Many brokers and agents will soon have a new showing-service option. SentriLock LLC, a leading real estate tech provider, has announced that it will launch its SentriKey Showing Service product for all of its current lockbox customers on March 31. It will be widely available to all REALTOR® associations and multiple listing services later in the year. The service will be available to all agents and brokers, regardless of which lockbox provider your MLS uses.

SentriLock, a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Association of REALTORS®, has been assessing the need for a new product over the past year in light of growing industry consolidation in the showing service space.

“Our board directed us to develop a solution to address the growing lack of choice in this technology sector, given the natural fit with our current lockbox business,” says Scott Fisher, founder and CEO of SentriLock. “With recent industry acquisitions, this validates the decision that a trusted partner is needed more than ever to ensure REALTORS^® have a choice in showing service solutions. We did this with great success in the lockbox space 18 years ago and look forward to extending this approach into showing services.”

Zillow’s announcement Wednesday that it is acquiring the ShowingTime platform raised concerns for some real estate professionals about the security of their data.

SentriKey says its commitment to safeguarding data entered into the system will be just as vigorous as the measures that SentriLock uses to protect clients’ homes.

For those who use SentriLock, the showing system will be accessible using the same secure, easy-to-use mobile app and website that customers already use to open and manage their lockboxes. SentriLock is used by over 350 MLSs and REALTOR® associations and by over 350,000 users. The lockbox system will be integrated into the showing scheduling platform, a first for the industry, to create a seamless access experience. The system will improve client and agent experiences and enhance business productivity. The new platform leverages artificial intelligence to create a virtual assistant that frees agents from administrative tasks associated with setting up showing appointments.

“Consumers rely on the assistance of a trusted real estate professional to guide them through one of the most complex and consequential transactions of their life,” says NAR CEO Bob Goldberg, “and the development of SentriKey is part of our ongoing effort to ensure our members have the tools they need — best-in-class solutions — when working with buyers and sellers.” For decades, the embrace of disruption has been a central tenet at NAR. That principle guided not just the creation of Sentrilock but also the founding of realtor.com, the country’s first listing portal, 25 years ago, Goldberg says. “Now, of course, free online listings are a foregone conclusion for anyone selling or buying a home,” he says. “Ultimately, we took a potential disruption and turned it into an opportunity. I’m confident SentriKey will have the same effect.”

As part of this ongoing and multi-faceted push, NAR’s Strategic Business, Innovation and Technology (SBIT) group was created to accelerate business performance for both members and consumers by delivering innovative products, services, and cost savings benefits through its partnerships. Through its strategic investment subsidiary, Second Century Ventures (SCV), and the REACH technology accelerator, NAR works with over 100 technology companies that are transforming the real estate industry across the entire real estate ecosystem.

Notable examples include digital platforms like DocuSign, the leader in e-signature services, and Notarize, which is paving the way in remote notarization. Innovative entities like these make it possible to transact online with secure, contact-free platforms. Other companies helping digitize the transaction include Glide, which offers a quick and effective way to manage disclosure forms, and Modus, which is bringing ease of mind to the closing process.

Learn more by visiting http://www.sentrilock.com and navigating to the SentriKey Showing Service page.

©National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

Forty-one percent of Americans have moved for love, with men more willing to relocate than women for their significant other, a new survey of 1,550 Americans from LendingTree finds.

The top five states for a romance relocation, the survey finds, are: Florida (11%), California (10%), New York (7%), Texas (6%), and North Carolina (5%).

But not all of these moves for love have happy endings, the survey notes. Women were more likely than men to express regrets about moving for love—22% versus 9%. Forty-six percent of women who said they originally relocated to an area for love say they’re no longer with that person, while 31% of men said the same. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top reason for regret for moving for love was that the respondent was no longer with the person they originally moved for.

The main reasons for moving for love, according to survey respondents:

• Being in a long-distance relationship and moving to be closer to their significant other.
• Selecting their college based on a romantic relationship that started in high school.
• Choosing to move with a significant other who got a new job and needed to relocate.
• Getting engaged or married and moving in with their partner.
• Moving during the coronavirus pandemic to quarantine with their significant other. (This response was most common among Generation Z and the younger age groups.)

Some couples may be moving in together to save on costs. “Splitting household expenses can increase your prospects of becoming a homeowner,” says Tendayi Kapfidze, LendingTree’s chief economist. “While renting, it enables you to save more and can increase your budget when buying.”

The average purchase loan amount has reached a new record high: $402,200, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. The higher-priced segment of the housing market continues to perform strongly, the MBA says.

Mortgage amounts have been climbing to new record highs since April 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mortgage applications for home purchases were up 17% last week over last year, the MBA reports.

Home buyers are borrowing more as home prices rise by double-digit percentages over the past year. Also, mortgage interest rates have been hovering near record lows. “Since interest rates are lower, monthly payments are lower—even with higher loan balances,” says The Ascent, a Motley Fool financial publication. “This makes it easier for would-be borrowers to get approved for bigger loans.”

Mortgage credit availability is increasing, although still down significantly compared to historical levels, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. “The growth in credit availability in January coincides with a housing market that is poised for a strong start to the year,” says Joel Kan, the MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. “Improvements were driven by the conventional segment of the mortgage market, as lenders added ARM loans with lower credit score and higher LTV requirements. Despite ARM loans accounting for a very small share of loan applications in recent months, lenders are likely looking ahead to a strong homebuying season by expanding their product offerings.”

While credit availability has improved over three of the past four months, Kan still warns that credit supply is at its tightest level since 2014.

More buyers are eyeing a vacation home during the pandemic. Mortgage applications for second homes jumped 84% year over year in January. In September 2020, they surged by an even greater amount: 118% year over year.

