JIM THORPE, Pa. — A charming log home, tucked away in the outskirts of Jim Thorpe, has been sitting empty, waiting for a new owner, for months now.
It's a piece of property that, under normal circumstances, likely would have sold in about a month or so.
"We actually had an offer on it, was gonna be a cash buyer, they didn't want to look at it, they wanted to buy it. They got cold feet and backed out of the deal because they wanted to see the inside, they wanted to see what it was," said Brian Seitz of Nesquehoning.
Seitz bought this property about three months ago, fixed it up, and listed it, right before the coronavirus stopped the country in its tracks, including the real estate market.
Now, he's just sitting on 10 acres of land.
"The concern is when we're sitting on a property; it's just sitting here stalling. The bills are still coming in, nothing's happening, no on's going through it," said Seitz.
The hardest part about buying or selling a house right now is that nobody can go inside; nobody wants to buy a house, sight unseen.
And that could be a problem for some properties.
"I could go through, take a video, show all the beautiful positives, but obviously there's hidden negatives, termites, possible rook leak that you might not see on a sunny day," said Hugh Dugan of Hugh Dugan Real Estate.
For Dugan, Seitz is just one of his many clients who are hanging in limbo while they wait for real estate restrictions to be lifted.
But Dugan said the most common question he's been fielding from clients is about the long-term impact this crisis will have on the real estate market.
"Real estate is cyclical it will drop, it will come back. It might not be in five months but give it two years, and I think we'll see roughly the same prices as pre-2020 COVID prices," said Dugan.
Short-term though, Dugan says prices and interest rates are dropping.