Ask the REALTOR: How has the government shutdown affected you as a Realtor?

Ask the REALTOR® is a regular video series in which I answer your most commonly-asked real estate questions. If YOU have a real estate question that needs an answer, drop me a note here.

This week’s question: How has the government shutdown affected you as a Realtor? Here’s the answer in this brief video, and don’t miss the transcript below.

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Transcript:

Hello everybody! It’s Cari McGee with Keller Williams Real Estate. And we are back for a special episode/edition of “Ask the Realtor.” And the question this week is:

Cari, how has the government shutdown affected you as a Realtor?

Well, fortunately, it has not affected me. However, the National Association of Realtors has conducted a survey of over 2,200 members and 75% have not been affected. However, 11% report being affected — have it impacting their current clients and 11% report it being an impact to their future clients.

A whopping 25% of the people who had been impacted stated that one reason that they were impacted is because clients decided not to buy at all because of general economic uncertainty. They were not government employees, they just decided to not buy. So, that was just a fascinating stat, and I thought that that would be interesting to report.

In addition, some did also get affected because they have what is called a USDA loan — United States Department of Agriculture loan — which you can take advantage of if you’re buying in certain areas of the country. Every state has a different region that is considered a USDA region and you can get a USDA loan for that. And as you can see, obviously those things are not happening right now with the government shutdown.

So, it has not personally affected me, but 2,200 other realtors were polled and that’s the scoop from them. So, if you have any questions for me regarding real estate, by all means, give me a shout via any one of the methods that follow on the next screen. Thanks so much. Bye!