July President’s Message
Welcome to Phase 4!
As I write this article the Capital Region Real Estate industry has been back open for a few weeks and agents are trying to navigate the new guidelines for assisting buyers and sellers with their real estate needs.
As we are learning, things have certainly changed in how we do business. We now must utilize proper PPE’s. We can no longer have clients ride with us to showings, open houses are now being conducted more like a regular showing than an open house with only 1 party allowed inside the building at a time. I find the hardest change for me, is no longer being able to give a good old fashion handshake or seeing a person’s facial expression. I think everyone gets the picture so let’s move on to some happier news!
We’re now able to get that much-needed haircut and we can enjoy limited dining out with family and friends!
As we’ve all been seeing, the Capital Region market is extremely hot. The median sales price has been on the rise and capital region agents conducted almost 8,000 showings in the first 2 weeks of June. WOW!! Our inventory is still limited but days on market in some areas are in the single digits! Now we just have to get our sellers to realize there hasn’t been a better time to sell their home faster or for a better price than prior to 2008.
GCAR is still moving forward with the renovation and expansion of our current building. Now that we have entered Phase 4, hopefully, our plans will move ahead smoothly.
I would like to remind brokers and agents that New York State has incorporated new Fair Housing Requirements. We now have to display a link to the NYS Fair Housing Notice on our websites and it has to be above the fold. We are also required to give a new Fair Housing Disclosure to buyers and sellers at first substantive contact just like we do with the NYS Agency Disclosure form.
As I close this out, I would like to thank all of the committees for their hard work and support of our association and members. Here are some highlights from some of our committees. The Professional Standards and Grievance Committees have been conducting hearings via Zoom. The Education Committee rallied together to transition CE classes to Zoom and launched a webinar series to keep members engaged will on pause. The Community Relations Committee has been working overtime researching organizations that needed some assistance during the pandemic and assisting local food pantries to collect and distribute supplies.
Stay Safe and Stay Healthy.
