Our world has changed quite a bit in the last few weeks. Mayor Bynum placed the entire City under a Safer at Home order on March 28th. That extended the State’s restrictions to include all residents of any age to engage in safe social distancing practices. That means maintaining a six-foot distance between you and others when out in public. The problem with that? What if you are trying to sell your Tulsa home during a pandemic? How do you do so when you aren’t allowed to hold an open house? Or if you’re afraid that someone might bring COVID-19 into your home?
Selling Your Tulsa Home During a Pandemic
In the past, open houses provided a great way to market your Tulsa home. Today, open houses present possible breeding grounds for Coronavirus infestation. However, the real estate industry adapted to today’s limitations. Physical open houses with dozens of people traipsing through your property at one time are gone. In their place? Facebook Live open houses. Virtual tours. Increased private tours. Sometimes, a buyer’s agent inspects the property for a buyer, including them via Zoom, Skype or Facetime.
With private tours, our company provides booties, wipes, and hand sanitizer for anyone who enters your Tulsa home. Of course, they’ll need to provide their own masks. We like to leave a note with the basket of supplies to encourage good hygiene while viewing the house. It typically says something like:
Thank you for showing/viewing our home. In this basket, you’ll find disinfecting wipes to help you stay safe while touring our home. There are booties that fit over your shoes and gloves for your hands. Please use the disinfecting wipes when opening doors, cabinets or turning on light switches. Don’t forget to use care when opening the keybox, too. We will try to have doors ajar when you arrive so you can open them with your elbow. And, we’ll try to have the lights on. No need to turn them off. We’ll take care of it when we return. Thank you!
Before you leave to allow the potential buyer and/or their representative inside, make sure you turn on all the lights throughout the house. Leave closet doors open and keep all interior doors ajar. This makes your home appear lighter, brighten, and limits what strangers need to touch to view your property thoroughly. Then, once their tour concludes, make sure you disinfect every possible surface that might have been touched. It’s also a good idea to open up all the windows for a few hours, if possible.
Staying Safe During This Pandemic
Only people living under one roof may physically socialize with each other. When you must leave your home, limit it to necessary errands only. And designate just one person in your household to perform these tasks. Walking your dog is fine. But maintain that six-foot distance between others. The mayor also asked non-essential businesses to either find a way for their workers to continue working from home or completely shut down through April 30th. Essential businesses like grocery stores, health care, and pharmacies may stay open. Restaurants closed their in-house dining. But many still allow drive-through, delivery or curbside pick-up. For the latest information about COVID-19 and how it affects our Tulsa community, please visit the City of Tulsa’s website here. Together, we will get through this as long as we all do our part to stay safe…for ourselves and others.
[…] this year, Tulsa homes sold like hotcakes. While the way of selling properties may have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we still see buyers looking for properties in the Tulsa real estate market. But if you want to […]