Helping Families for 30+ Years in pursuit of Home Ownership

A message to Canadians

This is a stressful time for all of us, as together we are facing an unprecedented global crisis. COVID-19 has forced us to adapt to an ever-changing reality as we fight to contain the virus.

Some five million families, 35% of the population, relocated to new homes over the past five years. Many of you have made serious plans to do exactly that this spring – you have moved cities, transferred employment, gotten married, or retired. You were planning to buy, sell or rent a home. Some of you have purchased a home and have not yet sold your existing property. And like many Canadians, the health emergency caused by the coronavirus has forced you to reevaluate the way forward.

First and foremost, we want you to know that across the country, Royal LePage has and will continue to take action to protect our clients, employees and front-line agents.  The safety measures we are taking are being guided by public health authorities and the government, and often go well beyond.

The biggest change you will see relates to how you will communicate and conduct business with your Royal LePage office or REALTOR®. Our team has access to the industry’s leading operating platform, technology that allows a Royal LePage professional to keep in touch with you, share property details, complete real estate valuations and conduct transactions electronically.

During the crisis, our office personnel across the country have moved to full work-from-home status, serving our agents while they work from their homes to serve you. In most jurisdictions, controlled access to properties to facilitate listing or purchasing will continue, supported by best-practice disinfection, cleanliness and above all else, strictly limited person-to-person exposure.

In Quebec, we will work within provincial government guidelines to offer purely electronic client interactions for non-priority transactions for the limited period of time that citizens are asked to do their part and stay in place. In these cases, the company and our agents will continue to be there to discuss your situation and plan next steps, be it through phone, email, text or social media channels. For priority transactions, which are those with a possession date scheduled on or before July 31, 2020 or those with an intent to relocate by that date, we will provide the services you need to finalize those transactions, following the rules established by Public Health in partnership with the OACIQ. At this time, you may list your home for sale, however, in-person visits (by brokers, buyers, building inspectors, photographers, etc.) to the home are not authorized. All activity related to a new listing must be virtual.

Canadians have placed their trust in Royal LePage for over 100 years. During this crisis, we are 100% committed to maintaining that trust.

The positive impact of these extraordinary precautions will take some weeks to begin to show up in the community health data. While we don’t know how long our way of life will be so severely restricted, we do know that this too shall pass. We are talking weeks and months, not years of sacrifice. And know this — Canada is as strong and able to meet these challenges as any nation on earth.

As a final word, we can’t say enough about our talented medical and scientific community, the people who are risking their health in providing essential services, and our political leaders at all levels, who are working tirelessly to keep us safe.  Canadians owe you all our endless gratitude.

Phil Soper

President & CEO