Realtor open houses return under Step 3 reopening

For the first time in months, realtors in Ottawa and across Ontario will be permitted to host open houses starting on Friday, though they will not resemble the unstructured, doors wide-open affairs seen before the pandemic.

The move comes as Ontario enters Step 3 of the provincial government's reopening plan, which will also allow the return of indoor dining, gyms and other facilities.

For open houses, masks will still be mandatory and while the Step 3 indoor capacity limit is set at 50 people, this is only if physical distancing can be maintained, according to the Real Estate Council of Ontario, the provincial regulator of the real estate profession.

RECO is encouraging realtors to set up appointments for showings, ask COVID screening questions to prospective buyers before entering properties, limit the number of people inside at one time, collect information for contact tracing and regularly disinfect surfaces, among other measures.

Kendall Robbins of Keller Williams Integrity Realty said open houses hosted by her colleagues will abide by the RECO recommendations, with only one group at a time provided access to the home. Drop-ins will be welcomed, though they will need to wait outside if another group is already touring the house.

“It's a little bit the same as what we've been doing — it's always been like that for showings, except now, it's like having 10 back-to-backs showing the same thing,” he said.

Fellow Keller Williams sales representative Joe Shipanock said the return of open houses comes at a fortuitous time with sales activity beginning to slow after months of sizzling growth and soaring prices.

“Sometimes people are just driving by the neighbourhood that they love and they see an open house and they walk in and they're like, `I wasn't thinking about selling, but this is something I can do and I want to do.' So it creates a lot of business,” he said of open houses.

Shipanock said waning demand has happened after months of record sales, and is partly attributed to the annual summer slowdown and changes to the federal mortgage stress test that make it harder to qualify for cooling home sales.

The Ottawa Real Estate Board website says there are at least 16 open houses scheduled this week.

Despite continuing public health restrictions, Robbins said it's starting to feel like things are returning normal in a COVID world. And while traditional open houses may never return, Robbins said that might be for the best.

“It was always difficult to keep an eye on everybody, for the sellers' protection and their items and that kind of thing,” Robbins said of pre-pandemic open houses. “This might be the new norm.”