A SALUTE TO REALTORS® AND OUR INDUSTRY! LEGAL COUNSEL
SCOTT PETERSON General Counsel of the Colorado Association of REALTORS®
such a sweeping pandemic; our state, counties and, in some cases, cities were each responding with different orders, directives and mandates to try and address their unique concerns.
So much of what I get to do as a brokerage industry attorney is harangue and whine and cudgel and cajole REALTORS® about liability, best practices, and risk management. I get to lecture and instill fear in you regarding all of the ways you can get into trouble. It is something that I relish very deeply. And for that, I am sorry.
Caught in the middle of all of this mayhem were Colorado businesses and, uniquely positioned for confusion, was the real estate industry. Many businesses (retail, restaurant, services, office-based business, etc.) were just simply closed. It was immediately clear that certain businesses weren’t going to be “essential” (gyms, hair salons, restaurants, most retail environments, etc.). Other “essential” businesses were forced to remain open and available to the public. In many cases, this is where we found our true heroes of the pandemic in our healthcare, grocery, and public safety workers.
But not today, Colorado REALTORS®. Today I am here to give you a COVID elbow bump, a socially distanced high-five, and a six-foot air kiss. Today I am here to commend you and our industry partners on a pretty miraculous 2020. It has been a very challenging year in so many respects, but you all have stepped up to the challenge like never before. Well done!
REALTORS® and our industry partners were thrust into a very unique “hybrid” of various categories. Of course, almost immediately CAR was able to convince Governor Polis’ office that real estate was an essential service. Pandemic aside, people require shelter and the ability to engage in real estate transactions. But, unlike many other “essential” businesses, a REALTOR's® workplace is literally anywhere. Your job consists of active client engagement in various listings, title company offices, automobiles, coffee shops, and client homes. Unlike a grocery store or hospital or Home Depot, you can’t control your physical work environment.
As I look back over the previous 11 months, we have seen historic market swings throughout the entire state. January, February and early March gave us hope for continued real estate velocity in 2020. Record setting economic numbers, sky high consumer confidence and historic employment levels were good indications for things to come in the traditional spring/summer transaction seasons. Of course, all of the changed in mid-March as the world was almost immediately overwhelmed with total paralysis as a result of COVID-19.
The unique nature of the real estate business lead to much confusion and a wide variety of evolving protocols. It required responding to state and local mandates that were sometimes (often?!) inconsistent. It required unique levels of sensitivity to the wildly different ways your sellers and buyers and others involved in the transaction reacted to the evolving threat of the virus. It required you to locate and secure wipes, hand sanitizer, and masks at a time when other people couldn’t even locate toilet paper!
Our industry came to an immediate and nearly complete stop over the course of only a few days as Colorado’s citizens and political leaders tried to grasp the implications of a global pandemic. There was no “blueprint” for addressing
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