Read the blog below:
Anthony: Hey everybody here to talk to you and give you an update. I’m in my home office, as you can see a little bit of a different background, trying to abide by what the governor has asked us to. I want to give everybody a chance to get on. I’m going to be talking about all kinds of things like where we’re at in dealing with this, with the corona. Where we’re at as far as, are we essential? Are we not? Some legal bills that are trying to get passed at the Massachusetts State House and there’s other states that have talked about it. Just a log jam as a whole. I plan to go over everything with you for the next 20 or so minutes and then take questions.
I can see that people are tuning in. Those that are tuning in, can you please confirm that you can hear me? I want to make sure of that. I haven’t done this at my home yet. Hi, Minaina. Hi Eve. Hello, Beth. Katie, Sarah, I want to say hello to you guys. I want to go through a whole bunch of real estate updates. What I’m going to do is I’m going to jump in because I want to– I’m going to do a little bit of review first. Number one, we’re obviously now at neck deep. You guys saw some of my videos last week I said that we were– Hey, rich, you can hear me good? I’m glad to hear that my friend.
Last week I had said that we were waist-deep in Corona. Now we’re neck deep. Our governor came out on Monday here in Massachusetts and issued a basically a stay at home advisory. I want to point out the difference. Many of you, I know we had many realtors watching saw my Lamacchia realty updates on the live page on Facebook on Monday. Many of you saw me explain that it’s a stay at home advisory, but it is an order for businesses that are nonessential to stay closed.
We as a company as example closed our branch offices. We only have like accounting people working to make sure people get paid and money is going where they need to but even they are doing most of their work from home. This is an interesting time that we’re in my friends. It’s a very interesting time and it’s giving me some flashbacks in some ways of we dealt with a lot of things changing all of a sudden, banks going under, things like that but guess what?
We pulled through. As a society, we pulled through. The American real estate market pulled through. We went having financial trouble to begin with as a market in the real estate business. 911 gives me flashbacks of that. Thank God that hasn’t happened but Corona could, unfortunately, end as many lives which is absolutely horrible. I want to tell you how I see similarities. When I think of 911, I was working in my dad’s business and three weeks the phone didn’t ring. When I say it didn’t ring, I mean it didn’t ring. We didn’t get nothing.
I talked to a broker-owner of a very large, very prestigious, impressive company in New York two weeks ago when I was in Vegas. She said after 911 it really didn’t pick up till January. Another realtor friend jack Etheridge told me the same thing. We are lucky that this is happening right now. I’m telling you guys, I can’t emphasize it enough if this will fall, buyers and sellers are going to be like, “I’m out.” Because we’re in the time of year that the market is the most strong, we’re getting away with it a little bit.
There’s still a lot of demand out there. Take last week, for example, I’m not going to go over the stats as deeply as I did on Monday on the Lamacchia realty page when I’m talking more to consumers, but now I’m talking to my realtor friends. What I want to tell you is last week, homes listed were only down a little bit, homes pending only down a little bit. Homes sold only down a little bit.
This week, that’s going to change. That’s going to change a lot. Now, we’re watching inventory of homes for sale twice a day, and yesterday, I’m going to read you the stats. We checked it a lot yesterday. Yesterday morning we were at about 11,000 or on Monday 11,500 Homes for sale. We’re now down to 10,961 because since the governor did that people are pulling the homes off the market. I will tell you a secret. A real secret on here. I think our friends at MLS are going to come up with something that waives that requirement that you have to take your home off the market if you can’t show it.
We’re in a state of emergency, the governor has asked people to stay home. Guess what guys? As realtors, we should abide. We should abide. We to go a little different. Now they’ve asked us not to. I know how this rolls me right into my next topic we’re about fighting. Guys, when I see realtors arguing on Facebook, it makes me want to scream. I hear realtors saying, he don’t want to be looked down upon, some people think we’re used Car salesmen.
I got news for you if you’re on Facebook torching each other because a realtor is out doing a final walk-through or a realtor is out meeting with a client that absolutely has to sell or absolutely has to buy and you’re on Facebook saying, “I don’t show homes now, I don’t do it.” Okay, you want a medal? We’ll send you a medal in the mail. You have your reasons for doing what you’re doing, they have their reasons to do what they’re doing. There might be a reason, there might be a buyer, there might be a seller, there might be someone in financial stress that needs to sell, needs to buy. Don’t forget people’s circumstances, but if we can help it, I think we should.
