This week we received notice from the Marin Association of Realtors that we are officially masking up again. When we meet clients, we are supposed to wear masks. When we hold open houses and broker’s opens, masks are no longer optional. Even in our offices we are supposed to mask-up. Cue the sad trombone music.
It could be worse. At least there are no further restrictions and nobody is talking about a lockdown. There is no mandatory cleaning of homes after showings, yet. Earlier in the pandemic I was doing a lot of that. I also had PPE out at all my homes on the market, including wipes and hand sanitizer. While it’s not required it’s probably not a bad idea to keep those things handy again.
I was going to attend a business party at the bar at Jason’s this week. I really wanted to go, but decided against it. Going to a party and potentially bringing the COVID home to share with my family would not have gone over well. It also could have decimated what’s left of our summer plans. Things are feeling a long way from normal suddenly.
Last spring, the weekend before the SIP took effect, I helped a client with an estate sale. It felt pretty sketchy at the time. This week I signed a listing and I offered to help my client with an estate sale next weekend to get the house cleaned out. When it comes to having the estate sale, we will let a limited number of people in the house at one time, keep everything well ventilated and make sure everyone is wearing a mask.
My latest listing at 144 Roundtree went into contract this week after the first open house. If you’ve read my blogs in the past, you’ll know I like the idea of appointment showings rather than public open houses. It helps keep the traffic from neighbors down and only brings serious, pre-approved buyers onto the properties. As the pandemic keeps evolving, we are changing with it, trying to get ahead of the virus. Having the vaccine available to all Americans 12 years and older felt like we were finally going to get out in front. Now the new mask mandate feels like we are once again playing catch-up.
Throughout the pandemic I have regularly visited the Marin County Health and Human Services website: https://coronavirus.marinhhs.org/surveillance. It’s got a lot of good data. About a month ago I stopped visiting the site because the case numbers were so low. Now I’m back on it and you can see that the testing percent positivity is over 4% again. It hasn’t been that high since January and in May it was less than ½ of 1 percent. As August launches in San Rafael, we’ve had 114 cases in the past 14 days. In June that number was in the single digits. We haven’t had over 100 cases per 14 days in San Rafael since March. In January we nearly hit 600, so it could be a lot worse but we can’t ignore where we are now if we want to head back in the right direction.
It’s time to mask up again, even if you are vaccinated. Keep washing your hands and using hand sanitizer. Avoid crowded indoor spaces with little ventilation. You know and loathe the drill, but it's necessary. If you haven’t been vaccinated, please talk to your doctor and make an informed decision. Don’t rely on the social media, the mainstream media or any media for that matter to make your decision. Lastly, talk to your loved ones. I’m willing to bet if they’ve been vaccinated, they are hoping and praying you get vaccinated too. Free vaccination options can be found at: https://coronavirus.marinhhs.org/vaccinefinder