Covid-19 health and safety procedures for buying or selling a house

**CHECK OUT THE FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW**

Are you wondering what real estate agents, buyers and homeowners are doing to protect their health and safety during covid-19?

Well, this video covers the health and safety guidelines that are required to be met by all real estate agents, their buyer clients and their seller clients who are actively buying or selling a home during the coronavirus pandemic 🏡

If you have any real estate questions or needs that we can help with, give Karen a call at 647-836-2895 🏡

Thank you for watching!

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Full Video Transcript:

Hey guys, it's Karen from Toronto here.

Now, some of you might be wondering: "Can I still buy or sell a house right now during covid-19?"

The answer is "yes", here in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) real estate transactions are still happening every single day despite the pandemic. Now, even though you can buy or sell properties here in the GTA, there are strict health and safety protocols that need to be followed.

And just as a disclaimer, I don't want anybody to think that I'm encouraging someone to go out and buy properties or sell properties if they are uncomfortable with that situation. Please continue to isolate yourselves at home if you're uncomfortable with the idea or especially so if you're experiencing any sort of symptoms or have been in contact with somebody who has symptoms.

Moving along, today's video will look at the health and safety protocols that need to be met by all real estate agents as well as their clients, who are out seeing properties together. I'll also share a couple of important tips for those of us who are selling a property during this time.

So let's get into this.

First off, in order to book a showing to see any properties for sale, our brokerage Century 21 Leading Edge has a formal written document with disclosures that have to be confirmed by both the real state agent as well as their client. The list of disclosures includes such things as not travelling outside of Canada in the past 14 days and not being in contact with anyone who has. The disclosures also includes not having any symptoms such as coughing, fever, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.

In addition to these disclosures, there are more disclosures on Broker Bay. And Broker Bay is a software that about a 1/4 of the real estate agents in the GTA use, in order to book showings online rather than calling in the office to book a showing.

Now here are the disclosures on Broker Bay. A couple of these disclosures would be best if they were reworded.

For example, #1 says anyone who has recently travelled outside of Canada, including the US, or been in close contact with someone who has travelled to China and Europe.

It's interesting that they only mention those that have either travelled to or been in contact with anyone from the US, China or Europe. Because you know, there are other countries and continents that are affected with covid-19. But in any case, moving on. 

Additional disclosures include #4 such as not using the washing facilities on the property during the showing. #5, not bringing unnecessary family members or children to the showing. And #6, you will sanitize / wash your hands prior to entering the home and touching the lockbox. So I think it's kind of hard to wash your hands outside of someone's house or condo unit without a proper bathroom, but I certainly understand the need to use hand sanitizer before touching the lockbox.

So if you meet all of these disclosures you're able to see properties for sale in the GTA.

Now, I'm curious what you think about these disclosures.

Do these disclosures make you feel comfortable either buying or selling a house during this time?

Or maybe there's a disclosure that you know of that you feel would be a smart idea to incorporate in the list that we have.

Let us know in the comments below what your thoughts are.

Now continuing along, for those of us who are selling a property during this time, here are a couple of tips for you to keep in mind.

First off, if you need to sell an investment property, that investment property has to be vacant. By regulation in the province of Ontario, we are not able to conduct showings on properties where tenants are currently occupying it. And also by regulation, we are not able to evict tenants during this time of covid-19. So there's no evictions of tenants during covid-19 in order to get vacant possession to sell the property for example.

So basically if you want to sell an investment property and a tenant currently occupies it, you'll have to wait until covid-19 settles and the regulations are lifted.

Secondly, if you're selling a primary residence, I only advise doing so if the property is vacant. Because if you're still living in the home, despite all of these disclosures that real estate agents and their buyer clients need to adhere to before booking a showing to see the property, there's always that slight chance that someone who comes to see your property is asymptomatic. So that could be somebody that is not showing any symptoms at all of the virus. And without showing any symptoms they will not be aware that they actually have this virus. I'm not trying to cause a fear and people however, there is always that small possibility that somebody who is asymptomatic with the virus could possibly book a showing at your property. And if you're still living there, there's definitely a chance that you're putting yourself at risk, and I'm sure everybody is fully aware that it is a tremendous amount of work to fully disinfect the entire home after showings. And this is why I strongly advise to only list a primary residence if it's currently vacant.

So now you guys know that yes, you can go out and buy and sell properties here in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

And now you're also educated on all of the health and safety protocols that need to be followed.

So speaking of selling a home during covid-19, you might be wondering what the effective marketing strategies are to help sell your house during this time when there are fewer showings during the pandemic.

Well, go ahead and click that "like" and "subscribe" button now because in an upcoming video, I'll share with you three great effective marketing strategies that you can implement to help sell your house during this time, and to also help buyers virtually walk through your home.

In the meantime, if you have any real estate questions or needs, give us a call.