Its crazy but some people (agents and sellers) have been putting up new listings in NYC even though the real estate market is essentially shut down because of COVID-19, with no showings or open houses being allowed as per the State of NY.
If You Want To Sell:
If you are thinking about putting your place on the market, don’t. Wait until restrictions on showings are lifted by the State. When you go on the market, you want your listing to show up as a new listing and capitalize on the excitement and attention from buyers that comes with that. Listing at a time when showings aren’t even allowed is just plain crazy. Don’t do it.
If you are already on the market:
Should you stay on or come off? This is a harder question to answer because of conflicting information about web traffic in real estate right now. I have been advising my sellers to stay on market because we have seen a bump in web traffic to listings over the past 3 to 4 weeks on Corcoran.com as the coronavirus shut down has gone into effect. But if your listing hasn’t seen a bump in traffic (your listing agent should be all over this and giving you reports about it), then I would recommend taking it off for a while and putting it back on when showing restrictions are lifted.
If you must sell ASAP:
For some kind of extreme situation or if you are having problems because you have to carry two properties/cashflow issues, then delay listing as long as you can but then you may have to list at low price in order to make it an attractive sale to buyer and get a deal done quickly when the market starts up again. Also consider putting your property on the market for rent simultaneously as for sale.
Of course you may be in a situation that doesn’t fit into one of the above categories. If thats you and you want to discuss it, you can reach out to discuss. My contact page here.