For many of you, real estate issues are not really top of mind right now as a result of the everyday stresses because of Covid-19. Nevertheless, because real estate has been top of mind for so many years as price continued to firm, I thought I would shine some light on what is happening in the industry right now.

Firstly, the government declared Real Estate Agency services to be an essential service.  Being that real estate is so connected to shelter, it was felt that the doors could not be closed on services that assist in the provision of housing.  However, based upon the general self-isolation guidelines, Brokers have generally advised Realtors to restrict services to those which are exclusively essential. Currently,  the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver has suspended access to open house listings and has discouraged personal showings.  In cases where the showings are essential in nature, my Sutton Westcoast Realty office has instituted strict protocols for the benefit of the safety of all parties and requires that waivers be signed by all parties accessing a property.  Nobody should be attending viewings unless there is some urgency.

Like many of you, although I am self-isolating and keeping personal safety a priority, I am keeping the lines of communication open with clients and staying focussed on any opportunities that may arise in the market.  It is a unnerving spending day after day self-isolating.  However, with this challenge comes opportunities to attend to things  that have been put on the back burner for too long.  This website was one of them.

Today the new website was launched putting unique tools in the hands of our clients to be able to select specific criteria to search availability on the market and comparative values to recent solds.  You can register here and start checking out the features: https://shuchatgroup.com/recip.html/VowLanding.form?showsignup.  Doing so will activate the Market Insights function here: https://shuchatgroup.com/market-insight.html .  The features will allow you to search by map like one would do on Airbnb.

What else can we do with our time? Finish taxes, enjoy fresher air, try a drive downtown and back to feel like what it must have been like 30 years ago with less traffic, finish up every Netflix series on your to do list...  Better yet, call every older person you know who is living alone and chat them up.  People need to isolate themselves, but doing it alone has got to be pretty tough.

Stay safe; stay online social; enjoy your family.