“Although demand is down slightly from the fall peak, the fact that nearly twice as many second-home buyers submitted applications in January as the year before means the popularity of vacation towns is not a fad,” says Taylor Marr, an economist for real estate brokerage Redfin. “Many Americans have realized remote work is here to stay, allowing some fortunate people to work from a lakefront cabin or ski condo indefinitely.”

The annual rise in second-home applications is more than double the increase in applications for primary homes, according to an analysis of nationwide mortgage applications conducted by Redfin. In response, home prices in vacation hotspots are rising, with many seeing double-digit yearly growth. But inventory remains tight.

“There’s just as much desire for vacation homes as ever, but inventory is so low that fewer people are actually able to submit offers and apply for mortgages,” says Jaime Moore, a Redfin real estate pro in Las Vegas. “The market is still highly competitive, and almost all the buyers are people from the San Francisco area purchasing their second home. The only time I see a buyer looking to purchase a primary residence is when they already live here in a rental, and they’re looking for something more permanent.”

The home office has become an important space to stage, but certain memorabilia displayed could turn off some buyers who view the property in-person or online.

“For more buyers to see themselves in that office space, you’ll do well to take a lot of ‘you’ out of it first,” Chris Haro, a real estate professional in Hilton Head, S.C., told Apartment Therapy.

For example, real estate pros and stagers say college degrees and other homeowner achievements on display should be removed prior to listing the house on the market. This includes any regalia from your alma mater.

“Whether [buyers are] impressed or depressed or somewhere in between, these feelings will take a buyer’s focus away from the property or worse, turn them off of the property,” Haro told Apartment Therapy. “Maybe their son or daughter applied to that school but was rejected. Maybe they got accepted but didn’t graduate. Maybe they got accepted and still carry debt. Maybe they absolutely love your school or your course of study more than anything. It’s all a distraction from what we want them to be thinking about: Themselves in this property.”

Also, be sure to remove any political signs or religious items to avoid giving the house a feeling like your “domain” and not theirs, Amani McGregor, a real estate professional in Los Angeles, told Apartment Therapy.

Put away any work swag, too, like your company’s logo or any other confidential information that could be linked back to you.

Real estate pros also say it’s important to stage a home office for modern use, even if the seller doesn’t work from home. As remote work grows, more buyers are placing a home office high on their wish lists. For example, even the 2021 New American Home on display at this week’s virtual International Builders’ Show has a home office in what was slated as a spare bedroom due to the rise in demand.

Even if the seller’s home has no space for a home office, you can try staging the latest trend: The ‘Cloffice’: Is That a Closet or an Office?

As home prices rise by double-digit margins year over year, homeowners are increasingly viewing selling favorably. Consumers reported a significantly more positive view of homeselling conditions month over month in January, jumping 16 percentage points on net, according to Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index, based on a survey of 1,000 consumers.

“Overall, the index’s monthly increase was driven largely by a substantial jump in the share of consumers reporting that it’s a good time to sell a home, with many citing favorable mortgage rates, high home prices, and low housing inventory as their primary rationale,” says Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist. “Among owners and higher-income groups, however, the other five components of the index remained relatively flat or slightly negative, suggesting to us that some consumers are waiting to gauge the effectiveness of any new fiscal policies and vaccination distribution programs on both housing and the larger economy.”

Duncan notes that lower-income and renter groups were more optimistic in January across nearly all of the index’s components. “We will pay close attention to see if this newfound optimism develops into a trend, which could indicate either that some demographics who have been negatively impacted by the pandemic may be starting to feel the economic recovery or that this is a response to the additional stimulus enacted in December,” Duncan says.

More highlights from the January index reading:

• 52% of consumers say it’s a good time to buy a home, mostly unchanged from December 2020.
• 57% of consumers say it is a good time to sell a home, increasing from 50% the month prior.
• 41% of consumers believe home prices will go up over the next 12 months.
• 75% of consumers say they are not concerned about losing their job in the next 12 months, unchanged from December 2020.
• 21% of consumers say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago, while the percentage who say their household income is significantly lower decreased to 14%. Sixty-four percent of consumers say their household income is about the same.

Many brokerages are considering reopening workplaces to workers, clients, and the public as the COVID-19 vaccine brings hope against the pandemic. But with more than 1,500 workplace safety lawsuits related to coronavirus exposure since the start of the pandemic, a COVID-19 reentry plan is necessary to keep your workplace safe and reduce your brokerage’s risk of liability.

A new Window to the Law video, posted at nar.realtor, offers tips on creating an office reentry and vaccination plan.

Some states have enacted laws that grant businesses immunity from certain COVID-19-related workplace claims, such as in Kansas and North Carolina. But in those states, and even in states without an immunity law, a business should be sure to have a reentry plan that complies with federal, state, and local guidance and orders to help demonstrate that a business acted reasonably in reopening the office.

• Cleaning protocols in compliance with CDC guidance;
• Standards for social distancing by restricting the number of people allowed in the office, modifying workspaces, and limiting access to common areas;
• A requirement that all individuals entering the office wear a mask and submit to temperature checks;
• Workplace policies that incorporate COVID-19 safety protocols, including how to address reports of COVID-19 symptoms, diagnoses, and exposure in the workplace;
• Confirmation that COVID-19 policies and reentry plan comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations and CDC guidance.

“Also, to avoid worker classification issues, be sure that a mandatory policy is consistently applied based on exposure risk rather than employment relationship,” Katie Garrity, associate counsel at NAR, says in the latest Window to the Law video. “You may want to consider other factors, such as employee hesitation regarding the vaccine, effect on employee morale, and how your business is prepared to respond when an employee refuses to receive the vaccination in determining whether the vaccination will be mandatory or strongly encouraged. Whether mandatory or voluntary, remember to clearly communicate the policy terms to the necessary individuals.”