The latest COVID-19 shutdown from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has closed all non-essential business that cannot be conducted remotely, and unfortunately for hopeful homeowners and sellers, that includes real estate.

Whitehall-based Realtor Shari Noctor described how social distancing and closures for real estate agents and other adjacent businesses has brought the market to a standstill in the Lehigh Valley.

As a face-to-face business, real estate agents’ jobs have become virtually impossible. Open houses, inspections and even simple property walkthroughs are ill advised when health officials are recommending people stay home and avoid contact with others.

With the state shutdown, all of those activities are also against the law.

Noctor said, however, new listings are still appearing online despite the shutdown. That can only mean real estate agents are getting photos and measurements of properties directly from the sellers, unless they are actually visiting the properties themselves.

Health risks aside, Noctor also pointed out that agents willing to take their chances - both with the virus and the law - have an unfair advantage on the market.

In the Lehigh Valley, properties are scarce and buyers are plentiful, so competition between real estate agents is high.

The shutdown has similar effects on the buyer’s end of the market as well.

Before sales can be finalized, buyers need to hire a home inspector, as well as contract a title company to ensure that the seller they’re dealing with legitimately owns the property. Currently, those businesses fall under the parameters of the shutdown and cannot take place.

Mortgage companies also check the buyer’s employment status to be sure the buyer actually has the income to pay off the mortgage. With unemployment rates at record-shattering highs, due to the virus, that could also cause complications for buyers who have lost their job.

Under normal circumstances, the three documents essential to any home sale - the mortgage, deed and note - all need to be signed in person. Thankfully, the state has made an allowance for those documents to be signed electronically on any sale contracted after March 6, 2020.

Of course, this only helps those who were in the process of closing on a new home when the shutdowns began in the past two weeks. As of yet, the state has not made any allowance for real estate agents to show properties or for businesses adjacent to real estate to reopen.

The state has offered an optional 30-day extension to settlement deadlines, with an extra 30 days optional if both the buyer and seller agree to it. This at least gives a buffer of time to deals that may not have been contracted in time to reach signing before the shutdown.

This mass uncertainty is devastating for buyers, sellers and, of course, agents like Noctor.

“None of us get paid until we settle,” she said.