Margaret Rudd & Associates, Inc., REALTORS® maintains its 30-plus year reputation as a market leader in Southeastern North Carolina with unparalleled local knowledge, personalized customer service, and a level of trustworthiness beyond reproach.

A household name in both property management and real estate brokerage services in Brunswick County since 1981, the company has weathered its fair share of challenges throughout the years.

Jim Goodman, Vice President of Sales, Margaret Rudd & Associates, Inc., recounts how Margaret Rudd & Associates, Inc., REALTORS® has rallied during 2020.

In Southeastern North Carolina, the year 2020 began with standard real estate sales in January, and a dramatic increase in February led us to believe that it would be a banner sales year. On March 10th, all of the promising successes came to a screeching halt. The Governor of North Carolina declared a state of emergency! On March 24th, the Mayor of Oak Island declared a state of emergency stopping all short-term rentals. The short-term rental ban remained in effect until May 22nd. During that time between March 24th and May 22nd, staff began scrambling to refund deposits, modify cleaning procedures, and obtain additional disinfectant cleaning products.

Meanwhile, real estate agents were scrambling to close properties. Attorneys closed their offices to all visitors and real estate agents. Earnest monies were dropped in secured lockboxes outside the attorney's office. Our area of residential real estate sales felt the effects of COVID-19 in May, with decreases in new listings, units sold, and total sales.

In our local MLS, May was the first month with a drop in sales, and we were ahead of last year's red-hot pace. The number of new listings in May decreased by 11.3% compared to 2019, dropping from 638 to 566. The number of units sold decreased by 29.6%, from 496 to 349. With the average sale prices increased 7.5%, from $282,369 to $303,439. Total sales volume fell 24.4%, from $140,050,000 to $105,900,000.

These challenges created changes in our day-to-day operations. All of our sales meetings and conferences were via ZOOM. The agents loved the ZOOM meetings, and participation increased by over 30%. We plan to continue to do 75% of our sales meetings via ZOOM, even when things return to normal. Plexiglass barriers were installed company-wide. Our company ordered two hundred company logo face masks for the agents and staff, which proved to be great for marketing and morale.

In June, real estate sales and short-term rentals made a significant recovery, and it appears that this recovery will continue for the rest of 2020. However, as I write this article on August 3rd, Hurricane Isaias is about to make landfall somewhere in the Southeastern North Carolina area.

So far, 2020 has been very challenging for our real estate professionals.