• In late March, the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Roy Quinto and Larry Lane were given just seven days to sell their California home. 
  • They told Business Insider that, after posting professional-quality photos online, they set up a virtual open house via Google Hangout.
  • They were lucky to find out that an interested couple lived nearby and would do a socially distanced in-person tour, and then lucky that a virtual tour happened at the same time, driving up competition.
  • But they insisted that you have to move forward in a crisis. "No one was doing what we were doing," Larry says.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Roy Quinto and Larry Lane were daunted by the task of selling their home, and they had just one week to do it.

Roy and Larry have been together for just over a year and were living in a three-bedroom townhouse in Marina Del Rey that Roy had purchased back in 2011. Roy works as an admissions director at UCLA and Larry as a high-end retail associate. 

In late February, they decided to shop for a new home, one that would be spacious enough to house Roy's elderly parents, who were moving in with them. After a few weeks of searching, they found a home about 15 minutes away and used Flyhomes' Trade Up program to make an offer.

Trade Up allows Flyhomes, a real-estate startup, to make cash offers for homes that it then shops to potential buyers online — and Flyhomes buys the house if it can't sell it in 90 days. The program seemed perfect for Roy and Larry because it took the stress of traditional selling out of the equation, and they were able to agree on a price after minimal back and forth.

But they agreed on a price in late March, just as the coronavirus pandemic was shutting down most of the economy. Flyhomes tightened up their standards for Trade Up the same month, and Roy and Larry no longer qualified.

They weren't left with many options. It was more important than ever to have Roy's parents in close proximity to them because of the outbreak.

But Flyhomes is more than just the Trade Up program. It also offers other real-estate services from mortgage lending to relatively traditional brokerage functions, and it was with a human Flyhomes agent that Roy and Larry got a seller's contingency that gave them seven days to find a buyer.

"I looked at Larry and I said, 'Well, we have seven days to sell a house in a pandemic,'" Roy told Business Insider.

The seven-day countdown begins

It was the end of March, the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and Roy and Larry were forced to search for creative alternatives to sell their home — a three-bedroom townhouse which they listed for $910,000. Since the state was under a stay-at-home order and traditional open houses weren't allowed, they had to sell the house on photos alone. 

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Roy Quinto

"Every room we went into, I tried to find the right angle," Roy said, adding that Larry "staged everything. I'd pretty much throw everything I didn't want in the picture in the hallway and he [Roy] would get it downstairs into the garage out of sight, out of mind," Larry added.

Then the agent had a professional take photos of the home.

"The professional photographer came in and did professional photography while we stayed in the garage," Roy explained. "Because we already staged it, we avoided having him touch things, which made him feel much more comfortable."

When it came to the staging, Roy and Larry told Business Insider that they put out things like champagne glasses and fruit. 

"The aesthetic, it was like a quarantine-clean look, so there was fresh fruit everywhere, there were towels and linens," Larry explained. "So it looked comfortable but clean."

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Roy Quinto

By the time the photos were ready to go, about three days had passed.

"Either Tuesday or Wednesday was when the clock started, and Thursday he came by," Roy said.

While the listing went up on Friday, to sites like Flyhomes, Zillow, and Redfin, it wasn't posted consistently, he explained. "Some sites posted it earlier than others. Some sites had this cool 3D effect where you could see everything, and some sites had none of that."

An open house via Google Hangouts — and a lucky break

Wasting no time, Roy and Larry posted online that their open houses were going to be that weekend, and would be conducted through Google Hangouts. They set aside hours on both Saturday and Sunday and asked that prospective buyers schedule a private viewing through the scheduling app, Calendly.

They had high hopes as the weekend started, but there wasn't much interest. "Saturday was a rough one," Larry said. 

But Sunday sang a different tune. While they only showed to two couples that day, one ended up making an offer.

Roy had noticed that this couple seemed very familiar with the area and quickly learned that they lived just down the street. He moved to take advantage of it.

"So I said to them, 'If you're okay with it and you wear a mask and gloves, and I wear a mask and gloves, would you like to come personally to see the house?'" Roy explained. 

When they got there, Roy took them around the house again and then outside to check out the amenities. While browsing, all three of them ran into Larry, who was giving another virtual tour. According to Roy, this made the prospective buyers realize they weren't the only ones interested, and they offered the asking price Sunday.

They said they were able to sell so quickly because the home was priced well, their virtual tours were high-quality, the photos were professional-quality, and they were lucky. 

Roy and Larry's tips on how to show a virtual home

It's all about setting the narrative, they explained. 

They began each tour outside the front door. "We realized that not many people would be able to appreciate the birds chirping, the beautiful greenery, and the big pine trees," Roy said. 

Once inside the home, they focused on keeping the camera steady and at eye-level. When it came to answering questions like, "How big is the master bedroom?" they would describe the size of the bed and furniture. 

For instance, when asked how tall the shower was, Roy said, "My partner is 6'4" and he's able to fit under it." After that, he described the furniture in every room on the tour.

"Every time I entered a room, I made sure my camera went straight to the highlight of that room," he continued.

Another positive of giving the tours, they explained, was that they were able to talk about things like the safety of the neighborhood, how busy the street gets, and the flaws of the home. 

Honesty, Larry added, is key because flaws can be easy to mask when giving a virtual tour. 

For example, they were honest about the size of the dining room, which they felt was on the smaller side. While you could technically squeeze in eight people, four or six was a much more realistic number for it.

"I acknowledged the things I really loved about the house, and the things I really wished I could change," Roy added. 

When asked the number one secret to how they were able to sell in such a short amount of time, their answer was innovation. 

Noting that even their agent was still in training on digital showings, Larry said that everyone was still figuring it out while they moved ahead.

"No one was doing what we were doing."

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