Facebook Live with Buss-Todd-DeBacco Real Estate:
A Dialogue About Real Estate and the Coronavirus
In the wake of COVID-19, each of us are staying glued to all of our news updates and questioning how this effects each of us personally and professionally. Buss-Todd-DeBacco Real Estate has maintained constant communication throughout the last few days regarding how this virus is affecting our operations with transactions in process, and our buyers and sellers, and we continue sharing with each other and with our clients how we see this outbreak affecting the local and national real estate market. Today, a couple of our team members hosted a Facebook Live stream in which they simply opened up the dialogue for others if there were any concerns for real estate. To watch the full stream, please click here: Facebook Live with Buss-Todd-DeBacco: Real Estate and the Coronavirus
As of today, BTD Real Estate is continuing to operate in full capacity for each of our clients, and we’d like to highlight a few key points for our buyers and sellers.
Precautions Buss-Todd-DeBacco Real Estate is Taking for Our Buyers:
- We are each taking additional sanitizing precautions for every home we enter, including wearing shoe coverings, using gloves if necessary, sanitizing hands upon entry and exit of home, refraining from touching all surfaces as much as possible
- For those who do not want to enter a home, we offer virtual tours
- For any client who wants to stay in his/her own home during their buying process, this is not a problem at all as we are each set up to offer all of our real estate services virtually
Precautions Buss-Todd-DeBacco Real Estate is Taking for Our Sellers:
- Rather than hosting public open houses, we encourage our sellers to take appointments only or solely offer virtual experiences to prospective buyers
- We are able to offer virtual options to close on your transaction with our preferred title company, Guardian Title
Above all, safety for each and every one of our clients, including ourselves, is our top priority.
We were lucky to have one of our esteemed lending partners join during the Facebook Live stream, Benjamin Martin of AMG Lending. Here is what Benjamin had to say about the mortgage implications today:
- Partial and Full Closure of Lenders, Appraisers, Title Companies, Home Owners Insurance companies etc. Even if everyone “works from home” the industry is already over capacity, if there was only a 10% drop in productivity it will substantial impact turnaround times on everything.
- Completing a Verification Of Employment will become a big issue.
- New Title Searches will not be completed once the local government offices close.
- FHA/VA/USDA closure could completely take government lending offline,
- Set proper expectations with all parties, assume nothing, crystal clear communication.
- Inquire with the borrower about whether their employer is and will be open for business in the foreseeable future considering the circumstances.
- Lock Interest Rates for longer periods of time on the basis there could be substantial delays.
- Talk to your partners about what’s going on related to Coronavirus at their companies, have open communication on the topic to ensure all parties are in the loop and can make any necessary adjustments if circumstances change.