How Covid-19 Increased Your Home’s Value

By Emilio DiSpirito, Realtor and Team Leader of The DiSpirito Team of HomeSmart Professionals www.DiSpiritoTeam.com

We are now headed into the third month since Coronavirus changed our economy and culture forever here in the USA, and particularly, here in Rhode Island. Covid-19’s devasting negative effects on our hospitality industry, peer to peer activities, marriages, business and personal relationships, in addition to increased suicide rates seems to be weighing on everyone’s minds. What else is still to come? 

Headlines reek of exaggeration, fear and political drama… few are in the know and speaking of the positive factors and silver lining from all of this.

You may of seen the jelly fish and dolphins swimming in the Vancian waters or the smog lifted for the first time in years in parts of China and India! Even here at home, you may have noticed the stars shining a little brighter, the sky looking a crisp beautiful bright blue and breathing the fresh air! Wonderful right?! 

So, with every action, there is simply a reaction! What does this have to do with real estate and your home’s value? That’s simple… keep reading to understand how and why your home is worth roughly 7.5% more today than it was 12 months back!

It was March 17th, a cloudy gray day, when the dreaded phone call, (one of many) that would come to shatter the best trajectory that real estate has ever seen, rang my phone (and many Realtors alike). The cooperating broker called me with the news… “The buyer lost her job and the bank denied her loan. We won’t be closing.” Call after call, panicking, misinformed and underinformed sellers, Realtors, buyers, lenders, attorneys, appraisers and everyone else under the sun started to make hasty decisions out of fear… 

With already a record low inventory of homes available for buyers, RI lost another 3rd of its listings in March and April! According to the RI Association of Realtors, a sharp 32.1% decline in housing shook the market! Hundreds of sellers withdrawing their homes, condos and multi families for sale and in our estimations a staggering 30% fewer buyers were out searching, despite the 2.9% interest rates on a 30-year fixed mortgage! 

You may say, well that sounds awful, with fewer buyers and sellers, how can this market have increased my home value? The answer to that is simple, we had a massive number of buyers (far too many for the supply) before Covid-19 happened… when 3 out of 10 buyers left and nearly 3 out of 10 sellers left, we had a simple paradigm occur. 

With 30 year fixed rates still being near historic lows, people getting back to work and banks again relaxing guidelines, in addition to the billions in government economic stimulus, mixed with the extreme shortage of homes available for sale, we are seeing homes that are in move in condition and priced correctly sell in as little as a day with 8 to 10 offers. 

Anyone who has a vacant home or is in a spot where they are ready to scale on up or downsize and is healthy and of a low risk group, should seriously consider taking advantage of this opportunity right now before everyone else catches wind and you are competing with that completely renovated home at the same price down the road!

Emilio DiSpirito
DiSpirito Team Real Estate
HomeSmart Professionals
401-359-2338 – [email protected] – www.DiSpiritoTeam.com 

If you would have asked me what I wanted to be growing up, little Emilio would have told you “an archeologist” or “an architect” despite the fact that at age 8 I had my first lemonade stand, landscaping business and was recording my first “news show” on my boombox!  Well, I never was much good at trigonometry and did could not see myself traveling for months and possibly years at a time, so becoming an architect or archaeologist clearly did not happen!

Fast forward 26 years later and I’m running a team of the finest residential real estate professionals, own a media company and host my very own radio news show about real estate!

In September of 2017, I married my best friend, Jaclynn, and we have two wonderful children, Destinee and Emilio, V.  We have 3 dogs, one of which is a rescue and live in lovely Rhode Island. Jaclynn owns a high-end hair salon in addition to an on-location hair and makeup business!

For 7 years straight it seemed that I had put in more hours than the day had to give on my real estate business. 7 days a week, 14 to 16 hour days, without a break! Why? My friends and family did not understand the sheer magnitude of moving parts and services we offer to our clients during a transaction! One slip up or one missed call could mean make or break for someone’s dream home or even a lost deposit!

Running a team of like-minded, highly qualified and capable professionals has allowed me to offer a very streamlined, simplified and efficient approach to the sales process for our clients and allowed me to earn personal time again with my family while not missing a beat for my clients!

When I’m not working, I’m with my family, riding my mountain bike, eating at a number of local restaurants, enjoying live entertainment, hiking, skiing or reading!