An Open Letter To My Homebuyers and Sellers


Please take a look at our video which explains everything in a nutshell.
Our aim, every day, whether today or tomorrow, is to provide a clear and compelling vision of your next home.
We are reopening the Real Estate market in June and want to give you some clarity about our plans. We are already seeing inbound interest from the brokerage community and buyers and are excited to see our market again shift gears to embrace the latest tools to flourish.
Please give me a call if you’d like to discuss further- or email me to set up time for a call. -Scott 646-302-5710
_____________
We continue to track mortgage rates and property prices and remain as convinced as we were in December 2019, 6+ months ago, that this should be a time when buyers and sellers come together. There is a window when buyers may be more in the driver’s seat, but soon enough, I expect enough buyers to return to the market to help stabilize the real estate market again.
With that in mind, this email is meant to quickly lay out how we envision your home search that, in the short-term, or perhaps going forward, will be forever different.
TL;DR Version (too long, didn’t read):
  • Life Hasn’t Stopped, and Your Desire for A New Home Shouldn’t have to wait, either
  • Virtual Tours are going to be the Norm – We want to facilitate this transition for you. This does not replace live visits- but makes them far less critical to your 1st or 2nd rounds of viewing.
  • You’ll be able to see properties from your office, couch, or rental outside of the city while you ride out the strange circumstances. The shlep factor will be eliminated.
  • We believe a combination of virtual touring and intelligent, informed conversation can get you about 85-90% there in terms of moving your home search, other than last mile
  • We expect you’ll want to come in and see at least SOME properties in person, to make an educated, informed decision about making offers.
The Longer Version
YOUR JOURNEY will include watching, property tours with or without us, 3D rendered images, choosing what you like…. Creating a list of top choices, along with custom walk-property thru’s…then and only then viewing properties in person.
We are working to lay out a protocol of how to gather to efficiently gather virtual property tours in a time-effective way, so that you can weed out properties you don’t connect to, and we can give you the information you need to be educated and confident when you see “the one.”
We do not believe that physically seeing apartments will continue to play the outsized role that it has. The technology exists to make your experience far easier than it has!
While we do not expect buyers to make offers on such a meaningful investment without seeing “home” in person, we do believe that buyers deserve a far more friendly experience.
That said, we are looking for any feedback you want to provide about how the process of touring properties has worked or not worked in the past – the virtual experience will definitely be improved over time. It must be exciting, transparent, and emotional.
We are also thinking about how to keep your buying search organized outside of email. For example, we are considering a tech-enabled platform that leverages the best work that a smart human team (that’s us) can provide, with the most user-friendly technology to make the search more seamless.
In Summary
We are retooling your property search to incorporate virtual tours shot by listing agents, and we look forward to continuing our work together. We hope that this tech-empowered, Visionary Brokerage is, net net, an even better experience for you.
We’ll be in touch very soon (if we haven’t already) with new ideas, and summary emails about what you’ve seen- with any new virtual tours as part of our communications.
Many thanks!
Scott & The HRT

Recent Blog Posts

The End of Rental Broker Commissions As You Know It. The Beginning of Even-Higher Rents.
The Sometimes Secret to Dealmaking? Waiting. (Our Deal of the Month @ 52 Riverside Drive)
(VIDEO) Don’t Take My Word For It. The NYC Housing Market is Better Than You’ve Heard.
How Much does Overcustomization Cost? (Our Deal of the Month)
A New Way To Save Real $$ on your Prewar Apartment Renovation—by Using Smart Home Systems (and Calling the Electrician)
(VIDEO) The Win-Win Window is Closing
What Happens when Your Agent Becomes an Advisor? Our Deal of the Month: 24 East 82nd
The Nothingburger of the Buyer Representation Scandal
The Non-Binary Housing Market
(VIDEO) How Lower Rates Are Already Impacting the NYC Housing Market

Archives