El Paso Realtor Jackie York recently put a 3-D virtual tour on two of her online house listings, the first time she's done that in a 20-year real estate career thanks to social distancing.
York hopes to use 3-D videos, which have become common selling tools in the real estate industry in recent years, on more of her listings as a way to decrease the need for buyers to see homes in person as York and others in the real estate industry try to decrease in-person contacts due to coronavirus-tied restrictions.
"Some buyers still want to see it (homes)," and most sellers are consenting, York said. "We use caution, wipes and gloves and masks for everyone. I keep my Lysol and Clorox wipes with me."
York has two agents who work for her that do most of the showings for buyers, but she continues to go to sellers' homes to do listing contracts, she said.
Laura Spears, another El Paso Realtor, is stepping up the use of her smartphone to record video home tours for prospective buyers. She's done that for several years mostly for out-of-town military buyers, but she's starting to use it for buyers living in the El Paso-area also.
"Even though my videos are not professional, I can point out features of a home" that an online virtual tour won't show, she said. "We all are conducting business differently in a safe environment."
York and Spears, like hundreds of other El Paso real estate agents, have altered their work routines, but they continue to work because under Texas and El Paso stay-at-home orders aimed at stopping the spread of coronavirus, real estate services are considered essential businesses.
Most real estate agents are working virtually from home, and while open houses have stopped, in-person showings continue when agents, buyers, and sellers feel comfortable doing so, those in the industry reported.
Many El Paso homebuilders are opening model homes only for appointments, or in other ways limiting access to the homes, which for years have been their best selling tool. Home construction continues.
"It's not business as usual, but we're still performing to our capability," said Conrad Pickett, president of the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors
"A lot of things definitely have changed," including no handshakes and hugs, which, Pickett noted, have been indelible parts of real estate transactions for years.
"We will still sell homes, just a lot more carefully," Pickett said. "We urge our members to follow local, state and federal guidance and limit in-person activities to keep their clients and our community safe."
However, the association's board of directors declined to set specific guidelines, and has left it up to real estate company brokers, who oversee independent agents, to set guidelines on agents' activities during the stay-at-home emergency order, which runs through April 30 in Texas and in El Paso until further notice.
The Texas Association of Realtors is urging Realtors to work remotely, use technology to show homes when possible, and follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines when an in-person home showing is required.
"The state association has brought out forms for some best practices for showing houses (in person) and different (contract) addendums if a transaction is affected by COVID-19," said Scott Kesner, broker-owner of Century 21 The Edge in El Paso, for which York is an agent. He's a former board chairman of the state association.
One of the forms ask sellers, buyers, agents, and others going into a property to certify to the best of their knowledge that they have no COVID-19 symptoms, no contacts in the previous 14 days with people diagnosed with coronavirus, and five other questions aimed at lessening exposure to the virus. The checklist, of course, can't account for people who may have coronavirus, but have no symptoms. It also is up to brokers and agents if they want to use the form.
"It gives everyone notice that this is a serious situation, but at the same time (shows) real estate is essential," Kesner said.
"We are showing homes when necessary. We're trying to do as much virtual as we can," Kesner said.
Michael Bray, 65, who has been selling real estate for more than 30 years, said he can't adequately do his job under the stay-at-home restrictions, which, he said, are hurting his ability to show and sell properties. So, Bray, an agent for RC Properties, and his wife, who also is a real estate agent, have filed unemployment claims, he said.
The recently enacted federal stimulus law temporarily expands unemployment insurance to cover lost or lowered income tied to coronavirus restrictions for self-employed workers, and independent contractors, which is how most real estate agents are classified.
Patrick Tuttle, broker-owner of Legacy Real Estate Services in El Paso, said online virtual tours, photo galleries, and other remote ways to view homes help buyers whittle choices.
But even in the coronavirus era, buyers who live in El Paso still want to see their top picks in person, Tuttle said.
It that means going to a new model home, many El Paso homebuilders are now limiting access to them.
"In normal times, people would show up to a model on a weekend, and we'd get 25 to 30 families. Now, maybe five will show up, but most of those show up with Realtors," said Randy O'Leary, chief executive officer and owner of View Homes, a large homebuilder, which includes Desert View Homes in El Paso and Las Cruces.
"We have our model homes manned, and encourage appointments. And allow only one customer at a time. And do disinfecting between showings," O'Leary said.
Desert View and its sister companies in other cities have put virtual tours of their show homes on their websites. Something many builders are doing.
"We are still selling homes, but we're not seeing the number of people out there" before the coronavirus restrictions, O'Leary said. "I thought it would completely die off and it hasn't."
But sales probably have dropped 50% in March compared to February in El Paso and in its 12 other markets in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, O'Leary said.
Edgar Montiel, owner and president of Palo Verde Homes, another large El Paso homebuilder, said he closed his model homes after the stay-at-home order was issued because he thought that was required. After he found keeping them open was permitted, he opened three model homes on April 4, but no but one came, he said.
"We've had virtual tours of our homes for years (on the company's website, and social media), but now we're trying to push it more, Montiel said.
"In the past, model homes have driven traffic," Montiel said.
Since the stay-at-home order has been in place, and its models closed, Palo Verde sales contracts have dropped from around 15 to 20 per week to one to three contracts a week," he said.
Both View Homes and Palo Verde Homes continue to build homes, as do other homebuilders, but with coronavirus-tied precautions for workers.
"We have to figure out how to run our business so we don't go under," Montiel said. "We have to be more proactive than reactive."
The coronavirus outbreak has put a damper on what had been a booming El Paso real estate market.
Low mortgage loan rates, now hovering just below 4%, helped entice buyers, those in the industry said.
"The market has definitely slowed down, but it hasn't stopped," Tuttle said, echoing comments from others in the industry.
However, Tuttle said, he recently lost three home sales contracts because of coronavirus-tied layoffs, and one commercial purchase contract collapsed because the buyer decided this was not a good time to buy, he said.
In March, 681 new and used homes were sold in El Paso County, which is above February, but almost 7 percent below March 2019, reported the El Paso Realtors association. However, that number only includes a small portion of new home sales because most of those are not reported to the association's Multiple Listing Service.
In March, 2,598 homes were listed for sale in El Paso County, including 988 new listings.
Spears, who's been in the real estate business 16 years and is an agent for Exit East Realty, said she isn't going into occupied homes during the coronavirus emergency.
But she remains busy, she said, because many of the homes she shows are vacant, some of them left behind by transferred Army soldiers, she said.
Spears wears latex gloves, face mask, and often wears hospital-like booties over her shoes whenever she goes into a house, even if it's by herself to shoot a video, she said. And when she returns home, where she has two children to also worry about, she uses bleach-sprayed cloths to disinfect her shoes, purse, car keys, glasses, even the inside of her car, she said.
"I was a germophobe before this, and now a germophobe on steroids," Spears said.
