KANSAS CITY, Mo. — March started off strong for the Kansas City housing market, but within a few weeks, realtors started noticing some pretty big changes.
Many realtors, like Hobie Reber, are now doing virtual showings.
"People are a little bit more cautious, I've had active listings that they decided to take their house off the market temporarily," Reber said.
Reber said realtors have been doing virtual showings of homes for years for out-of-towners, but now they are expanding that operation.
"It's just more important now that we do it, and we do it right away so if I listed a new house today, I would have the video up and running within hours," Reber said.
Overland Park homeowner Debbie Cote said she and her husband put their house up on the market in mid-March. Within the last three weeks they have had just one person come see it.
"As far as a homeowner and trying to sell your house, it's a little frustrating obviously," Cote said.
Due to the pandemic, Reber said he's had clients decide to take their homes off the market temporarily. Cote said she and her husband decided to leave it on because it can't hurt.
"There's really no disadvantage to having it off because people could start looking at things online and maybe narrowing down what they want to look at when they are able to get out and look live," Cote said.
Cote said people can come see it in person if someone is seriously interested in buying it, and she has guidelines she plans to follow, such as leaving doors and drawers open.
"They would come in with bleach wipes and we would follow with bleach wipes after," Cote said.
Reber said he would not recommend putting a home on the market unless it is necessary, but it should be a case-by-case decision.
"People are still out there looking, if they need a house, they still need to look and they still need to buy," Reber said.
Reber said interest rates are fluctuating daily. He's seen some as low as three percent.
"If somebody gets under contract and they need to lock they can lock at today's rate, but if they have time and they can float the interest rate they might look at keeping it and not locking and maybe in a week, they're lower, but they could go higher," Reber said.
Reber said buyers should always discuss the matter with the lender.
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