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UPDATE 3.21.2020. As per the new New York and New Jersey “stay-at-home” restrictions, we are now instructing our agents to no longer provide showings of listings. Our offices are totally closed, and we encourage everyone to stay at home at all times unless you have “essential business” until we get further guidance fromhttp://josephrand.randrealty.com/wp-admin/edit.php the state.
Note: A formatted version of the original letter can be found here.
To all our Rand Realty clients:
As the owners of Rand Realty, we wanted to thank you for the opportunity to work with you. Rand Realty has been a family business for over 35 years, and we have gotten through myriad challenges in that time. We will all get through this.
We wanted you to know that during this challenging time, our first priority is to protect the health and safety of our clients, agents, and employees. Last week, we published a General Advisory about best practice protocols for reducing the risk of contracting the coronavirus, which pulled information provided by the Center for Disease Control and other reliable sources. We have also been providing daily updates to our agents via email, daily conference call, and on social media. At the bottom of this email, you’ll find links to all relevant sites and phone numbers you might need to get updates.
Even in these difficult times, though, we know that many of you need to proceed with your home search or sale, and that others are already in contract and need to get to closing. So we want you to know that we remain available to help you with whatever you need, even though our regular routines will have to adapt to these changing circumstances.
Accordingly, we are providing these services in compliance with the following Coronavirus Protocols:
1. Offices may be closed
Our offices have been closed to the public, and most of our employees and agents are working from home. Your agent still has access to office facilities as needed, as well as our online suite of tools.
3.20.20 Update: In keeping with state “Pause” restrictions, are offices are totally closed to the public and to agents.
2. We are discontinuing all open houses
We will no longer be hosting public open houses or broker open houses. We are still providing showings of our listings, but only by appointment. We simply do not think it’s a good idea to attract groups of people to our clients’ listings.
3. Our listings remain available if sellers wish it.
Unless you are being quarantined because you are in a high-risk category, or you are feeling unwell, we have been advised that letting people into your home for a brief showing, does not create a significant risk of transmission. That may change as circumstances warrant, but at least for now we are still allowing showings of our listings (if the sellers wishes it). Our sellers who wish to stay on the market should review our Seller Showing Protocols to learn how to protect their home and themselves during showings, including:
- No more than one group of up to three people seeing a home at a time.
- Stay home for the showing, but keep your distance.
- Have rubber gloves available, if possible.
- Have sanitizing products ready.
- Open windows
- When the showing is over, wipe everything down.
3.20.20 Update: In keeping with state “Pause” restrictions, we are no longer allowing showings of our listings.
4. We will continue to provide showings if buyers wish it.Unless you are being quarantined because you are in a high-risk category, or you are feeling unwell, we have been advised that going to see a home does not create a significant risk of transmission. That may change as circumstances warrant, but at least for now we are still providing showings for our buyers (if the buyer wishes it). All buyers should first review our Buyer Showing Protocols that we have published online, including:
- No more than one group of up to three people seeing a home at a time.
- Keep your distance: no handshakes.
- Everyone should drive their own car.
- Bring sanitizing products.
- Wash your hands going in and out.
- Leave no fingerprints — wear disposable gloves or us wipes to open doors and pulls.
3.20.20 Update: In keeping with state “Pause” restrictions, we are no longer providing showings to our listings.
5. We are following best hygienic practices for in-progress transactions.
For those transactions that are currently going into contract or are progressing from contract-to-closing, we are encouraging all parties to maintain good hygienic protocols for inspections, appraisals, and showings: maintain physical distance, no hand-shaking, wash hands, and so on. For closings, we are encouraging attorneys to stagger their closings rather than require all parties to be at a closing table at the same time.
6. We encourage videoconferencing rather than meetings.
If at all possible, we encourage you to do more videoconferencing with your agents and anyone else involved in your transactions. All our agents have access to Google Hangouts, which is an easy-to-use universal system that requires no special software or hardware.
7. We recommend that at-risk clients and agents stay home.
All that said, we STRONGLY recommend that at-risk clients discontinue their home search or sale for the next few weeks. That includes anyone over the age of 65 or those with preexisting conditions with their lungs, hearts, or diabetes. Similarly, we have recommended to any at-risk agents that they take a break from working, and refer out any clients who wish to stay active, so please understand if your agent needs to refer you to one of their colleagues. And, of course, if you are not feeling well, we absolutely recommend that you stay home and isolated.
Finally, we note that we are sending this Advisory on March 17th. Events have moved quickly over the past week, so we don’t know if circumstances will change at some point soon. If we do make any changes to these policies and protocols, we will let you know immediately
And if you want help or more information, here are some links and numbers you can use:
-
- Center for Disease Control
- NY Health Department
- NJ Health Department
- Rockland
- Orange
- Westchester
- Putnam
- Bronx
- Bergen
- Passaic
- Morris
- Hudson
- New York State Hotline: 1-888-364-3065.
- New Jersey State Hotline: 1-800-222-1222
Thank you again for the opportunity to work with you. If we can do anything to help you in this challenging time, please let us know.
The Rands
Marsha, Matt, Joe, and Dan
