Information for Buyers and Sellers During the Covid-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 PRECAUTIONS TAKEAWAY

During these unprecedented times, REALTORS® face unique challenges. The Canadian Real Estate Association is in ongoing discussions with government departments and agencies and Assist 2 Sell would like to assure you that our brokerage if following all precautions and recommendations set out for our industry to mitigate the outbreak of COVID-19 as set out in the guidelines and precautions set by Canada’s Public Health Authority. See Health Canada’s website for comprehensive coverage.  Furthermore, there are  Government programs in place to help homeowners as well as buyers navigate this challenging time.  Hopefully the information outlined here will help to clarify options  and support available to both homeowners as well as homebuyers.

It is of utmost important that our staff, our REALTORS® and our clients and customers take care of ourselves. In order to do so, there are several resources we would like to share:

• the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 website;

• the Canadian Mental Health Association;

• the World Health Organization

• the Nova Scotia Health Authority  

Sell For More Without Compromising Safety with our VIRTUAL OPTIONS

NEW! Buy and sell safely with virtual options - Learn More

Our flexible technology allows us to offer virtual tours and open houses for every home we list for sale, so prospective buyers can tour your house from the comfort of their own home! These digital home tour options may include live or recorded video tours that we’ll capture while maintaining social distancing best practices. If health reasons prevent others from entering your home, we can coach you on how to record a tour.

People are still looking to buy homes in this market and listing with us ensures your home gets sold for the most amount of money in the least amount of time! We market your listing with high-converting content in all the places buyers are searching, including our website, home search portals, search engines, and social media sites.

SAFE PHYSICAL DISTANCING

Assist 2 Sell is practicing safe physical distancing techniques and our brokerage has implemented new technologies in order to avoid as much as possible any unnecessary face to face contact.

Our physical office is closed to the public. You may call our office, schedule a virtual meeting with us but you may not enter our office space. Our staff is practicing safe distancing and our goal is to keep our office operational for as long as we are legislated to do so.

FOR SELLERS

For Sellers our marketing included very active social media marketing using video, photos, virtual tours etc.  Potential buyers will be able to view your home online without needing to unnecessarily enter your home.

We offer virtual tours, zoom showings, electronic brochures, feature sheets, electronic signatures in order to facilitate our real estate transactions online.

Visit The Government of Canada website  and The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Site   for information on services available to individual and business regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. If you are concerned about your mortgage payments, please visit these sites for more information.

Direct Government support available

Tax Deferral

The deadline to file your tax returns will be extended to June 1. If you’ve already filed your taxes and owe the government money, you now have until Aug. 31 to pay. Businesses will also be able to defer income tax payments until Aug. 31. The CRA will also stop auditing businesses for the next four weeks.

Mortgage Deferral

Banks and other mortgage lenders have agreed to defer up to six months of mortgage payments for those impacted by layoffs and closures. This may include situations such as pay disruption, childcare disruption, or illness. For uninsured mortgages, many lenders offer flexible payment options as well. There may also be relief for other credit products.  

If you have an insured (high-ratio) mortgage, the three mortgage insurers – CMHC, Canada Guaranty and Genworth Canada offer tools to lenders that can assist homeowners who may be experiencing financial difficulty. These include payment deferral, loan re-amortization, capitalization of outstanding interest arrears and other eligible expenses, and special payment arrangements.

Visit The Government of Canada website  and The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Site   for information on services available to individual and business regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. If you are concerned about your mortgage payments, please visit these sites for more information. 

FOR BUYERS

For buyer we offer virtual showings through our virtual tours, zoom meeting and video walk throughs.  We can write up an offer electronically and add a condition that the sale is based upon a viewing of the property at a later date.

Government of Canada Programs Available to Support Home Buyers . This handy site will help you access incentives through the First-time home buyer plan, Home Buyers amount, tax credits, The HomeBuyer Plan (HBP) and GST/HST Rebates. 

See changes to the STRESS TEST here.

Things Buyers can do now:

Visit Realtor.ca to view listings

• • Get preapproved
  • Connect with us at Assist 2 Sell. We can set you up to receive notifications in real time of new listings.
  • Call us at 902 446-3113 if you have any questions!
  • You have not been ill or out of the country or province
  • No children will attend the viewing
  • Shoes must be removed
  • Please bring hand sanitizer, gloves if possible, tissue
  • Do NOT touch ANYTHING while visiting the property
  • You must practice safe distancing of 6 feet away from your REALTOR® at all times

Should you wish to view properties in person please ensure the following:

COVID-19 PRECAUTIONS FOR ALL ONSITE VIEWINGS OF PROPERTIES

In order to enter one of our listings, strict precautions are implemented by our sellers:

If you have been ill or out of the country, you may NOT enter the property.

• • Children are not permitted to enter the property at this time
  • Shoes must be removed prior to entering the property
  • Each seller has set up a hand washing station in the home, and you will be directed ther to wash and disinfect your hands upon entering.
  • You will be asked to NOT touch light switches, doorknobs, door handles etc. with bare hands.
  • You are asked not to touch anything if possible while on the property.
  • You must practice safe distancing of 6 feet away from your REALTOR® at all times

IS THIS A GOOD TIME TO BUY OR SELL?

These are unprecedented times and we at Assist 2 Sell want to assure you that we are taking every precaution to implement precautions and procedure that address the COVID-19 threat. We understand that you may be hesitant to sell or buy a home at this time, however you may want to take advantage of the very low inventory, the very low bank rates that have brought out a surplus of buyers. With inventory so low, it is a seller’s market properties are selling very quickly in fact in some areas of HRM in just days on the market with bidding wars.  If you are a buyer, you may want to take advantage of the Low Interest Rates and get positioned to make a strong offer.  With the precautions in place, this is still a good time to sell or buy a home.  For those of you who need to sell and want to buy our office is open and ready to help in any way we can.