How are agents making home viewings safe?
Home-movers in England have been able to start viewing properties in person again after the government reopened the housing market last month.
Since then, agents up and down the country have been busy implementing new guidelines based on government advice so that you can view properties as safely as possible.
We spoke to two agents who have introduced new ways of working, and we hope this article gives you some idea of what to expect when viewing a home in this new era.
Simon Efford is a director at Leysbrook in Hertfordshire, and he explained that one major change to his business is that prospective buyers must watch an online video tour before physically viewing a property. Here’s what he said…
Video tours
Everyone who comes to a viewing has to have watched a video of the property in advance.
Videos on the whole are pretty good as they portray a better feel of space than a photo. I suppose the only drawback is that if someone doesn’t like something they see on a video, we’re not on hand to allay their concerns like we could on a viewing.
Making yourself stand out as a serious buyer
It’s interesting because not everyone we send a video tour still wants to view the property in person.
Doing it this way means we know the people going on physical viewings are serious buyers.. It’s the sort of thing that we’ll probably always do now.
Getting back to work
As you’d expect, some people are more worried about this than others, but we just want to make people feel comfortable.
It’s a sensitive issue, and we all just have to be as careful as possible.
We have PPE that we wear to viewings, and we always have hand sanitizer available as well.
So far we’ve had no issues from people, but the way it’s worked so far is that we open the home up before the client arrives and then wait outside whilst they show themselves around.
Beforehand, we’ll have gone in and opened doors and switched on lights for them so there’s less need, if any, for them to have to touch anything.
We’ve only been doing viewings of vacant properties so far, but from this week we’ll restart doing occupied homes too.
We also spoke with Letitia Morgan, a senior negotiator at Andrews Estate Agents in Balham. She too explained the significance of initial online viewings, as well as how she builds rapport with home-movers whilst socially distancing. This is what she said on…
Managing footfall in the office
We opened our office the first Monday after the government announcement so that we had time to deep clean everything.
We keep the office door locked but we’ve got a doorbell for people to ring so that we can monitor the footfall and the amount of people in the office at any one time.
We’ve also got PVC screens at the desks which we sit behind when we see clients. We can show property details on our screens, so no-one has to touch anything.
We’ve also got hand sanitizer here too.
Registrations
We’ve got specific procedures whereby if someone comes to us via Rightmove, we send them a 3D tour of the listing. People can walk through the home like on Google Maps, which is really clever. So we suggest people view those first and then we can also do virtual tours.
That’s where we’ll view the listing at the same time as the client, and talk them through the property and tell them about all the best selling points and the floorplan, like we would in person.
We also seek financial confirmation from prospective buyers before they come into the office.
Physical viewings
Ahead of a viewing, we send all clients our coronavirus policy where we explain about staying two metres apart, and we have that conversation before the viewing.
We also ask the sellers to help us minimise contact as much as possible, by turning on all the lights ahead of time, leaving internal doors open and things like that.
They usually then go for a walk or wait in the garden while we do the viewing. I’ll bring some PPE with me for the clients (gloves and a mask) and the response from people has been good.
People want us to take precautions and to keep everyone as safe as possible. We’ve had no negative feedback.
I still greet people with a smile and introduce myself from a socially safe distance, it’s still important to build a rapport with people. But then once we’re in the property I keep the conversations to a minimum until we’re back outside, that’s the best way.
READ MORE: How to view property safely
