In a survey from LendingHome, house flippers, landlords and real estate investment brokers explained their view of the market before, during and after COVID-19.

“There was more optimism than we expected, and we were a bit surprised,” said Matt Humphrey, cofounder and CEO of LendingHome.

When asked how long they thought the pandemic would affect their business, 42% of total respondents said it would be one to six months while 26% said it would be seven to 12 months. Interestingly, 12% said there would be no impact.

However, when broken out by type of respondent, 88% of brokers thought the pandemic would be short-lived, while 80% of full-time real estate investors and 74% part-time investors felt the same.

When asked how positive they were feeling about their business, just over half also said they felt positive about it.

On a scale of one to five, one being negative and five being positive, 29% said they were at a four and 28% were at a five.

The same goes for how they were feeling about the real estate industry – 25% were at a four and 30% were at a five.

To break it down further, 59% of full-time investors felt positive about the real estate industry while 54% of part-time investors and 51% of brokers also felt the same way.

“When we asked people to tell us how they were adapting, some folks said they were slowing their business as a precaution,” Humphrey continued. “Some said they had picked up the pace of home-buying because there was less competition. Every corner of the U.S. had a different view on things. But overall, within the next year or less, customers expect to be fully back in business, which was great to hear.”

LendingHome surveyed current, past and potential customers in this survey.