COLUMBIANA, Ohio (WKBN) – With many changes coming during and after this COVID-19 pandemic, local realtors are taking steps now to help reduce the spread of the virus.

“Our office policy has actually changed vastly, just in the past week,” said Rollin Gosney, owner of Agent Valley Remax.

The new norm for Gosney and his staff includes more people working from home and having potential buyers wear booties and masks, as well as asking them not to touch anything while seeing a house.

“We wanted to make sure everybody knows that we have taken extra precautions to make sure that not only our buyers are safe, but our sellers as well,” Gosney said.

They’re also wiping down doorknobs and other surfaces in the homes.

Historically, low-interest rates are continuing to drive the real estate market, both here and nationally.

Gosney knows money alone isn’t what sells homes — it’s the agent.

“Current real estate market, actually, is doing well locally,” he said. “We are still receiving calls. Again, with those calls, we are taking more precautions than we ever thought we would have had to.”

Gosney has been selling real estate in this market since 2012. He and his company just celebrated their 1,000th closing.

They’re also using technology more to practice social distancing.

“We are working to now become more mobile,” Gosney said. “We are actually assisting some clients and we have done this in the past, but now more than ever. We actually go tour the home for our buyers remotely if they are concerned or have weakened immune systems or not. We are still willing to go out and take our precautions and we will do video recording.”

On Wednesday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine asked all businesses in Ohio to take the temperatures of their employees who are reporting to work. He is urging people to work from home if they can and wants businesses to send home sick employees.