The Pandemic Diaspora: Relocating Safely during COVID-19
Most people are staying home at lockdown during the pandemic, so it’s strange to hear someone moving into a new home in a situation like this. With these orders coming from no less than the authorities themselves, it seems a little selfish to be moving at a time like this.
Nevertheless, people are looking for new homes during the pandemic because of the benefits. The market is currently in their favor—there are cheaper homes and the prices are more affordable also because of the pandemic. Services like your trusted logistics service company or other haulers offer lower prices to make some business after having closed down for a long time. Some offers are just too good to pass up even during this pandemic.
You might have stumbled upon an available property within your budget during the pandemic and you want to move your family there. How do you do that properly? Consider these tips to stay safe:
Touring Apartments and Homes
Looking for an apartment during the pandemic can be tough, but there’s nothing that suggests it shouldn’t be done other than for safety purposes. The challenge is there—the government is enforcing social distancing orders so moving out shouldn’t even be considered.
Fortunately, there are ways that agents are adjusting to this. If you’re in the market for a home, you can survey your rental unit of choice through virtual means, usually through an agent’s camera or an online channel. If you’re moving to a home, that’s an entirely different challenge altogether.
If you want to take a look at multiple properties, it actually hasn’t been any easier than now. You can survey your choices without even having to meet an agent face-to-face or leaving the relative safety of your home.
Getting Professional Movers
When you’re moving, it’s particularly hard to find people who will help you move. During the pandemic, that gets even harder. There’s no telling whether the boxes you buy are contaminated. There’s also nearly no way of knowing whether the equipment you’ll use is disinfected or not.
Hiring professional movers can be a challenge during this time, but it’s also a blessing. Most professional moving companies will go out of their way to make sure that their customers and crew are safe. Some states aren’t even allowing companies to operate if they don’t abide by the standard pandemic safety protocols.
If you’re in the process of moving, choose any moving company at your will. You’ll find that most, if not all of them, offer safety in moving you out of your current home.
Go Digital
The real estate niche is one of the most traditional enterprises among businesses, and proof of that is how everything isn’t digital—yet. This pandemic has shown how industries must begin to buck the trend or adjust to the status quo. At the moment, the current status quo is to go digital, and that means foregoing paperwork for real estate—or making it easier to accomplish.
For instance, where you need to sign physical paperwork, you should instead ask for PDF documents that you can sign digitally. There are other ways to go digital with paperwork, of course, but it could start as simple as this.
Unpack on Your Own
It’s hard to move your things on your own but the same isn’t true about unpacking your things. When you hire a moving company, one of the added services that they have is to help you unpack as you move to your new home.
It’s not that simple right now when you should be worried about getting the disease from other people. Start practicing unpacking things on your own, or if you have help, it’s better if it’s someone from the same household as you. You could save on money paid to the movers aside from staying safer from the pandemic.
Practice Safety Every Time
Even if you’re able to move and get some semblance of normalcy from that, you should remember that there’s still a pandemic. The reality is that it’s also global, and that should highlight how urgent it is that you should remain safe.
If you should proceed with your move, then do it. However, as with everything during this pandemic, safety should be the top priority. Learn to memorize at least the most basic safety protocols for dealing with movers and other people not of your household.
There are updates and guidelines from the CDC which could be readily seen and available anytime. Do your due diligence not only on the apartment or unit you’re moving to but on the rules, as well. Your focus should be on staying safe from COVID-19 first, then on your move to a new home or apartment.