My recommendation for realtors here in Massachusetts is let’s be professional. Let’s be good citizens. Let’s generally listen to what our governor is telling us. He has made it very clear they would like people to stay home. Even though the Republicans and Democrats are arguing like fools on Capitol Hill for the last four days, the one thing they seem to agree on is we need to stay in and we need to be careful. If they’re saying that then that shows that this is pretty serious. I know the last two days has been more talk about, we’re not going to have people in forever. We got to let our society get back. Sorry, I don’t have hair like you, buddy. All right.
We got to get society to get back to being busy and things like that. We’re not a society meant to stay indoors, I agree but obviously we need to do it for at least another week and in Massachusetts, likely a little bit longer. My stance on this is we should generally comply wherever possible, put off showings, put off listing homes if you can. I talked about this on NBC last night, NBC 10, I was on. I actually haven’t even seen the segment other than a video an agent sent. I did see that I got some of that talk in there. If we can help it, I think that we should.
I’m looking at my talking points here. You know what, let me move them over to this screen so I can stop getting distracted by comments. Realtors, again, let’s not fight, let’s be professionals, let’s support one another, let’s remember that people have reasons. Everybody has different wants and needs. Now this argument about are we essential or not? I’ve heard from so many realtor friends. I’ll tell you after the governor made that announcement on Monday, I heard from more realtor friends in four hours than I did the previous two days. It was are we essential, aren’t we essential? If you read the bill and I talked about this realtor page on Monday.
If you read the bill, and you read the essential list, I don’t take it as we’re allowed. The mass Association of Realtors put a great video out last night. I’m sorry, not video an email out last night. They talked about how, let me read the wording, however, realtors may continue to conduct business remotely within the guidelines of public health and safety. That’s good advice, guys. We got to follow the rules here. The state has developed new guidelines, they’ve created an essential list.
Folks that are in accounting, folks that are involved in a financial transaction, my interpretation is if someone’s closing today at 3:00 buyers adamant they want to do a walk-through to make sure the house is in good shape, my vote is okay, as long as everybody buyer, seller realtors feel safe in having them do that, fine. That would be, in my eyes, something that probably should be okay. I had another realtor ask, “I have a vacant listing and there’s a buyer that wants to see it.” I was like, “Okay, well if the buyer feels safe, the seller feels safe.”
Generally speaking, my recommendation is that we abide by what the governor asked which is not to be showing homes if we can avoid it, not to be, indefinitely not doing open houses. Those things are out the window. Honestly, when we get back to things I do still personally feel strong that block showings in controlling the traffic is better than random private showings at all different times of the day. I’m not backing down from that. That’s my opinion.
I know that sellers come home from whole afternoon the showing even after every 15 minutes, a seller comes home from that and thoroughly cleans their home. When a seller has random showings at all times a day, they don’t come home and every time and clean the home as extensively. I wanted to mention that to you guys. That’s my interpretation of essential or not look for that Maher email. It was great. They put the governor’s press release in it. They put in the executive order. They put in their list of essential businesses.
I know that the mass Association of Realtors right now is also fighting to have us be deemed essential. My opinion that’s a little bit of an uphill battle. I’m hoping that they at least make parts of the business essential so that people can move on. I will tell you this, if this thing goes longer than two weeks, they’re going to have to because you cannot completely stop people from being able to buy and sell homes. It’ll destroy some people’s lives so that we have going for us as realtors, but it’ll be interesting to see if the governor does add us to that list.
Interesting to note, Connecticut does say that the business of real estate and property management is essential. Now, sorry, I’m taking drinks while I’m talking to you, just getting all fired up. Let me think about this. Another thing that I want to talk to you guys about, it’s a bit controversial and I have talked to some lawyer friends many who are for it and I’ve talked to a couple of good friends that I respect who are against it.
