What we’re doing…from home, of course

You’d think with stay-at-home orders in place we wouldn’t have much to report, but HM-W&Co. has had plenty going on in the past couple weeks. A lot of time has been spent simply following along as the industry adapts, and shifting our practices to complete settlements with little to no human contact. We’ve had eight settlements since the closure of non-essential businesses and the team continues to work closely with our brokerage, lenders, title companies and cooperating brokers to pull off what seemed impossible just three weeks ago.

However, nothing has changed since our last message to you as it relates to the listing and selling of properties; it is illegal and unethical to send photographers out (or to go ourselves‚ yes, even to vacant properties) or to coordinate buyers gaining access to any properties (yes, even vacant ones). Holly has spent many hours on video calls with other real estate leaders in the city, who are unified in sending the message to fellow agents that now is not the time to bend the rules or look for loopholes–stay home means stay home.

That being said, try telling a REALTOR they can’t work! We’ve gotten some properties under agreement, have listings we are continuing to market and are actively working on upcoming listings. Here’s what we can do legally, ethically and safely:

Virtual showings

If (and only if) a property is owner-occupied, sellers can take photos/video of listings and do one-on-one virtual showings with buyers.

Planning and advising for sellers

We are holding video conference listing appointments for sellers who want to explore listing now despite the challenges and those who want to come up with a game plan for when restrictions are lifted.

Planning and advising for buyers

While in-person showings are 100% banned under current stay-at-home orders and virtual showings are limited to owner-occupied listings, we are helping investors and those in need of housing ASAP buy properties sight-unseen. And in addition to HomeSchool, our watch-it-on-your-own-time video tutorials about the homebuying process, our buyer agents can work with you via phone/email/text/video conferencing to develop your homebuying game plan so you can hit the ground running once restrictions are lifted.