The stay-at-home orders got a little trickier with Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order that goes into effect on Monday, March 30 at 5 p.m.
Greensboro, Guilford County and High Point issued a joint stay-at-home order that went into effect on Friday, March 27, and although they are similar, they aren’t exactly the same.
In most cases, the state takes precedence over local jurisdictions and the state order would mean everybody in the state was under the same stay-at-home order.
But in this case, Cooper said that if local jurisdictions have more stringent requirements than the state order than those local orders remain in place.
The order for all of Guilford County is more stringent than the state order in at least one area. The state lists the real estate business as an essential business that is exempt, which means Realtors in most of the state can continue to go about their business.
However, the Guilford County order does not list the real estate business as an essential business and therefore exempt, so in Guilford County Realtors are restricted in what they can do.
The proclamation states: “18. Professional services. Professional services, such as legal services, accounting services, insurance services, real estate services restricted to appraisal and title services.”
Mayor Nancy Vaughan, who is a licensed Realtor, said that this meant real estate agents could not show houses, hold open houses or list new houses for sale.
President of the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association Ray Alexander has posted a video on YouTube talking about the issues this creates for those in the real estate business. In the video he states, “We are fighting the battle for you.”
He goes on to say that the GRRA is working to get the restrictions on the real estate industry lifted, but they are currently in place in Guilford County.
The video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/FoVArvWp2rY.