There is a bill right now that is, I’ve heard on the governor’s desk, I mean I don’t know about his desk but that’s the term they used that basically says that during the state of emergency he should allow for virtual closings. Now, don’t get mixed up, that doesn’t mean e-filing closings, that’s already allowed, that’s all set. What they’re talking about is allowing virtual notaries. I think this should be approved.
The bill in its current form says that attorneys will be able to watch just like this watch someone sign their deed, their whatever. The attorney would handle that, notarize it. The buyer or seller has to get that document to the attorney. The attorney gets back on the Zoom or go to web or whatever virtually with the buyer and says, “Did you sign this?” “Yes, I did.” ” Okay.” Then the attorney is free to file it at the statehouse
Now, Real Estate Bar Association is now for this bill, the probate counselor or whatever of attorneys, therefore, this bill. I am speaking in favor of this bill and I know I’ve got attorney funds watching right now, I can think of two that disagree. I think the folks that are sole practitioners that aren’t as connected to how this is being done are a little more fearful of the potential that their whole business turns into this. I’m with you in the respect that I don’t think it should. I absolutely do not think that virtual notaries should be allowed long-term, there’s more room there for fraud, but under the current set of circumstances with the state of emergency, I do believe that they should be allowed.
I think that all attorneys should get on board with that and I recommend that all realtors get on board with that. Guys, if these two weeks turns into three, four or five, it’s a problem. Not to mention, do we really want our attorney friends– Do we really want our buyer and seller clients going to closings right now if it’s not necessary? I ve heard of attorneys going in with hazmat masks, I’m not joking, gloves, buyers and sellers walking in with their hands like this like they’re doing surgery, passing things across the table with gloves on. If we can avoid that, right? If we can avoid that and have them just do it virtually until the state of emergency is over to me that makes sense.
I’m speaking in favor of it and those who disagree, you’re entitled to disagreeing but that’s my opinion. Another thing I want to mention and then I am going to take questions my friend, so if you want to start submitting questions, go ahead and start putting comments. Ryan Miranda in Albany, New York. Ryan is a personal friend. MLS is going to start adjusting days on market to account for the shutdown. So far, our MLS has decided against that and I agree but I am really happy that they are likely hint hint going to be and again this isn’t final but I think they’re going to relax the rule about temporarily withdrawing.
We don’t want to see our inventory go on the toilet unnecessarily. By ourselves, we should be able to leave their product on the shelf for two weeks while buyers are cooped up so the buyers can look at the homes.
The other thing I want to talk about, we’re going to put it in the comments and I asked some of my marketing folks who are watching please do it. We put out an extensive blog on Monday or Sunday called coronavirus in the real estate log jam. This blog talks about all the delays that we expect, why we expect the delays and how buyers and sellers can avoid them. Now, I know I have several friends from other companies watching right now, several other realtors watching right now. My recommendation to you is use the blog. It’s third party information. If you’re not a part of our company, it will maybe even carry more weight and get the seller or buyer to do what you’re telling them.
We all know the buyers and sellers, some of them you tell them till they’re blue on the face. We recommend these three attorneys and then they go hire another one, they hire someone who’s not a real estate attorney or you recommend these two mortgage brokers and they go hire someone else. This is more important time than ever to make sure that your clients are working with the vendors that you approve that you know are good. This is more important than ever. I just thought– I can’t even stay sitting I’m just too hyper to do that.
We just had an all company meeting live in our group and I said, “Guys, I have been telling you in training for three years la-la land.” Let me it back. It’s been la-la land for three years. Everything you lose sells, oh my God, you’re a hero, you’re the greatest realtor in the world. Well, guess what guys? That’s over, that’s over. La-la land is done, game over. Now it’s time to sharpen skills, be the best realtor you can be, make sure you have your scripts down, make sure you can explain things properly to sellers, make sure you can guide them properly.
Also, recommendation, now I’m going to all different directions. Do not be selling people in the next couple of weeks at least, this is a time for compassion, it’s a time for being there for your clients. Do not try to talk someone into buying a home. If someone’s losing their job, don’t be trying to talk them into staying in a deal and then they can lose their deposit in this– crazy. We need to be there for the clients right now. Same thing with sellers. A seller is in no worse position if they wait two or three weeks to list their home, they’re not.
