Real estate pros acclimated quickly to COVID

Actually, it felt like life as we know it was canceled.

For the first week of COVID, we all felt that life was apocalyptic. By the second week of COVID we all were running around trying to find toilet paper, water, masks, gloves and Clorox wipes.

However, within the real estate community, as a whole, new legal disclosures and protocols were being put into place to allow real estate professionals to get back into the trenches quickly and safely. Within a short period of time, my associates and peers were getting back to business. While we may have looked like a CSI project with our masks, gloves and booties, we acclimated quickly.

These following comments wrap up in a nutshell what the real estate world looked like during COVID:

“When the Governor’s orders came through to shut everything thing down, the REALTORS sprang into action to make a case that the REALTORS were essential. People need to move for lots of reasons, which include things like 1. job transfer, 2. larger homes or 3. smaller homes (many of which were already in escrow) 4. divorce, 5. unfortunately death, and a whole variety of other reasons.

No matter what, people need housing, and we were already in the middle of a housing shortage, which had been building up for 15 years. The ripple effect from shutting down the real estate industry and the related businesses (title, escrow, property inspections, disclosure companies, etc) would have been devastating for the economy, not to mention the effect of taxes and fees to going into the governmental agency’s coffers.

While we were negotiating with the Governor’s staff, our legal team, along with our standards forms committee, created forms that would protect our buyers, sellers, real estate agents and the public at large from the yet unknown virus. And the days that followed would see changes to these new forms, sometimes on a weekly basis.

And the showing protocols were something we never had to deal with prior to the pandemic. So, we had to learn them and then deal with supply shortages at the same time. Bootie, masks, hand sanitizer and more. While this was much more than a little inconvenience, we plowed through with undeterred determination to make it work and take care of our clients like we always had. Onward and upward is the REALTOR motto. Nothing will stop us now,” said Patrick Wallace, CEO/Association Executive Central Valley Association of REALTORS®

Bottom Line: As found on Google, Psychologists define resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress—such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors – that's the role of resilience. If I had it my way on Google, the word REALTOR® would be listed as a synonym.

n Donna A. Baker, CRS ABR SFR CDPE is the Broker-Owner of At Home Real Estate Group selling real estate for 21 years. Her memberships include National Association of Realtors, California Association of Realtors, Certified Residential Specialists, Central Valley Association of Realtors, Accredited Buyer's Representative, Certified Distressed Property Expert®, and Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource. In addition, Donna teaches monthly at the Central Valley Association of Realtors New Realtor Member Orientation and serves as the Chairman for the Tracy Real Estate Marketing Council and as a Board member for the McHenry House a local rehab shelter.

Donna has lived in Tracy since 1989 with her patient husband Tom of 32 years and has two awesome children, Trevor and Ally. She publishes her column “The REAL in Real Estate” bi-monthly in the Tracy Press. Contact her at donna@donnabaker.com.