As some restrictions are lifted across the state, open homes in the real estate industry will begin again on Saturday.
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But not all agents are rushing to throw open the doors to anyone who wants to inspect a home on the market.
When The Armidale Express contacted local real estate agents this week we found a mixture of responses, from excitement to extreme caution.
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Among the more cautious agents is Peter Georkas, the licensee at Hutchinson and Harlow Real Estate, who said they would not be having any open homes.
"I think we still need to take it seriously and Hutchinson & Harlow definitely won't be doing any open houses in the next few weeks, because if we're going to take social distancing seriously then we need to make sure that we're not doing open houses.
"So even if it's allowed I don't like it, not at the moment," he said.
Mr Georkas said he had looked at the real estate figures from March and the numbers were similar to this time last year, so he is considering if he would be going back to open houses, even if the restrictions had not been in place.
"There is no boom, but there's no bust, it's just ticking away," he said.
The state government ban on public open homes and in-house auctions came into force on March 25. Last Saturday, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet and Minister for Health Brad Hazzard announced the relaxing of restrictions on the industry.
Other agents in Armidale will be going ahead with open homes, saying they were excited.
One who was excited by the news was Lachie Sewell, who has his first chance to conduct open homes since launching his Armidale business under the Laing + Simmons brand.
He has nine homes open Saturday, and said measures were being put in place by the Real Estate Institute to ensure open homes were safe.
Mr Sewell said they were limited to six people in a house at one time, while there were also other precautions in place.
"I'm a big fan of open homes, it allows buyers to come and look without being pressured," he said.
At The Professionals, Ben Saxby said their team was looking forward to getting out to between 10 and 12 open homes on Saturday.
"Keeping the community and our staff safe is the most important thing, social distancing rules still apply. And we'll be doing a few extra things like providing hand sanitizer to anybody that goes in the home," he said.
"We'll also be taking everyone's particulars who go through the homes. It will be heavily scrutinised who's inside the home, just in case that's needed for anything in the future."
He described the mood as excited in The Professionals office.
"Real estate is still a people industry, and one of the reasons we do it is we get to meet people and talk to people from all different walks of life," Mr Saxby said.
"I know that in our office everyone is really happy, and everyone is pumped to get out there on Saturday mornings. Because Saturdays in real estate is game day, so we're looking forward to get back to that."