Normally, I would never say that in a normal Spring. We all know as realtors know, the earlier in the year sales list, the better off they are because inventory is lower. That’s better for sellers. Over the last week, we saw about a 25%, 30% reduction in buyer demand. This next week because they did this on a government level here in Massachusetts, we’re going to see that go down more. That group of buyers, they’re going to come roaring back, not all of them, there’s going to be some layoffs.
I will tell you even though the stimulus bill is out and everybody’s happy there was that much help and it’s for small business. They’re not going to help small businesses, so I think that we are going to see layoffs and unemployment go higher than we could have if they stuck with the original bill that was talked about over the weekend but it is what it is. We have to deal with it. I still feel very strongly that when we can get back to somewhat of a normal life, consumers will be back out there, it will be busy again. Will it be the Spring it could have been? No, absolutely not, it will not.
40 offers on your listing is now going to be 18, 10 offers on your listing is now going to be maybe three. Three offers on a listing might be no multiple offers now, do you follow what I’m saying? Less demand is going to be noticeable. Let me check my list and make sure I didn’t forget anything. That blog that we put out, we’re going to post it in the comments, you guys can take it and use it all you want or at least read it, it’ll really help you.
Why don’t I switch to questions? I have other thoughts to share but let me jump into questions for a little while. Okay, here’s Rich Vestine. Agent friends, your attorneys have gotten an electronic notarization bill up at the statehouse so we can close virtually, please email your state reps in support of the Act relative to remote memorization during COVID-19 state of emergency.
Rich is backing up exactly what I just talked about. This is during state of emergency. Rich and his office in Nick Legers and Legers and Associates and all these other law firms, they are not proposing for this to be done all the time, they are proposing for it to be done during the state of emergency and I’m telling you, we should do this and we should get it done as soon as possible.
What happens if we go into a shelter in place order that you can’t leave your house? Imagine that. Then nothing will close. We need to get in front of this and getting in front of it actually would have been getting it done a week ago but you guys need to pressure lawmakers. My recommendation is we get that passed. Got a lot of good friends on here from all over the country I can see.
Wayatt Wilson, great mortgage broker on team. He says, “I closed on my right refinance, Sam. I wore my masking gloves as did the attorney. Would be nice to have a virtual notary.” Well, I should have just read that aloud in the beginning. Thank you, Lindsey, for posting the blog. Okay, Norris Lindsay asking a question. Norris, I think you’re up in Michigan, my friend I hope you’re well. He’s asking about a buyer pre-approval expiring. When should you get it updated? Well, I would always get a buyer pre-approval updated as soon as possible but you are going to see buyers bear out of buying. Hopefully, most of them will be temporary but these layoffs are going to make it longer.
Let’s see, Nicole great realtor out in the western market. Are you concerned that deals under contract currently will be falling through because banks will decide to stop lending especially because a lot of people losing jobs? Okay, that’s a two-part question. Am I concerned that a lot of deals will fall apart? Yes, I absolutely am. We’re seeing it but we’re not seeing a ton. I don’t know if I should say this publicly but I will. We’re seeing about an 8% fall off at our company in the last two weeks, we’re tracking it very closely. 8% is not that bad. AA was 60%. That’s part one of your question.
Part Two, do I think banks will stop lending? Absolutely, positively not. We are not in danger of that. In addition, I will tell you the reason I feel so strongly about that. Notice how the banks are acting. I see signs of how it was in ’08, but it’s not the same. The government, fortunately, knows the playbook. For those of you that are geeks like me that have read Henry Paulson’s book, Nick Gardner’s book, George W Bush’s book, Ben Bernanke, they wrote all about the financial crisis last time.
One of the biggest things that Geitner pointed out as he said, “It took us too damn long to get banks to do things.” Guys, this go-round, banks are already doing things. The government’s already doing things. Even though I’m not thrilled with the stimulus bill, because I think it incentivizes business owners to just lay people off, they’ve done a lot in the mortgage arena already. They’ve bought a ton of mortgage-backed securities. They’re definitely hitting the accelerator hard, so that’s good. Nicola Teller, I hope that answers your question. Definitely be aware of deals falling through, but I don’t think it will be because banks pull out.
