RISMedia
  • News
  • Premier
  • Reports
  • Events
  • Power Broker
  • Newsmakers
  • More
    • Publications
    • Education
No Result
View All Result
  • Agents
  • Brokers
  • Teams
  • Marketing
  • Coaching
  • Technology
  • More
    • Headliners New
    • Luxury
    • Best Practices
    • Consumer
    • National
    • Our Editors
Join Premier
Sign In
RISMedia
  • News
  • Premier
  • Reports
  • Events
  • Power Broker
  • Newsmakers
  • More
    • Publications
    • Education
No Result
View All Result
RISMedia
No Result
View All Result

Working From Home Presents Some Real Estate Challenges, But Even More Opportunities

Home Uncategorized
By Andrew King
June 19, 2020
Reading Time: 4 mins read
1
Working From Home Presents Some Real Estate Challenges, But Even More Opportunities

With the economy finally opening back up and residential real estate showing signs of life, the so-called “return to normalcy” is shaping up to be anything but normal. Many are finding that going back to work is a harrowing journey full of face masks, hand sanitizer and social distancing.

The other post-quarantine finding that millions of Americans are recognizing is that working from home really wasn’t that bad. In fact, many employees and employers alike found it quite comfortable and even more productive.

The pre-coronavirus data is compelling, with remote-working companies reporting 41 percent fewer quality defects and 20 percent higher profitability, while their in-office peers reported that a typical eight hour-shift produces only 2 hours and 53 minutes of actual work, according to Sharon Koifman, CEO of DistantJob, a remote work recruiting firm that custom builds teams for clients sourcing talent from all over the globe. Now that a majority of the national workforce has gotten a taste of this dynamic, many are in no rush to return to their potentially germ-infested cubicles.

“Before the pandemic hit, remote working was more of a niche that worked really well for those who did it, but most larger corporations were afraid of disconnecting from their offices,” Koifman says. “However, since being ordered to shelter in place, many are finding it’s much better than they feared, and managers are changing their tunes on the practice, including major companies.”

In the past couple months, major tech companies such as Twitter and Google have announced work-from-home policies. Perhaps more interestingly, though, the financial services sector is hopping on board as well. Nationwide Insurance, Barclays and Morgan Stanley have all indicated they will be downsizing their respective real estate footprints in favor of remote working this year. Many of today’s brokerages already follow this path in order to cut overhead costs and reportedly pass on the savings to agents through more tech offerings and remote support.

While all of this is likely bad news for parts of the commercial real estate sector, it might be a boon for the residential real estate sector as the new breed of work-from-homers look to upgrade to a home office or a nicer house where they will be spending much more of their time.

“As people have spent more time in their homes than they typically do, this will prompt people to want more space,” says Brandon Hjelseth, partner/broker of RE/MAX Northwest’s Hjelseth Pilant Real Estate in the Seattle suburbs. “I think we’ll have a bit of a delayed spring market that ramps up after the July 4 holiday, and from there, I think we’ll just have a busy market the rest of the year.”

Similar trends are playing out across the U.S., even in some of the cities that were hardest hit by the pandemic, including the tourism-dependent Las Vegas market.

“In Las Vegas, it’s hot,” says broker Leslie Carver, not referring to the weather. As the team leader of the Carver Team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties, Carver says she’s noticed a major trend toward buyers wanting bigger homes with more amenities.

“People want a dedicated office and they want to enjoy their home because they’re spending so much time in it,” Carver says. “The idea is: ‘I’m here at home more. I want to have a nicer kitchen. I want to have a pool. I want to have a nicer backyard, and I want more room.'”

To capitalize on this trend, Hjelseth recommends that agents begin staging their listings with a home office to show potential buyers what it would look like to work from home.

According to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, the increased opportunity to work remotely could make it easier for workers who had been priced out of large coastal cities to move elsewhere to buy a home.

Between the pent-up demand from the quarantine, the historically low financing options and this new push for more space, real estate pros are expecting a flood of transactions—especially in suburban areas like New Jersey, Tacoma and Las Vegas, which are landing buyers from their respectively expensive business centers of New York City, Seattle and Southern California.

