[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2020]

IT'S NOT ALWAYS BLACK AND WHITE

Week one of social isolation is officially complete.  Both Leslie and I went into isolation last week when she came home from a business trip. It’s also been almost two weeks since we closed the Home Group offices and put our business continuity plan into place.  So far we’re managing with everyone working remotely and following the rules.  More on this in a bit. 

It’s been a very interesting week in the real estate world.  The weekly summary and statistics don’t accurately reflect what has transpired over the past few days.

50 homes were reported sold last week and 50% of those homes sold still managed to sell at or above list price. When I compared the same week in 2019, we reported 50 sales and 46% selling at or above list price.  What I’m seeing with just this basic comparison is that the Guelph real estate market is only just starting to grasp the extent of the pandemic.  

In my opinion, last week’s results showed a scramble of people buying and selling more out of necessity than ignoring the storm clouds rolling in.  A number of these sales were likely people that had already sold and were scrambling to secure a new home before a possible shut down, or were ones that had bought firm in the previous weeks and now needed to sell in order to keep their deals moving forward.  

The rest of the market seemed to back off fairly quickly last week, as we noticed showing requests dropped dramatically as people started to really take the warnings from the government seriously.  

The interesting aspect of how the market was behaving last week is reflected in the title of this week’s posting.  I expected open houses to be cancelled.  Our brokerage made the decision early the previous week to cancel open houses, the risk was already too high.  I also expected that there would be some tone deaf Realtors and home sellers that would ignore the advice to cancel, and of course they didn’t disappoint.  What was surprising was the number of calls to completely shut down the whole market.  Most of those came from a small but vocal minority of Realtors, which was surprising. 

Markets aren’t always black and white, and the Guelph real estate market is no different.  It hasn’t shut down because there are still too many people that need to buy or sell a home despite the ongoing pandemic.  We as a brokerage have set up a protocol to manage how we interact in the market place, following the rules as outlined by Health Canada.  Most of the other brokerages that I’ve been in touch with are following similar protocols.  It’s not business as usual, that I can assure you.  With the technology we have at our fingertips we are conducting most showings via videos or virtual walkthroughs, and all of our meetings and paperwork has gone completely virtual.  Private showings, when necessary, are taking place only after all other methods of viewing the home have been utilized and under strict conditions for sanitizing and maintaining social distancing.  This means no more taking groups through.  It’s one person and the Realtor.  We're also taking into consideration who lives in the home, and whether it is occupied at all.  In each of our listings we’ve arranged for a cleaning station including wipes to sanitize door handles and hard surfaces after going through.  

In a perfect world we would be able to shut down the market.  However, when someone has sold a house and needs somewhere to live in 30-45 days there is no black and white solution.  We need to conduct this business to provide shelter and peace of mind for clients.  

Later this Friday morning we will be conducting a webinar featuring Nathan Spaling, a local real estate lawyer and Rob Campbell, a local mortgage broker.  We’ll be answering any questions people have about financing and closing real estate transactions during this period. We’ll also examine and talk about what and where we think this market will go over the coming months.  Register for the webinar and join us at the link below.  We will be recording the webinar and posting it on our website as well. [UPDATE: Watch recorded webinar below]

You’ve heard this a lot in the past few days.  We are living in unprecedented times.  It seems like the situation changes on an hourly basis and it likely is.  We will get through this.  The real estate market will get through this.  The ride might not be pretty and is likely going to be very rocky for the next 6 months.  I lived and worked through the last major real estate crash in the late 90’s.  It was sudden and it was painful for everyone.  We adapted and were able to help our clients get through it.  We will be here today and tomorrow for you as well. 

We will continue to provide market updates and reports for you in the coming weeks to keep you informed.  

Listen to the experts and protect your family and your health.  

We’ll see you next week. 

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