COLUMBUS, Ohio — Like many other businesses, the real-estate industry has started to adopt the “get it to go” philosophy prevalent during the coronavirus pandemic.
Real-estate closings, when buyers and sellers sign the final paperwork to make the sale, are one of the latest adaptations.
Earlier this week, Allyson Chlysta, 30, and Brian Hackett, 29, experienced a “drive-up” closing at LandSel Title Agency in Gahanna.
To ensure a maximum of social distancing, the couple stayed at their car in the title agency parking lot. Title agent Jodi Turner collected identification and passed over the necessary paperwork for the couple to sign at their car.
The couple’s real estate agent, Roberta Zimmerman, stayed nearby at her own car to offer advice and assistance, if necessary — from a proper social distance.
“There’s never really been a need to offer something like this before,” said Kelly Craycraft, vice president at LandSel.
Because buying or selling a house is such an important step for most people, in normal times her company tries to make the closing an “experience” that is enjoyable and memorable for the clients, Craycraft said.
“There’d be a nice conference room, comfortable seating, cookies,” she said.
“Buyers and sellers can still close the traditional way,” Craycraft said, but her company, at least for now, has ended “roundtable” closings with buyers, sellers and their representatives all together in the same room.
Buyers and sellers are now signing paperwork separately, and nonessential people are asked to not attend or sit in via video conference, Craycraft said.
Her company also is taking the temperatures of buyers and sellers as they enter the office, to make sure no one is showing symptoms of COVID-19, she said.
“We can also do in-home closings,” she added, “which we treat the same as a drive-up closing.”
The company’s representative brings the paperwork to the client but never enters the home, she said.
Hackett said the drive-up closing, on Tuesday night, went smoothly.
“It was slightly unorthodox,” he said. “It would have been more comfortable inside, and it was a little chilly in the parking lot. But when Roberta suggested it to us, it made perfect sense.”
Hackett and Chlysta, who got engaged in December, had been concerned that the pandemic might set back their homebuying effort.
“We were unsure what the next day or week would bring,” Hackett said. “But Roberta and our lender helped us a lot, guiding us through the process.”
Zimmerman, of Metro Village Realty, said, “I just wanted to keep my clients safe. These were first-time homebuyers, and they were following my advice on most things.
“I actually have a degree in microbiology and a background in science, although I haven’t used it in a long time. We’re all working through how to still handle real-estate transactions through the current COVID-19 crisis.”
Courtney Gagner, an escrow officer at Access Title Agency in New Albany, said her agency was going to do its first “drive-up” style closing last month for buyers who were being tested for COVID-19, but the closing eventually was postponed. The agency will consider such closings in the future for clients who desire it, she said.
“You have to take what’s thrown at you and adapt, while still providing a positive experience,” Gagner said.
Although many documents can now be pre-signed electronically, most lenders still require a few of the documents, such as the mortgage itself, to be signed by hand and notarized.
“We expect,” Craycraft said, “to see more full electronic transactions in the future, though.”
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