THOUGHTS ON OPEN HOUSES IN THE AGE OF COVID

This isn’t going to be the usual sort of opinion piece. It’s really just me shaking me head.

Most of Ontario heads into Stage 3 of its re-opening this Friday. Which means that real estate open houses are on the cards again. Come one, come all, apparently. Well in our opinion this is a really dumb move, and a luxury we can afford to live without. 

Allowing hordes of people to traipse through your house, opening cupboards and doors, running a hand along the back of your couch, opening your fridge to see if you’re actually living there, keeping their shoes on and pulling down their mask as soon as they’re out of sight, not putting their names on the registry, hanging out in a crowded space not much bigger than a gym changing room, checking themselves so closely in your bathroom mirror that their breath fogs up the glass, seems to us a recipe for disaster.

Because trust us, there is no way to properly police an open house. Will there be someone at the door checking for masks? Checking that everyone use the hand sanitizer? Asking to see some ID and properly recording that information, so that if someone comes down sick we can trace all those contacts? Of course there won’t. These events will be hosted mostly by single agents, some of whom haven’t made a dime since March. These are desperate times. 

And even if we were able to manage all those things - to be in five or six places at once, essentially - is it smart to fill up a house with strangers? Of course not. There is increasing evidence that the virus can linger in the air in poorly ventilated indoor spaces. There really ought to be a picture of an open house next to those reports.

In other words, whoever decided this part of the re-opening strategy was okay, clearly hasn’t sold real estate, or been to an open house, or talked carefully to someone who does have that expertise. This is not the same as sitting for lunch at beautiful Northside for brunch, where your every move has been anticipated, every surface regularly sanitized. The open house you visit after lunch on Sunday has not been checked by the health unit. Trust me, Kieran Moore is not doing a circuit of Bayridge side-splits with his clipboard this weekend.

I’d also note (before I’m called out by my colleagues for hurting the real estate business further, at what’s already a difficult time) that we’re doing just fine without this added layer of risk. House sales in Kingston are, remarkably, up over this time last year. More of us are using high quality video tours to show off our listings, and even virtual open houses. Gone are the days when an iPhone photo of a wet towel over the back of a chair was considered an acceptable shot of the second bathroom. Most of us have got better at what we do, we’ve adapted, and the simple truth is, we just don’t need to open houses up on weekends to an exhausted, bored general public.

There will still be those who scream that we run these things because they’ll increase interest in your house, and possibly generate an offer or two. Well sure. It happens. Though not so much as you might think, and especially not now, given all the new technology we’re bringing to the table. And let’s not forget that at least half the reason for doing an open house is to provide an opportunity for your realtor to network, and to drum up new business, new listings. Right now we have a hard time believing that your house, and your family, should be used that way.