Coronavirus prompts real estate agents to change tactics

With a growing number of coronavirus cases across the nation, the real estate industry is taking a hit as the pandemic prompts people to stay home. Smart City, which operates in Houston, Dallas and Austin, placed roughly 15,000 people in rental properties across Texas in 2019. But this year may paint a different picture, as all three cities that Smart City operates in have seen more than 100 cases of the virus combined. The state total for Texas is more than 300 as of Monday. “Monday was the first day that we started to see a little bit of a reduction in people calling us for apartments,” Smart City CEO Cassie Brown said. The apartment-locating company is specifically seeing a decline in people opting to go out to properties to tour in person. “There is just a lockdown everywhere. Some properties are open and some are not and because people aren’t seeing all of their options, they are basically saying ‘Hey, we can’t make a decision right now,'” Brown said. Brown added that people are also canceling moving plans because of layoffs happening around the country.