Selling Your Home in the Age of Covid

Real Estate Services are an essential service. WorkSafe BC, the BC Real Estate Association, Vancouver Island Real Estate Board, and Re/Max of Nanaimo have all contributed to safety guidelines and safe listing and showing practices among REALTORS®.

If you list your home, here are the steps we take to ensure your safety in selling:

Marketing - give prospective buyers as much information as possible before the showing including

• 3D Interactive tour of the home (Matterport) – closest thing to viewing without being there in person
• Video of the home including Drone’s Eye view of the neighbourhood and yard
• Photos – between 30 and 70 still photos, depending on the size of the home
• Illustrative Floor Plans to understand the layout, direction and flow of the home
• We provide an in-depth writeup to ensure the non-visual aspects are highlighted

The purpose of the extensive showcasing of your home is to minimize unnecessary showings and attract only serious buyers who have reviewed the presentation of your home ahead of looking.

Ensuring REALTORS® and buyers wear masks and hand-sanitize immediately prior to entering the home for a viewing is important. Sellers are encouraged to have sanitizer at the door upon entry, also. In all correspondence between REALTORS®, safety measures are emphasized.

Qualifying Buyers - many of these steps are conventional steps ahead of a showing, but REALTORS® doubled down to eliminate frivolous showing activity:

• Confirming a buyer has not been exposed or quarantined recently due to COVID-19 or traveled to other areas where outbreaks exist;
• Ensuring the party-size viewing the home is only the buying party;
• Ensuring a buyer is ready to buy:
  • Prequalification through a financial institution
  • Deposit and Down payment funds are in place
• Encouraging buyers to do as much preliminary work on a specific listing/home ahead of viewing including
  • drive-by’s
  • review of the marketing materials available (3D tours, videos)
  • receipt of supplemental information such as property disclosure statements which may contain information that affects their decision to buy.

Our professional organizations, BCREA and VIREB, send out regular bulletins with tips and reminders every week to ensure the highest standards are met for the process of buying and selling homes. To date REALTORS® continue to do their part to safeguard their communities.

If you have questions about selling, please feel free to contact me any time. 

Click this link to message me, email me ([email protected]) or call 250-755-9974.