With the emergence of Covid-19, people everywhere found themselves in an unusual situation. From lockdowns to quarantines, over time experts have concluded that Covid – 19 is an airborne virus that humans easily spread. Being highly contagious; if you’re exposed to it, it could mean weeks of downtime. We understand that not everyone is vaccinated or may even still have their reservations about someone they don’t know being in their home right now. But with vaccination rates on the rise, life is beginning to go back to normal. This includes buying or selling your home, which requires an appraisal. Because we care about our customers, below we’ve outlined some possible precautions your appraiser and you can take when getting an appraisal done on your home.
12 COVID-19 Appraisal Precautions
1. We’ll Notify You When We Arrive
Before we perform our appraisal of your home, we’ll make sure our appraiser notifies you when they arrive. This will give you time to get your home ready for us to enter and do our appraisal.
2. Keep Your Pets Secure
If you have pets, it’s not uncommon for them to be curious about the new person in their home. Oftentimes pets will come to greet us and while we love to pet your dog, it might be better to secure your pet in a crate so we can avoid any unnecessary exposure.
3. Open The Garage And Turn On All Your Lights
Once we notify you of our arrival, we’ll start with the exterior of your home so you have time to open your garage and turn on all of your lights. This will limit how much we touch throughout the home and having your lights on will provide the best possible lighting for any photos we need to take.
4. Wear A Pair Of Disposable Gloves
As an extra Covid precaution you can take during the appraisal process, if it makes you more comfortable, you can offer your appraiser a pair of disposable gloves to wear. This will ensure you don’t get any exposure from them touching anything.
5. Wear Masks
As Covid-19 is mostly an airborne illness, you can ask your appraiser to wear a mask during their valuation. To limit possible infection further, if you’d like to talk with your appraiser about anything, you can wear a mask as well.
6. Remain 6 Feet Apart
While masks are effective in limiting exposure, it would be wise to remain at least 6 feet apart from your appraiser. This limits the spread of the virus.
7. Upgrades and Damages
Another COVID-19 appraisal precaution you can take is to let your appraiser know of any upgrades, damages or defects that they may not have noticed beforehand. This will limit the amount of time they’re in your home.
8. Consider Cleaning Any Co-infection-Riddled Items
If anyone in your home has been recently sick, it would be nice to clean any contaminated surfaces before your appraisal. While these infected items are not necessarily a cause for alarm. This will help to prevent your appraiser from getting any sort of contamination within the home or store that they are appraising. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
9. Consider Turning on the Air Conditioner or Opening Up the Windows for Ventilation
This is one of the best appraisal precautions with COVID-19. If you do have air conditioning or if you have windows that you can open up, it would be a good idea to use both of these things throughout your appraisal visit. This will help to keep your home feeling as comfortable as possible. As well, opening your windows will help fresh air to circulate within the room that they are in.
10. Clean Around The Area’s Your Appraiser Went
After the appraisal, if you feel like it’s necessary, you could clean any surface areas your appraiser might have touched to ensure no cross contamination.
11. Consider Talking Outside
During your appraisal, if you need your appraiser to stay longer to discuss anything with them, consider having them stay near a window or else just ask them to talk with you outside of your home itself.
12. Consider Rescheduling If Someone In The Home Is Sick
Since this virus is so widespread, if anyone in your home is in quarantine with the virus or is sick with a fever or cold like symptoms, it may be best to reschedule until your illness passes.
Call Us About Our COVID-19 Appraisal Precautions
Overall, if you’re able to avoid the virus, then do it. The best way to prevent yourself or your appraiser from getting sick and spreading it to those around you is by taking some COVID-19 appraisal precautions as outlined above.
If you have any hesitations about what precautions can be taken when getting an appraisal, please call one of our professional appraisers at 1-801-882-2292. We can make sure we both are aware of any precautions you’d like to take before we arrive to perform your appraisal.
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