NEW WORLD OF PROPERTY

Buying and selling is still in full swing – with a few adjustments

WE CAN all agree that the world looks a little different today from how it did a month or even a week ago. With ever-increasing restrictions, people are minimising contact and venturing out of their home only if it’s absolutely necessary.

So, where does that leave us in property – which is a high customer-contact industry?

Well, for once, it might be a good thing we don’t have the kind of market they’re used to in Sydney or Melbourne – I’ve never heard of 100 people at an open home in Cairns, so transitioning from open homes to byappointment private inspections should be manageable for us.

While we may be permitted to still have private inspections, it’s imperative as agents, sellers and prospective buyers that we play our part in working within the rapidly evolving health guidelines around COVID-19 so we all stay healthy while buying and selling property.

As a first point, sellers should be in regular contact with their agents about their own health and that of their family when it comes to conducting inspections. Under self-isolation or feeling under the weather? If so, now isn’t the time to have an agent nor prospective buyers walking through your home. Rest up and reassess in 14 days or as otherwise advised by the Department of Health.

Before private inspections, buyers should expect to be asked whether or not they’ve been well or are showing any possible symptoms of COVID-19 before an agent confirms a viewing.

In the hopes of reducing the amount of inperson contact, agents should also ensure that only the most serious buyers are brought through homes.

It’s not all doom and gloom if you’re in self isolation, as agents are implementing strategies for buyers to peruse properties from the comfort of their couch. Virtual tours can give a buyer 90 per cent of the experience of an inspection from the comfort of their desktop, tablet or phone.

Another option is a FaceTime or video inspection, with an agent providing a one-on-one guided tour (complete with real-time commentary!) through the property. These methods are already popular with interstate buyers.

Regardless of the world around us, people will still need to buy and sell property. Deals can still be done – we’ll just have to hold off on the all-tooAussie custom of signing off with a handshake.

Working with family can be a bit of a challenge. For Trystan Graham, director of landscaping firm Outdoor Establishments, there was more than one family member to consider.

While the site in leafy Turramurra belonged to his parents-in-law, he would be working alongside builder Nathan Jones, his brother-in-law, who had been commissioned to work on the house.

“The beauty of it is you get to interact differently with family members when it is a working relationship,” Trystan says.

Owners Christine and David wanted a garden that would fit in with their neighbours while offering an inviting environment for their children and grandchildren to enjoy.

“For the front, my mother-inlaw wanted a welcoming garden, symmetrical and classic with plants like gardenia, viburnum and agapanthus,” Trystan says.