by Baldev S. Gill, Chief Executive Officer
Today’s eMemo contains the following updates:
- In-person Open House functionality disabled as COVID cases continue to remain high in the Fraser Valley
In-person Open House functionality disabled as COVID cases continue to remain high in the Fraser Valley
Dear members,
We wanted to clarify that the in-person Open House functionality feature in Paragon has been disabled and turned off at this time, given the fact that COVID-19 cases in the Fraser Valley continue to remain high.
As a result, if you want to remove an Open House from your listing, only Board staff can do that. We can delete open house information from Paragon, but we will only remove this if you email us with your instructions at mlschanges@fvreb.bc.ca.
In addition, we strongly urge you not to try to circumvent the functionality being disabled, by advertising upcoming open houses under the Remarks section. This is not permitted either. If your Schedule A references open houses, you should also consider changing your wording to reflect this service change.
The Board will advise when the open house feature is activated once again after we have further guidance and advice from our public health and regulatory authorities.
As a non-health related essential service, a reminder to all that we have a duty and obligation to adhere strictly to all safety protocols on COVID-19. Therefore, if you are to proceed with a private showing, please ensure you proceed by adhering to the guidance we provided to you back in April.
As a reminder, private showings can only be carried out with these strict safety measures that include:
- Masks and gloves must be worn by the visitors including the buyers, sellers and agents attending
- No visitor is permitted to touch any object or surface of the home
- Any opening of doors, windows or cupboards must be done by the seller or the seller’s agent
- Sellers are advised to carry out a thorough cleaning and sanitizing of the home prior to a showing and sanitizing after the showing.
Furthermore, on the overall issue of in-person open houses, our guidance to you remains consistent with our memo from Thursday, November 5, 2020 as well as our memo of November 7 and our memo of November 9. In those memos, we stated that members should refrain from holding in-person open houses, but rather, implement virtual tours/showings as much as possible.
If we all do our part, and do it well, we will flatten the curve sooner and get back to business as usual in a timely manner. Should you need further guidance, please do not hesitate to reach out to your managing broker or the Board office.
Have a good week and stay safe.
For ongoing FVREB updates on COVID-19, please visit:
http://news.fvreb.bc.ca/category/member-updates/covid-19-updates/
Additional COVID-19 resources: