As of last week we were still allowed to host an open house. The letter at the bottom was sent out by the Venice Area Board of Realtors regarding that topic. Thinking deeply about all that is involved with an open house, our team brainstormed how we could try to best accomplish all of the very important parts of this process.
- Potential buyers need to view the entire home
- The residents of the home need to feel safe
- Door handles need to be wiped in between each person touching them
- We need to keep everyone 6 feet apart
- We must follow the 10 person maximum rule
- Buyers will have questions. They want to stand around and discuss things.
- Buyers will need information sheets about the property
This is what we came up with and successfully implemented this past Sunday.
We set up a table, chair and umbrella in the driveway. That was my post. I was outside as I greeted and shared our plan for our first Corona sensitive open house with visitors. We did virtual handshakes and high-fives from 6 feet away. I gave each visitor the option to have the property information sent to their phone or they could walk over and grab a printout. I opened the front door in advance as I saw people coming, and left it open as long as people were inside. Making sure that less than 10 people at a time were in the home ( actually 6 was my personal limit ) I explained to all that the doors throughout the home were all open so that they would not have a need to touch any of them. With my open house assistant inside, all visitors were to ask her to open any cupboards, appliances, ect… that they might want to see inside of. That way the home owners could feel confident that only Bethany and I had touched anything in the house the entire time. Bethany made sure that the lanai sliders were open as visitors wanted to step out back. She also helped keep the six foot rule in focus. Since all visitors were informed by me that Bethany is not a Realtor, and was unable to answer their questions, they all exited as soon as they saw the home. Then they stood out in the driveway, where there is much more room to keep our social distancing, to have conversation about the property and other topics as they came up. If anyone desired for me to have their contact information, I simply wrote it myself on the clipboard that I kept at my post.
It appeared that all visitors appreciated the efforts we made to provide a safe environment for them to visit our open house.
Hopefully we will not need to be this extreme for long. I do enjoy a good handshake greeting.
Written by Steve Martin Smith
Steve Martin Smith is a top Sarasota County area Real Estate Agent licensed in the state of Florida since January of 2015. With an impressive launch, he attained the number two ranking in his first brokerage of 20 agents by the end of 2016. That caused other brokerages to aggressively attempt to recruit him and eventually he accepted an offer with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in March of 2017. Since that time Steve Martin has reached many personal heights. Selling $1,000,000+ estates from Panther Ridge in Manatee County to condos in Punta Gorda, Steve has managed to become one of the top selling agents of single family homes in our local Sarasota County market. The growth and success that Steve Martin Homes Group has attained in 2019 paved the way to accept an offer with RE/MAX Platinum Realty. This move to better serve their customers, with offices across Sarasota County, Manatee County and the largest global presence of any real estate brand, is certain to build on a history of pleasing buyers and sellers who choose to trust Steve Martin Homes Group with all of their residential real estate needs.