I will tell you something. Jumbos are tough right now. Rates on those who have gone up. Banks are getting a little nervous on Jumbos. Be careful for those of you who are in the higher end.
Cheryl. I know Cheryl. Cheryl is up in the Market, great realtor. What have you ever deal that will need a license to sell to close in progress? The courts are closed. Any word on what may be happening? As of right now, Cheryl, I believe the courts are closed till April 21st. Let’s all hope that they open back up then. I don’t think that we can do anything in those type of scenarios at this time. I imagine the buyer association is working like crazy.
At the Mass Association of Realtors, they’re working 20 hours a day right now. National Association of Realtors, I don’t even think they’re sleeping. I was trading emails and on the phone with folks in DC at NAR at 5:30 this morning, dissecting this bill to see what came out of it. That’s a problem. Cheryl, here’s my advice to you. Extensions. I mentioned this last week, extensions are your friends. Remember what I talked to you guys about a week and, sorry, I’m trying to remember looking at the camera, I said, how buyers’ agents and agents, they just started coming together. “Hey, what do you need?” “You buy me more time.” “All right, get more time.”
Now, obviously, you’re not going to get taken advantage of. If you’re a listing agent and the people keep asking for extensions endlessly, at some point you got to say, “Hey, see you later. Get a new client, a new buyer.” Right now is a time to just buy time. Get people to stay together a couple of weeks, the buyer can figure out their job, you can look into a probate issue, how can you solve that? The problem that I see, Cheryl, is when the damn courts opened back up, they’re going to be backed up as could be. Let’s hope they open up sooner.
Joanna Shilanski, another great realtor, Burlington Market, she says, she agrees with me. I don’t know on what, but you’re awesome, Joanna. Rich Rossi. See Rich, I know you’d agree with me. You have the same attitude I do. This is not a time to be selling realtor friends. I’ll give more advice. I gave this advice in our company group two weeks ago or a week and a half ago, but I don’t mind saying that publicly guys, us realtors, we love talking on Facebook, offer accepted. I would take that down a notch right now.
People are not feeling good. People are worried about their jobs. I don’t know if I would be bragging. I’ll tell you, I know I wouldn’t be bragging right now, so I would be careful. Rich, no problem. You deserve the shout out. Thank you Caroline. That’s sweet. Christine, Sarah Freeney from Albany, she just brought up a good point. She said, be sure your buyers have their rates locked in and are entitled to having conversations of– She got a little deeper.
Bottom line, rates are done, literally, this is rates, here we go. Beginning of the coronavirus, a week later back up, down, up, down. Right now we’re at 3.3 so if you’re getting your buyer locked, tell them to lock, tell them– one thing I said 15 minutes ago, this is the time to tell your buyers and your sellers, they get with the people that you recommend because you know the people you recommend are good. Now I’ve got to be careful, I’m on a public forum here. Hopefully one of my kids doesn’t come upstairs. I’m on a public forum here.
Obviously you need to recommend a few people and blah, blah, blah. You really want to explain to your clients why it’s necessary that they work with people who they should be working with for mortgages, for attorneys, title companies, those things for other States. I know you business in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, there’s title companies in New York. You definitely want to make sure to be really explaining to them the why and why they should be working with people that you recommend and look at that blog that Lindsey Provisor posted.
Anthony. Steven Andrew, asks what would you recommend for agents that are new in the field to be doing at this time? I’ll tell you the same thing, I’ll tell experienced agents, Steven, be in touch with people, check in with people, but it’s not, “Hey, you ready to buy?” I want to tell you guys a story. We’ve got a company we were talking to about doing some business.
This guy reached out to me a week ago. I ended up having to cancel the call. I texted him yesterday. I said, “I can talk in 10 minutes.” I called him in 10 minutes. I left a message. I said, “Hey, look right now I got too many things to worry about with my own company to be worrying about bringing some new product and for our agents.” I said, “Let’s talk in three weeks.”
The guy called me back. He texted me back. Literally, I like to read his damn text. “Hey, we’ve got some really good deals.” I’m like, “Dude, are you for real? I’m worried about 47 employees with 300 agents. We train customers across the country. I am not concerned about some fancy new shiny object right now.” Remember that as new agents, you know, don’t be out selling. This is the time to check in with people, make sure they’re doing okay. What about checking in with fellow agents? That’s what I plan to do tomorrow on Thursday. Something you want to hear or might hear from me? How are you doing? What’s going on? How do you make it out being home? Do you have questions? Can I help you?
