Can you sell your California home during the coronavirus shutdown? Here’s the latest advice
Many Californians and Sacramentans who put their homes on the real estate market weeks ago are now taking them off, choosing to sit out the coronavirus crisis and hope for better times soon.
But not all. In fact, there is a modest spring selling season underway. And that has provoked a divisive question in one of the state’s biggest industries: If you’re a real estate agent, do you stop showing clients through houses until government officials declare us past the worst of the epidemic? Or do you grab some hand sanitizer, put on gloves and go for it?
Pettit Gilwee, who sells throughout the Sacramento region, is going for it. She says she’s doing it because she feels she has an obligation to clients, some of whom need to sell or buy a house because of their financial, personal or job situations.
“It’s just the two of us. We stay six feet apart; we wash our hands before and after,” the Lyon Real Estate agent said. “Not all our clients are in the position to wait. And we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients.”
She said, though, that she’s only gone into empty homes so far. If someone were still living in the house, she would have to talk with both the seller and buyer and make sure everyone is in agreement on whether the tour should happen, and under what rules of engagement.
But agent Erin Stumpf of Coldwell Banker is among those who says now isn’t the moment. Stumpf is maintaining close internet and phone contact with buyers and sellers, and hopes to sell some houses via virtual tours during the current “shelter in place” orders.
But she is not willing to take a client physically through another person’s house, she said, and she does not believe any agents should be showing homes during these critical weeks when health officials are calling on people to stay home and avoid others.
The goal, health officials say, is to reduce the spread of the virus during what epidemiologists say are the critical surge weeks this month and next.
“If we engage in physically meeting people and taking them into somebody’s home, that is potentially risky behavior, especially if it is an occupied residence,” Stumpf said. “We should cease person-to-person contact. Our clients should be staying at home. We should be staying at home.”
The housing real estate industry has slowed dramatically in the last few weeks. Many owners have taken their homes off the market to wait and see what happens. Others though are putting their homes up. And sales continue to happen.
Sacramento real estate data analyst Ryan Lundquist reported on Tuesday that pending sales were down 42 percent from two weeks ago, and that there were 34 percent fewer new homes going on the market compared to two weeks ago. The numbers from two weeks ago already were down.
“We are seeing less new listings coming to the market and clearly less buyers getting into contract,” Lundquist said. Slightly fewer than one half of recent sales had more than one offer, though. “There is still demand in today’s market, even though it is more subdued. Ultimately, we have clearly seen a more subdued market in light of buyers and sellers reacting to the pandemic and lockdown.”
Disagreement in real estate industry
Key real estate industry groups, however, are sending mixed messages on the issue.
The National Association of Realtors successfully lobbied the Trump administration last week to label the real estate industry as an “essential” group that should be allowed to continue fully conducting business.
The federal government issued revised guidelines on Saturday doing so. But federal officials pointed out in that advisory that they are only offering guidelines, not rules, and that they defer to the will of state and local governments.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “shelter in place” order was not specific about which occupations are essential.
In Sacramento County, the stay-at-home order lists essential occupations and does not mention real estate agents or home sales transactions. County health chief Peter Beilenson, who issued Sacramento’s stay-at-home order, told The Sacramento Bee this week he does not want agents showing homes with in-person walk-throughs.
The county has not said whether it considers that to be a prohibition that code officers would enforce.
David Tanner, the head of the Sacramento Association of Realtors, issued a statement on Sunday saying it is his group’s opinion that agents should not go into people’s homes. Tanner called on agents to restrict their “business activities to remote operations” for the moment.
“SAR staff is attempting to work with the county to have that list modified,” he wrote. “Regardless of how it works out with the county, or if you work in another county, to comply with physical distancing restrictions, no member should be showing property in person, holding open houses, or any similar activities.”
The California Association of Realtors, however, in a directive on Tuesday, offered mixed advice to agents, saying they should adhere to their local government’s orders and that, in general, “showings should be done virtually,” but added the caveat: “if at all possible.”
CAR went on to list what it calls “best practices” for entering a house. They include disinfecting the lockbox and the doorknob each time, wearing gloves before going into a house and throwing them away right afterward, bringing and using hand sanitizer, and not touching anything in the house.
Also from the CAR:
- Only a single agent and no more than two other individuals are to be in a dwelling at the same time during a showing.
- Sellers are to be advised that they should not be present within a dwelling at the same time as other individuals.
- Any persons on the property must agree to adhere strictly to the social distancing guidelines at all times by remaining at least six feet apart.
- Any person entering a property shall provide by declaration that to the best of their knowledge, they are not currently ill.
- All persons visiting a property will agree to wash their hands with soap and water or use hand sanitizer prior to entry, and to wear disposable rubber gloves and a protective face mask, if one is made available.
- If anyone who enters the property is later diagnosed with COVID-19, the person who is diagnosed must immediately inform the listing agent, who will then make the best efforts to inform everyone who entered the property after the person diagnosed.
The California Association of Realtors also is coming up with new forms for sellers and buyers to sign that advise them of the above concepts.
Buying a home without seeing it
Gilwee said she and others take the CAR message as being cognizant of the need for some people to buy and sell homes now, despite the circumstances, and that very few buyers are going to be willing to pull the trigger on the biggest purchase of their life based only on photos and videos instead of walking through the house.
“No buyer is going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars unless they physically walk through a house, see the floor plan. Even the smell of the house,” she said. “We want to flatten the curve (of the virus). We have skin in this game, too. We are walking this line, of doing it responsibly, respectfully while keeping abreast of what is going on in the world.”
Folsom agent Steve Heard of The Heard Group said his take is that agents are being given a strong yellow caution light, not a red light.
“If a home owner has a pressing need to sell, and is willing to allow showings, and a qualified buyer is interested in seeing it, it is our job to show it, while taking recommended precautions,” he said. “I did show a house today, and brought gloves, hand sanitizer and shoe covers. I unlocked the door and stepped aside.”
Some real estate agents say they believe video 3-D technology has become so sophisticated that more buyers may opt to purchase a house without going in it if, say, health officials put further restrictions on people’s movement. But that’s not the case yet, even video advocates say.
A few other industries that bring people together in close quarters are still allowed to do business because they have been deemed “essential” by county health officials. That includes home and commercial construction, even though some workers say they are often within six feet of each other. That also includes grocery stores, health facilities and even marijuana dispensaries.
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 12:04 PM.