AROUND THE PARK AGAIN By Sharon Lee Tegler
This year has been devastating for businesses nationally and locally due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a multitude of restrictions stemming from it. But, as in any crisis where commerce suffers widely, there are some businesses that manage to be successful or even thrive.
With the local real estate market “red hot”, signs like realtor Deborah Laggini’s are popping up across the state. Laggini, an agent for Long & Foster Christie’s International Real Estate through Annapolis Fine Homes, focuses on a circle of properties ranging from Annapolis and Arnold to Severna Park, Millersville, Crownsville, Gambrills, Davidsonville, Edgewater and Riva.
“Housing sales picked up tremendously starting at the end of June and beginning of July,” Laggini said. “The first few months of COVID, we didn’t seem to know what to expect or how to move forward. Things were slow because sellers that didn’t have to sell were reluctant to show their properties for fear of exposure to the virus.”
She explained that local agents pulled together through multiple networking groups and Zoom meetings to come up with a COVID protocol that the governor would approve and would keep everyone safe.
“Once we figured that out buyers really came out of the woodwork,” the realtor said. “The combination of an already existing low inventory of homes that became even lower and low interest rates caused the demand for sale properties to explode in July. Buyers were literally waiting at the gate for anything nice that came on the market with multiple offers. Offers going above list price became the norm..”
Business continued to boom through July and August into September but Laggini isn’t certain whether it will last.
The Matt Wyble Team of Century 21 New Millennium based in Millersville is also experiencing explosive sales. The company serves Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Queen Anne’s, Prince George’s, Montgomery and Washington Counties.
President Matt Wyble said the combination of historically low interest rates, historically low inventory, and the fact that the Maryland market never closed (like other states) has fueled the residential real estate market to power through any negative effects of COVID-19.
“Many sellers who are priced correctly for their home’s condition are receiving multiple offers and using the proceeds to move-up or right-size. Even though the market is highly competitive for buyers, the good news is that their buying power is up roughly 12% from last year due to the low interest rates,” he said.
“We surpassed 2019 totals for sales and volume as of Sept 1. With no signs of the rates going up and inventory staying low, I see the hot market lasting well into the fall and possibly into an early spring market.”
Clement Hardware continued serving the public throughout the pandemic
From day one of the COVID-19 pandemic, Clement Hardware owner Gordon Clement was determined to keep his Severna Park store open as a place to buy household essentials and personal protective equipment.
Deeply involved with Severna Park customers through the family business opened by his father David in 1969, Clement felt he should keep the store open as a service to the public.
“I think staying open was good for our customers and good for us,” he said. “It kept our people working. At the beginning, given a choice, 45 percent said they didn’t want to work through the virus. But, after three weeks, they wanted to come back to work.”
According to Clement, the store remains extremely busy but not like in the earliest days of the pandemic when they were one of few retailers open.
“For the first three months, the store was so busy I don’t see how we could sustain it. I’ve never seen anything like it. We generally do well through hurricanes, snow storms, ice storms or wind storms but this seemed like a snow storm that never ended,” he said.
Essentials like toilet tissue, paper towels and masks and hand sanitizers flew off the shelves but people were also coming in for tools, paint and hardware for home improvement projects.
The pandemic nor only brought people back to the store, there were lots of new faces. Traffic counts were really good which is important since the last few years were challenging with Amazon and online sellers hurting retail.
“The three months of heavy sales not only sustained our business but provided a cushion for months when sales are slower,” Clement said.
Like other retailers, Clement Hardware sold completely out of many things and is having difficulty reordering and getting shipments due to supply chain problems. Otherwise, Clement and staff expect the usual seasonal slowdowns unless there are rain or snowstorms.
M&T Bank met challenges to thrive while helping others
Like all other M&T Bank branches in the Baltimore/Washington region, the drive-in window and ATM at the Severna Park branch remained open throughout the COVID-19 shutdown. Customers didn’t seem to mind waiting in line. They were able to make appointments to meet with a banker inside the branch if they needed to to discuss loans or other business.
According to M&T senior public relations manager, Scott Graham, the branches adapted well to handing a heightened load of customer transactions.
Graham added that, in the Baltimore-Washington region, M&T Bank approved 9,862 loans that provided nearly $1.75 billion in funds to help businesses cover payroll expenses for three months. … Those loans supported 191,006 jobs.
In addition, the bank approved more than 35,000 payroll protection program loans (more than any other bank Graham says) for upwards of $7 billion. Those loans supported about 756,500 jobs throughout the mid-Atlantic region. M&T also is the region’s leading SBA lender.
Obviously, foot traffic inside all the branches went down during the shutdown. But the corresponding move by customers was to do more of their banking with M&T online.
“While we anticipate branch traffic to rebound to pre-shutdown levels – and in some cases it already has – we also expect customers to continue to do more banking digitally,” said Graham.
He added that M&T is back to business as usual. An appointment is no longer necessary to visit one of the branches. But safety precautions like Plexiglas barriers between tellers and customers are still in place. Customers also are still required to wear a mask inside the branch.
M&T’s mortgage business was doing very well through the first half of the year, mainly because of refinancing. The booming real estate market can only bode well.
Severna Park Automotive increasingly busy
Severna Park Automotive, like Clement Hardware, is considered an essential business and was open and on-call from the moment the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“At first, things were very slow as everyone was home-bound and we were only doing emergency calls or essential repairs through April,” said owner Mike McNealey. “By adapting and offering free pick-up and delivery without the customer needing to leave the house and thorough sanitizing of the vehicle, we were able to maintain some sort of work flow. We reduced our employees’ hours but were able to keep them working.”
McNealey said, by mid-May and early June when things loosened up and people were going out, there was an absolute tsunami of car repairs. A lot of cars that had been sitting for a month wouldn’t start. Then there were folks that put off maintenance or repairs they’d have otherwise done.
“Everybody seemed to come in at the same time,” McNealey said. “We’re still very busy.”
Severna Park Automotive’s owner has a sense the people really want things to go back to normal so he doesn’t expect a downturn. However, business sometimes slows down as kids go back to school, Of course, going back to school has a different meaning this year so the staff doesn’t know what to expect.