Right now be there for them. Also as a new agent, I do want to tell you we will get through this. I know I’ve mentioned this many times. We will get through this. This is not the end of society. I’ve heard some people, I’ve had realtor friends, some that are smart, very successful, make a lot of money, “Is this it?” I’m like, “Is what it?”Come on, we’re going to get through this, guys. This is America. I’ll bet on America every single time. I’ll bet on America, we’ll get through it. Are we going to hit bumps? Are we going to have a recession? There’s no question, but hopefully, the recession will be on this and we’ll come out of it.
I’ll tell you something else. The good realtors do better in the bad markets. I’m sorry, but they do. The people who have the skills, the people that know how to talk to people, that know how to guide them, they do better. For those of you that don’t want to work hard and aren’t really motivated to learn things and learn how to adjust to this market, then maybe you are the ones that should maybe give up. If you’re going to work hard and you’re dedicated and dedicated to your clients, you’ll get through this. There’s no question about it.
This is what I meant to say and then I went down this other road, over the last few years since we’ve had la la land market, sellers, especially view us as a dime a dozen. Well, I don’t care if I had that realtor or that one it doesn’t matter. My house is going to sell right away. They don’t realize that the more marketing you do, the more money they get and hiring one realtor over the other does make a difference. They don’t, they look at us like a dime a dozen. Well, those days are long over. Now they won’t because now the market will be a little bit slower.
I still think there’s so much demand that we’re going to have a reasonably strong market if they can turn things back on, but there’s no doubt it’ll be at a lower level than it was. Let’s see here. That’s good to hear, Joanna. Good question, Christine Sergeant, it is my understanding that both CLM smoke inspections can be waived until 90 days after closing, providing buyers agree. Can you tell me if this rule applies to home inspections as well?
Christine, two totally different subjects. Let’s start with the fire inspections. Here’s my recommendations for this. I talked to our company about this an hour ago. They are allowing buyers and sellers to sign an agreement to have buyers take on the responsibility of getting the smoke detectors right and getting a smoke inspection 90 days after closing or 90 days after the state of emergency, whichever comes first. I have a recommendation.
Let me, let me say this first. If you have ever deal under agreement and your seller or buyer’s like, “What do you mean? That wasn’t my responsibility. I’m not going to now pay for 10 detectors and get an inspection. If it was the seller, have the seller do it or I have the seller reimbursed me. Well, you’ll have to renegotiate. You’ll have to go to the seller and explain. Hopefully, the listing agent knows that that’s the case. They’re going to have to talk to their seller.
They’re going to have to get the information on how many detectors roughly, what’s it going to cost, give up a certain amount of money. Maybe it’s 300 bucks, maybe it’s $500 maybe it’s a thousand for massive homes and then credit that to the buyer in many cases. But I have a recommendation. We thought about this more in the last few days and a realtor friend of mine out in Worcester, who does an awesome job doing smoke detectors and he handles a ton of smoke detectors for many realtors out there.
His name is Francisco Diaz. He called me, I think it was Monday morning, and he says, “Hey, remember sellers should be selling a safe home. It’s better to recommend that sellers put the detectors in and that way, when they pass the home on to the buyer, the buyer is buying it with good smoke detectors.” Speaking of smoke detectors, see mine up there. I recommend telling sellers to still get the home in order, and then sell it and then let the buyer get the certificate later.
I will tell you the good news is the city of Boston, as of yesterday came out and said they’re doing smoke inspections. I think that they probably got worried about not being able to keep up in a week or two or three when we get back at it. I’m hoping we’ll still follow suit. We’ll see. As far as Home Inspections go, I have heard two different things. I’ve heard some companies say the home inspection is essential. I’ve heard some say it isn’t. I’m not going to get into that argument. I speak for realtors. I don’t speak for home inspectors but I’ll say this, same thing I said earlier, I think that us realtors should generally try to abide by what the governor is recommending.
