Buyers these days go online to discover what’s available. And with the pandemic still very much a concern, they tend to visit the houses they find appealing by taking a virtual tour rather than an in-person look-see.

That’s because many sellers still aren’t comfortable with strangers coming into their homes -- masks or not. But a surprising number of agents -- about 27%, according to a recent National Association of Realtors survey -- aren’t making use of virtual tours at all. Worse, a poll of professionals at a recent town hall sponsored by Inman, a real estate-centric news service, found that 74% had never made a listing video.

Undoubtedly, many of these non-users are part-time agents, or those who only cobble together a few sales a year. So if you’ve mistakenly signed up with such an agent, either jettison him or her as soon as possible or learn how to make your own video. The experts say it isn’t all that difficult. Besides, even top-selling agents may ask you to create a movie of your place because they aren’t crazy about venturing outside yet, either.

Video programs range from the simple to the complex. You can use Facetime, Facebook Live, Google Hangouts, Zoom, YouTube, Instagram or any of a host of other apps. You can opt for something more elaborate, but just remember that your production doesn’t have to be incredibly professional.

A smartphone is the only tool you’ll need, says Patty McNease of listing website Homes.com. (Full disclosure: I contribute content to Homes.com.) If you want to produce something more memorable, you also might want to get your hands on a tripod, microphone and light panel.

Otherwise, make sure to turn all the lights on and open all window coverings to allow as much natural light inside as possible. You might even consider replacing all your light bulbs with high-wattage ones.

Before you start filming, send pictures of your house to your agent for advice on what to highlight, what needs to be painted or otherwise improved, and suggestions of what furniture and personal items to remove.

All in-person tours start at the curb, so start your video there, too. The folks at Home Matters, a real estate e-newsletter, suggest picking an eye-catching location to start: say, a corner of your lot that shows your property’s expanse. Of course, make sure you’ve spruced up the yard and front door; a dull door and shabby shrubs will defeat your purpose.

As you move along to the front door, begin a narration to tell viewers about what they are seeing. But be careful not to divulge negative information. Saying the lot is a half-acre, the largest in the neighborhood, is good. But the fact that you pay someone $100 every other week to mow the lawn is not something a potential buyer needs to know.

Once inside, point out the highlights of each room, both visually and verbally. It’s better to stay focused on an attribute or two for too long than to move through too quickly. And camera angles are important, says Allen Alishahi of ShelterZoom. If you are looking to showcase your stone countertops, prop your camera on one side of the kitchen to show them on the other side of the room.

While you’re discussing certain items, try to build an emotional connection to them, says McNease. For example, at the fireplace, you might mention the many nights you enjoyed reading to your kids or grandkids in front of a roaring fire. Or at the rear deck, casually note how the family enjoyed “picnicking” outside when the weather was nice.

Some desirable items to highlight: The size of rooms, as in 20-by-20 or 400 square feet; ceiling heights; trims and moldings; walk-in closets; dual sinks; expansive windows; hardwood flooring; custom tile work or anything else that might set a buyer’s heart fluttering.

If you have vaulted ceilings, show them, too. But don’t mention what it costs to heat and cool your house until you are asked. And if you redid your kitchen, say, or put on a new roof, then mention that. Tell folks when the job was done, and that you secured a permit from the local authorities.

If you’ve already moved out of the house, consider virtual staging: a process of virtually adding key pieces of furniture to your video. Chicago agent Margaret Goss found several companies online that offer this service. This step can be helpful, since many people have trouble visualizing empty houses, especially remotely.

It’s hard to say how long your video should run. Some buyers will want to see and hear as much as possible, but others will lose interest quickly. Jameson Doris of RISMedia suggests keeping it short -- “a couple of minutes at most” -- unless you are using Facebook Live. Then, it’s the longer, the better.

If your photos and video are good enough, they might be sufficient to nail a sale -- some people these days are buying houses without ever stepping inside them -- or at least to whet someone’s interest enough to see your place in person.

Above all, don’t be overly critical of the quality of your work. You might have to take a couple stabs at it before you get it right. Says David Gumpper of the WAV Group consulting firm: “This approach is new, and will only get better over time.”

