Real estate companies are struggling to adapt to a new business environment with reduced person-to-person contact.
Most brokers and agents are working from home, and many are conducting business remotely.
Residential agents are giving virtual tours of properties and directing clients to online listings.
“We will be conducting virtual tours of Hall Arts Residences via Facetime and other comparable technologies,” Briggs Freeman’s Kyle Richards, who is marketing the new downtown condo tower, said in an email.
Tod Franklin of DFW City Homes said agents are looking for ways to protect buyers and sellers from coronavirus.
“I have many buyers and sellers that just can’t pause because they have immediate housing needs,” Franklin said. “Also many that don’t want to miss the low interest-rate opportunity.”
Even so, almost half of residential agents say that buyer interest has decreased due to the coronavirus outbreak, the National Association of Realtors reported.
“The decline in confidence related to the direction of the economy coupled with the unprecedented measures taken to combat the spread of COVID-19, including major social distancing efforts nationwide, are naturally bringing an abundance of caution among buyers and sellers,” Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.
Commercial agents are adapting, too.
More than half of the Realtors associations’ commercial members have seen a decline in leasing clients.
And Yardi Systems’ reports that traffic to the firm’s apartment finding website dropped by a quarter in the last week.
“Our professionals, working hand-in-hand with our clients, are finding ways to manage through these difficult days by modifying meeting protocols, touring properties with smaller groups and finding ways to keep moving forward,” Brett White, executive chairman and CEO of Cushman & Wakefield, said in a letter to clients.
“At the same time, we are adhering to important public health restrictions and recommendations. “In some jurisdictions, we know that business-as-usual simply isn’t possible and that managing through this disruption is a daily undertaking.”
Dallas Morning News. (2020, March 23). Real estate agents adapt to coronavirus with virtual tours, other creative ways to do business [News post]. Retrieved from https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2020/03/23/property-agents-adapt-to-business-with-coronavirus/
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