It's Saturday. The biggest day of the working week for real estate agents across Australia.
Usually a day of open houses, inspections and auctions. Conversations abound with sellers and buyers - handshakes and crowds.
However, this weekend is looking vastly different for McGrath Port Macquarie principal Todd Bates following a decision by the federal government earlier this week to ban public auctions and open houses in an attempt to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
Mr Bates has been operating as a real estate agent in the Port Macquarie region for 22 years. He took on the McGrath franchise 11 years ago.
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Realistically, Mr Bates said they all "knew it was coming" at some point.
"I think it was inevitable that they were going to make that decision so we jumped into doing 3D Matterports on all our properties - so that's 3D interactive tours that people can click on and look around.
"We've just been working behind the scenes and getting those up to date for our sales properties and we're moving to do those on as many rental properties as we can as well.
"We're just developing some technology where we can have virtual open homes, if you like, so we can say to people the property will be open between noon and 1pm.
"They'll be able to click onto it, we can call them or they can call us, we can talk them through online there and, if they like it enough and they want to book a one-on-one inspection, we'll have a number of times in that timeslot on that 3D tour that they can book."
It means, for the time being, Saturdays look vastly different.
"So a normal Saturday you'd be probably looking at each agent ideally doing around half a dozen open homes and then you'd be doing a few private appointments as well.
"Saturdays are generally our busiest day."
Mr Bates said that real estate agents, like himself, have to look at new ways to do business.
"You've got no choice, you have to adapt."
When it comes to property auctions, Mr Bates said there are a lot of options available.
"There is a lot of new technology around the virtual auction space and we'll be getting into that because auctions do work well and it's a nice public environment where everyone can see and they know what the bidding is.
"We will continue those, we just need to learn those new procedures and ways of doing business and it will be business as usual as far as that is concerned.
"I think it's going to give the agents and vendors better transparency to know who is genuine and who is not."
Despite the chaos, the need to buy or sell, rent or lease continues.
The office is open and adopting strict social distancing guidelines.
"We have a number of staff working from home, but we've got settlements and exchanges still happening and people booking appointments and property management here.
"So, we're not fully staffed but we've got who we need to have here so essentially from the outside it's business as normal."
But the approach has changed.
"I was just out at an appointment and we don't shake hands and that sort of thing.
"We make sure people sanitise before they come into a home and we are providing that to them.
"It's just a different way of doing things we don't touch too much in the property when we are there so whatever precautions we can take we're putting into place.
There is always opportunities when markets change and different things change and I guess it's about being a leader in those times ...
- Todd Bates
"There is always opportunities when markets change and different things change and I guess it's about being a leader in those times and trying a bit of forward-thinking and pre-planning. We pride ourselves on that.
"It did come as a shock when they said we are going to stop open homes and auctions as we traditionally knew them but the more we think about it the more we see opportunities. Our Saturdays can be pre-planned now - we know exactly who we're meeting and things like that.
"We're qualifying the buyers a lot better."
With people jobless and facing the inability to pay rent, Mr Bates said he's already been struck by the sense of kindness from clients.
"It's still early days as far as that's concerned we have had a number of our landlords who have been ringing up, before we've even heard from the tenant, offering certain bonuses or incentives and compensation.
"There seems to be a lot of goodwill around that between landlords and tenants," Mr Bates said.
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