It might seem like a looming perfect storm for a bull market, but there is one challenge that could get in the way—many of the agents handling these transactions will be working from home as well.

Carver says she’s been training her team, which includes millennials and baby boomers, to work from home since the pandemic escalated, and since the initial kinks were worked out in the first month, each team member has adjusted to it and been a strong contributor. She holds regular Zoom meetings with her team and relies more on Matterport to offer virtual open house experiences.

Bringing deals to a close, though, still requires a human touch most of the time as home-buying remains too important for most people to do it through a screen. But Carver notes that just because it requires personal contact with clients doesn’t necessarily mean that it requires a brick-and-mortar office.

“Everyone is set up at home, and you’re out and about anyway,” Carver says. “We are coming out very strong.”

Andrew King is a contributing editor to RISMedia. 

ShareTweetShare

Andrew King

Andrew King is a contributing editor for RISMedia.

Related Posts

Inventory Rose for Fifth-Straight Month: Homes.com
Uncategorized

Inventory Rose for Fifth-Straight Month: Homes.com

June 13, 2025
Weichert Named to Franchise Business Review’s Culture100 List for Sixth Consecutive Year
Uncategorized

Weichert Named to Franchise Business Review’s Culture100 List for Sixth Consecutive Year

June 11, 2025
Economic
Uncategorized

Leading Economic Indicators Continue Downward Trend, but Recession Not Certain

April 21, 2025
United’s Transaction-Fee Model Strikes the Right Note in New Orleans
Industry News

United’s Transaction-Fee Model Strikes the Right Note in New Orleans

April 17, 2025
REALTORS®
Uncategorized

REALTORS® Relief Foundation Announces $1 Million Grant for Victims of California Wildfires

January 30, 2025
Thanksgiving
Uncategorized

Thoughts on Leadership: Giving Thanks for Perseverance and Gratitude

December 5, 2024
Please login to join discussion
Tip of the Day

10 Key Strategies From Experienced Agents to KO the Competition

It’s an intense competition to not only land clients and listings, but to decisively defeat competing agents by closing sales and collecting commissions. Read more.

Business Tip of the Day provided by

Recent Posts

  • California Brokerage Joins the RE/MAX Brand
  • Kim Prior’s Purpose-Driven Leadership Style Unlocks Trust and Better Outcomes
  • Inventory Rose for Fifth-Straight Month: Homes.com

Categories

  • Spotlights
  • Best Practices
  • Advice
  • Marketing
  • Technology
  • Social Media

The Most Important Real Estate News & Events

Click below to receive the latest real estate news and events directly to your inbox.

Sign Up
By signing up, you agree to our TOS and Privacy Policy.

About Blog Our Products Our Team Contact Advertise/Sponsor Media Kit Email Whitelist Terms & Policies ACE Marketing Technologies LLC

© 2025 RISMedia. All Rights Reserved. Design by Real Estate Webmasters.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Premier
  • Reports
  • News
    • Agents
    • Brokers
    • Teams
    • Consumer
    • Marketing
    • Coaching
    • Technology
    • Headliners New
    • Luxury
    • Best Practices
    • National
    • Our Editors
  • Publications
    • Real Estate Magazine
    • Past Issues
    • Custom Covers
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Podcasts
    • Event Coverage
  • Education
    • Get Licensed
    • REALTOR® Courses
    • Continuing Education
    • Luxury Designation
    • Real Estate Tools
  • Newsmakers
    • 2025 Newsmakers
    • 2024 Newsmakers
    • 2023 Newsmakers
    • 2022 Newsmakers
    • 2021 Newsmakers
    • 2020 Newsmakers
    • 2019 Newsmakers
  • Power Broker
    • 2025 Power Broker
    • 2024 Power Broker
    • 2023 Power Broker
    • 2022 Power Broker
    • 2021 Power Broker
    • 2020 Power Broker
    • 2019 Power Broker
  • Join Premier
  • Sign In

© 2025 RISMedia. All Rights Reserved. Design by Real Estate Webmasters.

X