What Does A “Shut Down” Mean For Real Estate?

Question:  Does Wisconsin’s Safer At Home order mean we cannot close our Sale, Purchase, or Refinance?

Answer: We are still OPEN and can handle your real estate transaction.  We will take extraordinary precautions to protect your health our ours.

Wisconsin’s Safer at Home Order is not a full “shut down” or “shelter in place.”  It exempts “essential businesses,” including Title Companies. Most real estate related businesses are exempted, “essential businesses,” including:

• Financial institutions and services. Banks, credit unions, and other depository or lending institutions; licensed financial service providers; and insurance services.
• Professional services, including:legal or accounting services,
  • insurance services,
  • real estate services
    • appraisal,
    • home inspection,
    • Title services
  • Note: these services shall, to the greatest extent possible, use technology to avoid meeting in person, including virtual meetings, teleconference, and remote work (i.e., work from home).
• Supplies for Essential Businesses: This may include trades necessary for lenders, realtors, and title companies to operate, such as sign installers, photographers, stagers, testers (Radon, mold, etc).
• CISA List. Any business or worker identified in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Memorandum on Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers During COVID-19 Response, updated March 23, 2020, and any subsequent versions of this Memorandum.  This is a broad list. See CISA LIST.

How Homestead Title Will Protect Your Health

In accordance with this order, Homestead Title will take extraordinary measures to limit contact and protect the health and safety of our customers, clients, and team. These measures include digital signings for sellers and cash buyers, a skeletal staff in our office (90% are working from home), and “Drive Up” closings for all in-person closings.

Drive-Up Closings

While the Emergency Order is in place, Buyers and Sellers will sign from their cars, in a designated area in front of our building, to minimize contacts. We will answer questions by phone (and will conference in lenders or Realtors), or from a 6 foot distance.

We will continue these precautions until the Emergency Order is lifted or modified.  The order currently expires on April 24, 2020.

We know we can get through this together and hope that these local, state, and nationwide measures will shorten the time it takes to get back to “normal.”