Real estate agents around the country are still seeing crowds at open homes, auction rooms are buzzing – but they are also keeping to the latest healthy practices.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand issued guidelines last week for their members, updating last night with further information.
“Following significant advancements in New Zealand’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, we have developed suggestions for the real estate profession,” says REINZ chief executive, Bindi Norwell.
Since open homes, rental viewings and auctions generally have fewer than 500 people they continue- just with some additional precautions.
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When vendors are still happy to hold open homes (some have viewings by private appointment only) here’s what to expect when you turn up:
Whether you’re attending an open home or walking through with the agent, they’ll ask your contact details.
Obviously people who are feeling unwell, have just returned from over seas (excluding the Pacific Islands) or have been in close contact with a confirmed case of Covid-19 in the last 14 days should not enter the property.
There’ll be plenty of hand sanitiser around, and some agents are also now taking their own precautions, or you might like to use wipes or sanitise when you’re opening cupboards, using door handles or touching surfaces. Agents will be opening things too, so you don’t have to.
But in addition, if you do become unwell within 14 days of attending an open home (or auction or any other group event), you need to contact the agent so that they can follow up to alert other attendees, in what’s known as contact tracing – you’ll be doing this a lot for any other events, so might be helpful to keep a diary note or jotting where you've been on your phone so you can retrace your steps.
Then when you are ready to bid, real estate agencies are asking all auction attendees – not just registered bidders - to complete an attendee register, again so that they can be contacted at a later date if needed. Some agencies are asking people who think they might attend an auction to pre-register, so that they can be emailed relevant Covid-19 information before arriving.
Norwell says that REINZ have recommended that agencies seriously consider alternative selling methods, such as tender or private treaty.
She says many are already using Virtual Reality tours where possible, and OneRoof listings are increasingly using the Matterport or Diakrit tool, which means fly-throughs of properties can be done using either ‘dolls house’ 3D floor plans, or photographic scans and tours.
Peter Thompson, managing director of Barfoot & Thompson says that the company is encouraging buyers who don't want to attend open homes to use the tools on their listing website and OneRoof that have floor plans, extensive photos, video animation room by room and more.
" A lot more can be seen on the web but end of the day they still need to visit the property they most likely to buy," he says.
As agents are mostly on the road, many agencies already have virtual platforms to allow all salespeople and administrators to work from home, but Ray White Remuera have already gone a step further with an app called GAVL which allows buyers and sellers to watch auctions from the comfort of their own living rooms, from anywhere in the world.
Head of growth and performance Mark Covich says that means that even when they are telephone bidding, they can watch the room and see the other bidders, they can see the auctioneer and auctioneer can see them.
If buyers want to bid by phone, the company spend a lot of time matching bidders with the agents.
“The sales person will pick the person who is best suited to be the phone bidder for each client, we spend a lot of our time strategizing around the event,” he says. The agent will do this some time in advance so that the sales person will understand the phone bidder’s needs.
Barfoot & Thompson’s head of auctions Campbell Dunoon expects to see a small increase of phone bidding at their big Wednesday auction day this week.
“Some people may decide not to, but others like to get a feel for the room, the other bidders. We’re working through increasing our telephone bidding capacity – with our staff, auctioneers, and agents; there are people who can do this.
“We’re telling buyers to notify their sales person immediately so we can set this up.”
Phone bidders sign a standard contract that commits that should their bid be successful, they will sign the sale and purchase agreement (generally by email) and will pay the deposit, as for a standard auction sale and purchase. He says once people have signed this contract, they are committed to bidding.
Property managers are also now working with landlords to ensure property inspections meet the frequency stipulated by the landlord’s insurer, emailing tenants with the relevant Covid-19 information before an inspection and asking tenants who are unwell to reschedule inspections.
“This is about protecting the health of our members, our trainers, REINZ staff and the wider public with respect to Covid-19,” says Norwell, saying that, like other organsations, the organisations will be reviewing this constantly.
