COVID-19 has affected everyone, including home shoppers and home builders. Many builders have adopted ways to allow those home shoppers who want or need to find homes safe alternatives to traditional “in person” sales techniques. Here are a few of the suggestions that builders have recently made to active home shoppers.

1. Do all the shopping you can online, over the phone, and through email before you reach out to make an appointment.
2. If you’d like to set a meeting with the salesperson, Skype, Facebook, Facetime, or Google Duo can allow both home shoppers and new home salespeople to connect via their phones and talk “face to face.”
3. Some builders are offering virtual “walk-throughs” of their model homes using some of the live video apps. These allow salespeople to walk through a home, using their phone as a camera, so the shopper can see the home and speak with the salesperson while they are showing them the home.
4. If you’d like to see a speculative home in person, many onsite salespeople will open the home and allow you to walk the inventory home alone and then return to the home when you leave to lock it up.
5. If you need to meet in person, most salespeople will agree to meet and maintain a safe “personal distance” between you and them as they talk about the home and community.

Remember to wash your hands with soap and water, followed by an alcohol-based disinfectant, like Purell, before and after the meeting. Most builders request that only those that are necessary attend the meeting. The unprecedented situation imposed on everyone by COVID-19 is manageable with some precautions, good sense, and care. For more information about COVID-19, go to www.coronavirus.gov.