How COVID-19 Is Affecting Real Estate

We hope you and your loved ones are keeping well.
As the COVID-19 situation continues to unfold nationwide, federal and state governments are taking steps to address the economic shutdown. This includes the decision on Saturday to add residential and commercial real estate services to the list of “essential” industries. Agents and most of the industry’s other service providers are now exempt from local and statewide social distancing orders.
However, Mosaik Real Estate continues to take the CDC’s guidance very seriously, and we are committed to doing our best to minimize exposure to the virus for our clients, ourselves, and the general public. It’s on us to adapt our way of working to meet the challenges of this moment. 

Here are three ways in which COVID-19 is changing the real estate game for homeowners, buyers, and sellers:

• Deferment of Mortgage Payments

A number of large banks are offering temporary deferment of mortgage payments to homeowners affected by the crisis. You can read a list of those banks here, and we encourage anyone experiencing loss of income to get in touch with their loan provider and explore their options. However, some agreements require full repayment of the total deferred amount at the end of the deferment period. This arrangement can put already cash-strapped families under further financial strain.

• Coronavirus Addendum

The California Association of Realtors has created a Coronavirus Addendum to protect homebuyers (as well as sellers) from unforeseen changes to their finances. If, for example, a buyer loses their job during a transaction, the Close of Escrow may be postponed and/or the sale can be cancelled without loss of deposit. This protection encourages buyer activity at an otherwise uncertain time. 

• Virtual Touring

Despite now being able to host them, we have decided that traditional open houses and in-person showings are unnecessarily risky at this time. Instead, we have decided to host virtual tours using Zoom. For more information and to tour our newest listing, check out onemissionbay102.com! We hope you’ll join us on Saturday or Sunday.

 
While this is an uncertain time for most of us, we want to ensure homeowners, buyers, and sellers have access to all the information they need to ride out this storm. So please get in touch with any questions — we would love to hear from you. And stay safe!