Keys to a Safer Showing Understanding
Safer Showing Understanding
Offered by Jerry Waletzko, Crary Real Estate
5-8-20
“… the risks of underreaction are so much more catastrophic than the risks of overreaction.”
Muireann Ní Chrónín, a consultant respiratory pediatrician at Cork University Hospital in VOX 4-9-20
Below is a suggested master list of voluntary opt-in safer disease control behaviors from which the Parties -a Seller, a Buyer, and a showing REALTOR - willfully choose, or not choose, the safer contact related Options they are comfortable performing, share them with each other, and hopefully come to an accord in a Safer Showing contact during the time of this coronavirus pandemic.
A. It is understood the prospective buyer has made every effort to conduct the process of buying a home as “virtually” as possible before a Safer Showing takes place.
B. The Safer Showing Options is a mutual voluntary opt-in process that can be initiated either by a Seller, Buyer, and even a showing REALTOR wanting to show a property thru a Listing REALTOR – all commonly referred to as the Parties or individually as the Party.
C. The process offered with the Options listed can be viewed as a good faith negotiation for a Safer Showing.
D. No one is forcing anybody to agree with any of the al a cart measures suggested. If any party sees the Safer Showing Options offered by any other Parties and they do not wish to participate that is their choice. They can let the listing or showing REALTOR know and that will be conveyed to the other Parties. There is always a chance something could be worked out.
E. Any Party to a showing can start the process by checking the Safer Showing Options they are willing to offer to be safer about a showing and not answering the options they won’t offer - along with comments and any additional safer options.
F. Instead of directly filling out the checklist a Party to a Safer Showing contact can simply use it as a guide to restate or modify, in their own words, the safety measures they are willing to take.
G. This is an effort to raise awareness of safer disease control behaviors. All Parties can respond how they wish to using the Safer Showing Options and in turn how they view the responses from other Parties: There may be discrepancies when comparing the Safer Showing measures offered by all the Parties. Each Party decides for their own safety if any disparity is acceptable in proceeding with a showing or not.
H. A Seller understands there may be some Buyers who refuse to participate in any version of Safer Showing Options, or it may unfold that proposed Safer Showing measures offered are not comfortable to a Party. Ultimately, they may choose to accept the risk of losing that buyer but trade that for safety.
I. Prospective Buyers understand they may miss out on a house if a seller refuses to participate in any version of Safer Showing Options, or it may unfold that proposed Safer Showing measures are not comfortable to a Party. Ultimately, they may choose to accept the risk of losing that house but would rather be safe.
J. Everyone is free to change their minds on the initially offered Safer Showing Options for a showing to occur when they have had a chance to review what another Party introduces with their customized list of Options to consider, or even the remake, offered.
K. It is understood there is a covid-19 risk in having contact in any showing of a home and there is still risk of covid-19 infection even when the Safer Showing Options are considered.
L. All parties to the Safer Showing process understand and accept that the more Options not addressed for Safety increases the potential risk for infection and spread of coronavirus.
M. All Parties who use any version of these Safer Showing Options are on the honor system and good faith is assumed by their participation in this process to the best of their abilities.
N. By no means are the Safer Showing Options a complete list or a guarantee of safety. Any Party using these options is operating in good faith and no one is held liable if they become sick.
O. Whoever is checking each box as the Seller, Buyer, or showing REALTOR means you are speaking with one voice for everybody in your respective household referred collectively as I/me. I.e., if you check the box to take temperature, everybody in the household will have their temperatures taken as stated below.
P. The seller may initially offer the Safer Showing Options they choose as an attached “Document” to their MLS listing. It can take the form of the actual Safer Showing Option checklist or simply restate, in their own words, the safety measures they are willing to take.
Q. A contact can also be initiated by a showing Realtor who downloads the Safer Showing Options offered by a seller in a listing, or initiate a Safer Showing offer on behalf of a Buyer and themselves to a listing REALTOR representing a Seller.
R. A contact can also be initiated by a prospective Buyer who reaches out to a showing REALTOR with their desire to have a Safer Showing and a Safer Showing Option checklist in hand or simply restate, in their own words, the safety measures they are willing to take.
S. The checklist of Safer Showing Options is available for download at www.grandforkshomes.net/showing-options.
T. The coronavirus related Safer Showing Health Survey is available at www.grandforkshomes.net/health-survey .
U. There are two steps to the process of achieving a Safer Showing: Step One is the resolution of all the Safer Showing Options to the mutual satisfaction of all Parties involved in the contact. Step Two has two parts; the implementation of the mutually consented accords for a Safer Showing on the day before a showing and the implementation of the agreed upon Options on the day of the showing.
V. In Step One the listing REALTOR and the showing REALTOR - if different, will review together and share to all involved the submitted Safer Showing Options from all Parties, plus any Activity History, and/or Health Survey at least the day before a showing.
W. Also, in Step One the listing and showing REALTORs will mediate the process of the submitted Safer Showing proposals, or remakes, from all Parties and will work to resolve as many differences and concerns as possible to mutually come to an accord where everyone involved feels safer about a showing.
X. If a Party to a Safer Showing becomes infected or think they may have become infected with covid-19 in the next twenty-one days they will get tested. If they test positive, they promise to share the names of the other Parties to the Safer Showing with Grand Forks County Health Department and/or the ND Health Department, or their emissaries for contact tracing.
Y. Once a mutual consensus over the Options for a Safer Showing is achieved by all the Parties the showing process can unfold with implementation of the agreed upon behaviors the day before and the day of a showing.
Z. The Safer Showing Options can be adapted to a vacant property.
AA. No children or anyone else not a Party to this process is allowed at the showing unless all Parties agree otherwise the day before a showing.
BB. It is understood and accepted that the effort of my Safer Showing Understanding, the Safer Showing Options, and the Coronavirus Health Related Survey are based on common sense as recommended by the CDC and other scientific sources but these caveats apply:
I am not a scientist.
The aforementioned effort is by no means complete.
My effort is not a guaranteed of safety in the showing of a home.
Anyone using these options is operating in good faith and everyone proceeds at their own risk and does not hold any Party involved liable including; me, the listing agent who may not be a Party to the actual showing, and the real estate companies associated with the process.
In providing this process I am trying to take to heart and apply to the real estate point of contact in the showing of a home what Dr Fauci recently said on April 23, 2020 on the Fox News show The Ingraham Angle: “The degree of efficiency of transmissibility of this (coronavirus) is really unprecedented in anything I’ve seen. It’s an extraordinarily efficient virus in transmitting from one person to another.”.
If the process outlined in this Understanding can work for you as you try to proceed in a safer manner to sell or buy a home please give me a call.
Sincerely,
Jerry Waletzko
Your Hometown Real Estate Agent since 1978!
701-746-4663
701-SHO-HOME
Crary Real Estate