Realtors in the Springfield area, who normally spend their days showing and listing properties for sale, instead struggled Thursday to help clients and neighbors deal with the storm’s aftermath.
Some were already fielding calls from clients anxious to determine how the storm’s damage would affect pending home sales and property listings.
Gerry Marafioti, a sales agent with Coldwell Banker in East Longmeadow, was trying to help a client whose single-family home in Monson has been listed for sale for three weeks. It was slated for a broker open house Thursday.
But the house, which sits on more than two dozen acres on Upper Hampden Road, was severely damaged. A separate artist studio on the property was destroyed.
Marafioti said it is likely the damage claims will be submitted for insurance coverage. It’s unclear, she added, how the potential sale of the property in Monson or others listed for sale in the area would be affected.
Business On Hold
Vincent Walsh, 2011 president of the Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley and a sales manager with Coldwell Banker in East Longmeadow, said some of the residential properties listed for sale in the area were damaged, but he was unsure of the extent.
Walsh said he was encouraging sales agents not to drive around to assess damage until cleanup crews got debris off the streets.
Making matters worse for local agents, an already complex sales and listing situation could get even more confusing with properties that have recently sold, said Richard Vetstein, a real estate attorney and founding partner of Vetstein Law Group in Framingham.
If those properties were damaged by the recent storms, he explained, the buyer faces some tough decisions about whether to close the sale and deal with any insurance claims or opt out of the deal. He recommends a clause specifying that if there is damage to the property over $10,000, the buyer has the right to walk away, to be sure the buyer has a clear out.
The storm also put some agents’ businesses on hold indefinitely.
Gail Marengo, an agent with Zip Realty in Holland, said although her home was not damaged, she was without electricity. Because her office is in her house, she was unable to work Thursday. And it was unclear when she would get back to the business of selling homes.
"Nobody has called me," she said. "I can’t work, and my kids are out of school today and tomorrow."
Other agents spent Thursday helping their communities.
Karen Christiansen King, a Monson resident and a real estate sales team leader in RE/MAX Prestige’s Wilbraham office, gathered water, food and other supplies – provided by RE/MAX Prestige – in her home, and posted a message on a Facebook page devoted to Monson’s efforts to cope with the storm offering to donate the goods to neighbors.
Kathleen Conley Norbut, Monson’s emergency management director, hailed King – also a member of Monson’s planning board – as an example of "local business leaders stepping up to help out."
