Spoiler Alert – The moral of this post is that it is NOT business as usual, and very serious precautions must be taken BY EVERYONE to keep our community safe.  Everything we do has a ripple effect.  Affiliate member Jamie Pollard of Academy Mortgage shared that three weeks ago, after digesting what news and information was available, he made the decision to restrict in-person customer interviews and to have two of his team members work from home, while transitioning to 100% remote work with no client interactions. His office has been closed for two full weeks and this past Monday, his mortgage loan processor took ill.  She was initially refused testing despite an aggressive fever, headache, and loss of her sense of smell and taste.  When the hospital finally tested her for The Coronavirus – it was positive.  By working remotely from home, they avoided exposing 3 more families, including his (with households totaling 14 spouses and children) to the virus, or carrying the virus to the next 25-100+ people they would have been in contact with. By using technology vs. face to face to conduct business, how many people avoided this exposure?!? HUNDREDS!

We share this story so that you can see how the actions of 1 individual in the transaction process can impact the health of hundreds.  We are pleased to note that the loan processor is getting better by the day, she expects a full recovery but still is exhausted by any physical exertion, 10 days after becoming sick.  Let’s all do our part to help to keep the spread as small as we can. When you’re preforming essential services and VIRTUAL and REMOTE is the way to go whenever possible!  Stay safe and take care.