We shouldn’t show properties. We obviously shouldn’t do open houses. But if there’s a one-off scenario, that is related to the transaction needing to get a final walk-through done so that the deal can close, needing to do something to get the deal to close, well maybe that’s an exception that you could consider but you ought to talk to your own broker or owners about that and see what direction your company is giving you. Hopefully, companies are giving people direction.
Kim McKean, awesome realtor out in the Clinton market. Kim said to reach out to listing agents on deals that there were multiple offers and if your buyers still interested. That’s smart Kim because for all we know for you know, they may have multiple offers, your buyer might have lost. Well, there might be out. If your buyer’s still in, reach back out to them. That’s smart.
Augustus is a personal friend of mine. She’s 100% right. Thank you for mentioning no bragging, we are essential to keep things moving, but right now we need to be cognizant of what others are going through. Here’s the truth, Sarah, when we said others that’s realtors that are going to be financially hurting. This is a widespread, at least a widespread punch in the jaw to everybody financially. Everybody’s going to feel this at least a little bit. I don’t care how much money you have. There’s going to be some financial hit to everybody in the next few months.
Kristen, if the screen froze just wait, it’ll reconnect. Okay, Patti, thanks for the support from New Jersey. Let’s see here. Brenda, I think a great way to give back to our buyers and sellers with regard to agents trying to prospect with all the worries for them is let them know that banks are giving auto loans and home loans two to three months reprieve. Good point, Brenda. I think Brenda’s out in the Springfield market. Very good points. I have talked to several people who are being proactive and calling their mortgage companies and saying, hey, I’m worried I’m not going to get paid blah, blah, blah, okay, pay in July, no hit on your credit.
I’ve heard the same thing from autos. I also heard it from some construction lenders that lend construction equipment. Definitely make sure that you are in touch with clients. Guys, this is a time to be there for your clients. Okay? For people just tuning in. You need to be there for your clients. You need to be recommending your clients to be proactive. For those of you that know me, that have known me a long time, you know from 2009 to 2012 there’s very few people in the entire country, very few companies in the entire country that conducted more short sales, certainly not in New England.
I’ll tell you something, probably the reason we grew so much in the last five, eight years as those clients all came back to us to buy new homes, they loved us. You help someone avoid foreclosure, they’ll love you for life. If the market gets real bad, we’ll be doing them again. I probably won’t go on television and scream about them like I did last time, but we will have a division that handles that to take care of our clients. Give clients direction on that.
Of course, my phone’s ringing off the hook now. Let’s see, lots of more questions. Francisco, I just talked about you, buddy Dan Mahoney. We’ll get through this people look to us and need comfort. 100% right, my friend. Well if a buyer refuses to get an update a pre-approval letter, that means the buyer is scared and not able to buy, I would back off. You don’t want to be pushing a buyer to do anything right now. We gotta have their backs.
I’m trying to read questions, guys. Definitely want to reiterate around Nicole, the Telos question that I don’t see lenders– to give you guys some history, when the market went bad in ’08, everything froze, and banks were scared to lend. If it wasn’t for the National Association of Realtors climbing down the throats of the folks at HUD and really pushing FHA loans, our market would have gotten so much worse. I don’t see that happening now.
They’re in front of this thing. Even if it gets worse, they’re going to make sure we get through it. Any other questions, my friends? I see there’s several of you still on. I think that’s about all I want to cover. I’ll be back to you guys, maybe Friday. I plan to do these Q and A’s every Wednesday at 11:00 until this thing’s over. If that’s two weeks, if it’s three weeks, if it’s four weeks, you guys can always count on the Q and A’s being every Wednesday at 11:00. And I want to mention, make sure to tell me when you have questions, try to tell me in advance.
Here we go. Kim McKean, do you think we can get fined by the state for showing homes when both seller and buyer are okay with it? I’m not the governor. I’m not the head of the state police. My thinking is no but don’t go by me. Check with your own brokers if you want to be doing that.
All right, let’s see. Thank you very much, guys, have a good day. Remember what I said, this is America, we’ll get through it. It will end. We’re not going be in this situation forever. We’ll be out selling homes again before you know it, but it will be a little different little less lala land and we got to sharpen our skills, my friend. Have a great day. Appreciate you all.