In the current climate, you might think that viewing a property that you’re interested in might be a tad difficult.
Well, I have to be honest, booking appointments was certainly a lot easier before Covid-19 was a thing.
I am trying to make sure we have a property film of everything we’re selling: a “video tour” which should give you a flavour of the key features of the property, together with my own take of what the area has to offer. But I could never recommend anyone buys a property based on a film alone. You should always have a physical viewing to really know what your future home is going to be like (which, to be perfectly blunt, also absolves me from any potential prosecutions should I not film something that later becomes a key factor for why you might not have bought the property in the first place!).
So, subject to the following rules, we are more than happy to book viewing appointments.
Firstly, when you initially book your appointment, you will be sent, by email, confirmation together with a Covid-19 questionnaire. For the viewing to go ahead, we need you to read the document and email us back with the answers to the five questions posed therein.
For the viewing itself, we have to insist that we show no more than two people around the property at any one time. So, if there are three of you, we will only be able to allow two of you into the property while the third person waits outside. Then – in the same way that theme parks used to do when our kids were all too young to enjoy the rides that Clare and I wanted to go on – we can swap over. But if this is going to be the case, please let us know in advance as this will clearly influence how much time we allocate to the appointment.
But there is an added complication to this: by law, we are only allowed to meet with people of one other household. This means that if, for example, you are accompanying your parent, friend or offspring to the viewing, and they don’t live with you, we will have to insist on people viewing individually.
Very rarely, we have vendors who are unable to vacate the property for viewings. This means that we may – under those circumstances – have to ask you to sign that you are happy for the viewing to go ahead.
During viewings social distancing must be observed. Facemasks must be worn. And gloves. And I will ask you to remove your shoes at the front door. Oh, and please, please, please don’t touch anything. If you need to open a door (even though I will have ensured all relevant doors are open), please ask me to do it.
It would be best if the viewing could be as brief as possible. If you walk in and get that feeling of “oh, this really isn’t the place for me”, then please do say. If, on the other hand, you want to dwell a little longer, that’s fine; but please keep the chatter to a minimum and we can address any questions you might have when we’re outside and able to remove our facemasks in the fresh air … or even by phone or email later.
I’m sorry that this all sounds a bit grim, but we if we all make the effort we can help to ensure that this pandemic will eventually end, and then we can return to something that resembles life as normal.