Septic pump out or other service is essential, as it tracks to public health. I know this because board of health was out here to make sure mine wasn't to fail point when I had it replaced a few years back. A big rain with full septic tanks is a problem for everyone.
A swamp cooler is what we use to cool our house instead of air conditioning. I'd never heard of them until we moved to New Mexico.
Traveltime you say you lost a huge deposit on your new home purchase. Sorry to hear that. I find it very discouraging that the seller would keep the whole deposit during this unforeseen calamity. I believe any reasonable person would have reached a compromise. Maybe return half or a percentage of the deposit. Just my opinion.I don’t think realtors are considered essential. They are working from home and doing virtual open houses. All in-person open houses in California are banned. I know because we were trying to buy a new house right as this crisis started. We backed out and lost a huge deposit. But the house has been posted on MLS and Zillow with virtual staging. Just because virtual open houses are allowed does not mean that the industry is considered essential. I am a health care provider and my office is shut down but I am working via video. My profession is deemed non essential but I can still work via video. I am surprised that movers are still working. I guess if you already sold your house and need to move into the new one, that would be considered essential because you might be homeless otherwise. However, if you have not yet bought and sold a house, I can’t see how that could be considered essential. In California, that would not happen since no one can see new properties in person unless they are secretly breaking the SIP order. I would not put this past some people, though. No one is actually enforcing the SIP order so it is easy to get around it.
In NY, realtors are also considered non-essential:
Cuomo orders real estate agents to stop showing homes
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest executive order prohibits in-person apartment showings, ending a fraught industry debate,therealdeal.com
Interesting!
They won’t be selling it for more money, probably much less. Real Estate will be affected as part of the economy.
I am interested too, will watch for your posts to see the outcome.
Someone I know, in the development I use to live, just listed their house for sale. Originally they were planning to do it in a year. They are concerned if they will be able to continue to afford the mortgage after the crisis and they are afraid the market will drop and they will not be able to get a price greater then their mortgage. Sadly, they are overpriced at least $40,000 so they will probably not sell it.
In my neck of the woods I'm noticing that too. Many Airbnb's potentially. No rental, no income to pay mortgage.
There were probably many that had there homes sold that had to find somewhere to live.
Who gets to decide what’s essential? I just ordered some headbands, bobbie pins, buttons , a travel sewing kit from Amazon. Doesn’t sound essential but I need these items to keep ALL my hair up and off my face. I also plan to add the buttons to the headband to hold my mask on for a more comfortable fit.
A note on Amazon says due to Covid 19 the headbands won’t arrive till April 24 th since they are prioritizing shipments but really how does it make sense to deliver to the same address 3 separate times for 1 order
To me if the store is going to be open then social distancing needs to be enforced by the staff or security otherwise it will be an ongoing cycle without breaking the virus. I think people need to really observe the social distancing and staying home unless it is really necessary, like food or cash.
My husband had to go to Home Depot yesterday. He said that there were a lot of people who appeared to be window shopping. They all kept the social distance, but he said way more people there than he was expecting.