To our Clients and Friends,
We here at the Hersh Group always strive to make your real estate experience as smooth and stress-free as possible. These are new and challenging times, and our goal is to maintain the highest standards for our clients while keeping as cautious and safe as possible. Nothing matters more to us than the health and well-being of our clients, friends, and family, and we’re taking additional precautions to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 while still working hard for our buyers and sellers.
THE HERSH GROUP IS HERE FOR YOU
We’re still in business, and our team is still working diligently around the clock for our clients. By utilizing Long & Foster’s tools and our own internal systems, we’re very well-equipped to work remotely as a team with our clients, settlement agents, lenders, and other agents in our industry.
Our team is proud to work with Long & Foster Real Estate, a broker that provides the tools we need to allow us to work remotely and also has the leadership and collaborative spirit to keep us moving forward. We have daily virtual meetings with our manager and colleagues, as well as a daily online briefing from Long & Foster executives to keep us informed, positive, and motivated as we develop new ideas to help our clients in this ever-changing environment.
Our settlement and mortgage partners at RGS Title and Prosperity Mortgage provide daily briefings and are always available to answer questions as we adapt and adjust to move forward with listings and sales. And we’re constantly reading news and market briefings so we can bring the best, most recent information to you.
This is a fluid situation. For the time being, open houses are not permitted in the DMV. Mayor Bowser extended DC’s state of emergency until May 15th; Virginia’s has been extended to May 8th. We’re updating and adapting our policies as the situation continues to evolve, but for the time being, here’s how we’re handling the day-to-day business of real estate;
NEW CLIENT MEETINGS
We’re absolutely still taking on new clients and setting appointments with prospective buyers and sellers. We’ll take the majority of these appointments virtually, utilizing Zoom, FaceTime, WhatsApp, and standard phone calls. We’ll still meet in person if the situation calls for it, but for everyone’s safety, we’re limiting these in-person appointments.
BUYER SHOWINGS FOR OUR CLIENTS
It’s a strange new world for showing property, but we’re up to the task! We’re happy to preview a property and take a video tour for you, or video chat with you from the property. If you’d like to visit a property in person, and the sellers are allowing access, we’ll walk through the home before you, opening any doors with disinfecting wipes and disposable gloves that will be thrown out immediately upon use. Please do not touch anything in the home, both for your safety and the safety of the sellers. We do not advise our clients to visit publicly advertized showings this time.
SHOWINGS ON OUR LISTINGS
Open houses are not permitted at this time. Instead, we’ll utilize many options for allowing prospective buyers to tour homes virtually, such as 3D tours, interactive floor plans, and walk-through videos of our listings, in addition to our usual still photo virtual tours and floor plans. For private showings, we’ll prevent overlapping showings so only one group can tour the property at any given time. In vacant properties, we’ll keep all doors to closets open and will ask agents and buyers to leave them open so no one needs to touch anything in the home. We’ll encourage all agents to adapt our practice of using gloves or disinfecting wipes when opening the front door to the home. (If you prefer to sell your home as an off-market listing, we’d be happy to discuss that with you, and how we would market that private listing.)
CLIENTS WHO ARE UNDER CONTRACT
We’re working tirelessly to stay in close contact with the lenders and title companies involved in your sale to ensure we’re on track to close on time, and to determine what physical distancing practices they’ve adopted for settlement. Long & Foster’s affiliated title companies use new pens for each client and limit the number of people in the office at any given time. Some sellers have the option to sign virtually with a remote notary, and buyers and sellers are not sitting at the table together for the time being.
SAFETY FIRST
SAFETY FIRST
We’ll continue to follow the practice of social and physical distancing by keeping 6 feet apart wherever we are. If we have an appointment scheduled but you feel ill, or have been in contact with someone who has contracted COVID-19, please let us know immediately so we can reschedule. We promise to do the same. Safety first!
THE BOTTOM LINE
We will get through this, and we’ll come out stronger on the other end. Our team at the Hersh Group will continue to monitor and update our policies as the situation continues to evolve. Please let us know what we can do for you during this trying time, whether answering your real estate questions, discussing a future move, offering an ear, or just having a virtual coffee and catching up.
We’re here for you, and we’ll get through this together. In the meantime, please keep yourself and your loved ones safe and healthy!