspended the 4506T which is the technical term for a tax transcript.
It is usually required when you have a low credit score and it is almost always required if you are self-employed.
However, the IRS is currently not doing these tax transcript validation. Depending on your mortgage loan officer and the company that they are sending your loan through, it may be a hold-up and cause a delay in the loan process.
Some lenders are saying that they don’t require these tax transcripts for some of the loan programs. For others, there are certain ways that you as a home buyer can go and assist with this and get it on your own from the IRS.
7 - Electronic Closing
One of the significant home buying changes that have happened recently is the electronic closing. Many lenders are doing something called express e-close.
which allows you to sign about 90% of your closing documents using a mobile phone, tablet, or computer and then just sign the few remaining legal documents at closing.
Due to the electronic closing, where it used to take about 30 minutes to an hour, now it is gone down to a point where you can do closing in 10 to 15 minutes.
Conclusion
There are still many lenders who are working to make sure that all the timelines are met and get the loan closed on time.
However, you as a buyer would need to have more patience now than ever if there is any delay from any of the departments.
