COVID-19 cases are surging by the day, the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) is urging its members to stop hosting open houses again, and with an immediate effect.
The president of the OREA, Sean Morrison said that it was in fact, the realtors who had requested the province to stop allowing open houses during the first wave of the pandemic in April. He was quoted saying, “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic I have been incredibly proud of the leadership shown by Ontario realtors and real estate boards across the province in protecting the health and safety of our communities and clients.” He was also proud that their association was the first to recommend a stop to all in-person businesses as well as open houses, something that the province eventually put into a law as part of the State of Emergency.
Open houses were allowed to resume in the month of July when areas across the province moved to Stage 3 of the reopening plan of the government. But as the country is moving into its second wave of the pandemic, OREA, as an association is asking the government to ban open houses across the province.
And even though there aren’t any restrictions in place regarding open-houses, OREA is asking its about 79,000 members to hold off on the open houses. Morrison also said that with cases rising in the province, we need to make consistent efforts to limit physical interactions and use virtual tools as much as possible.
“As trusted advisors, realtors should be using virtual tools first and advising clients to use virtual open houses, virtual showings or in-person safe showings to show and view properties.”