We are all witnessing and living through a challenging and ever-evolving time, and every day, we are adapting to the new realities brought on by the coronavirus outbreak. As a family-owned business, we remain committed as ever to you — our agents, managers, and employees — our business family. Please know we are all in this together.

And as the situation changes every day, we believe every day is a fresh start.

As members of our business family, you are our number one priority. With your health and safety in mind, we are encouraging everyone to work remotely. We believe that the more quickly we come together as a business-family, with our co-brokes, and with our communities with a common goal of flattening the curve, the more quickly we can get back to life as normal. We keep in mind that in our whole footprint, with the exception of New York, the governors have identified real estate as an essential service, and we will do our best to help our customers by keeping our offices open on a virtual and remote basis.

I am keenly aware of the economic ramifications of the coronavirus and how important this is for each one of you. Over this past weekend, I’ve spoken to all of our New York managers on state-mandated lockdown, five of our regional managers and at least a half dozen agents to discuss the impact on them personally and professionally. I was surprised and pleased to hear how optimistic everyone was about getting through this challenging time. Many people told me they appreciated the support of our company and our technology so they can work remotely and conduct business effectively.

In Westchester, our teams aren’t missing a beat while their branches are closed; several managers told me they are conducting office sales meetings and calling agents over Zoom. Agents are also being creative and offering video tours of listings and conducting virtual open houses. One of our managers in Connecticut, Joy Luongo, even told us of two agents in her office who facilitated a sale via a virtual open house and tour. This is a terrific example of agents being creative — AND that the real estate market is still going strong.

I am reminded daily of how talented, resilient and creative you all are — and I appreciate your teamwork, entrepreneurism and optimism!

I know that for many of you, working from home is daunting and challenging, so as a company, we are constantly coming up with new ways to support you and help you do business effectively and efficiently. Thankfully, we have always had this technology in place — to enable our managers, agents and staff the opportunity and ability to communicate and conduct business remotely. You will receive more emails from our team about what we’re doing as a company, industry best practices and government recommendations.

We know these are uncertain times, and our thoughts and hearts are with all of you as we navigate the challenges together. We remain committed as ever to you, our business family. Together, let’s get through this — and stay strong, resilient and optimistic.

With appreciation and admiration,
Bill

Watch the entire video of Bill here.