If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

That’s what some people in the housing business are thinking about a “fix” to the consumer-friendly Consumer Reinvestment Act. It’s a change that was rushed out during the pandemic without buy-in from federal banking agencies, by a regulator who couldn’t wait to get out of town.

Enacted in 1977, the CRA has done yeoman’s work over the past several decades in forcing lenders to serve all consumers in their banking footprints, not just the high-income, superior-credit borrowers. The net effect of the law has been to fight redlining -- the practice of banks drawing a red line around neighborhoods in which they refuse to lend. Thus, the CRA makes mortgages, car loans and other products more available to a wider array of borrowers.

That’s why many in the business are puzzled as to the reasoning for the changes. Certainly, some of the circumstances don’t pass a sniff test, such as Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting’s resignation the day after the final rule was posted, after an abbreviated time to consider public comments.

If this was a boxing match, it likely would be ruled a split decision, since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve Board, the other two major federal banking regulators, have not signed off on the final rule.

Rep. Maxine Waters sums up the naysayers’ opinions pretty succinctly: The new regulation “will be harmful for so many communities across the country at a time when they are under severe distress due to the pandemic,” said the California Democrat, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee. “This ill-advised rule badly weakens the implementation of the law and ultimately turns the Community Reinvestment Act into the Community Disinvestment Act. Gutting CRA has been Otting’s priority from Day 1.”

A former banking executive from Iowa, Otting was a Trump appointee. At OneWest Bank, he worked closely with the bank’s founder, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency supervises nearly 1,400 national banks, federal savings associations and federal branches and agencies of foreign banks operating in the United States.

The House has passed a resolution that would prevent the OCC from making any changes in the law, but it’s doubtful the Senate will pass it. And even if it did, the president has said he will veto it.

“The CRA is an essential law that was put in place to prevent redlining and to require banks to invest and lend responsibly in the communities where they are chartered,” said Waters, who introduced the resolution with another House Democrat, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York. “It is completely unacceptable for the OCC to use the cover of a pandemic to rush out a rule that will be harmful to communities that are already suffering during this crisis.”

Community groups like the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the California Reinvestment Coalition and legal oversight group Democracy Forward agree that the administration has been keen on gutting the CRA.

In fact, the three groups have given notice they intend to sue the OCC over it.

“The OCC went against the majority of public comments and introduced new, gaping loopholes into the rules that will allow banks to reduce their focus on lower-income borrowers and communities: the very communities the law was intended to protect,” said NCRC’s Jesse Van Tol.

The agency took just 40 days to post the final rule after receiving more than 7,000 public comment letters on the revision.

During a recent seminar, the nonpartisan Urban Institute summarized what’s wrong with the changes:

-- The metric used for assessing CRA compliance neglects community needs.

-- There is no anaylsis of the proposed rule’s impact.

-- It would result in a loss of public data.

Federal Reserve Board Governor Lael Brainard told another UI meeting that CRA reform should not be rushed, and should rather be the result of a united front among financial regulators.

“Given that reforms to the CRA regulations are likely to set expectations for a few decades, it is more important to get the reforms done right than to do them quickly,” Brainard said. “That requires giving external stakeholders sufficient time and analysis to provide meaningful feedback on a range of options for modernizing the regulations.”

Researchers believe it’s way too soon to downshift the fight against redlining, especially at a time when COVID-19 seems only to have widened racial disparities in housing.

According to UI’s Solomon Greene and Alanna McCargo, African Americans and Latinos have been hardest hit by stay-at-home orders and other public health measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Because of a legacy of occupational segregation, the two researchers said, minorities are heavily overrepresented in low-wage jobs and in jobs that can’t transition to remote work. In April, Latino unemployment reached a record high of 18.9% and Black unemployment reached 16.7%.

Disinvesting in neighborhoods can add to the problem by causing real economic disparity, according to Redfin’s Dana Anderson: “Redlining remains a major factor in today’s wealth gap between Black and white families across the country.” Over the last 40 years, according to Redfin’s figures, the typical homeowner in a neighborhood that was redlined for mortgage lending by the federal government has gained 52% less in personal wealth generated by property value increases than one in a greenlined neighborhood.

But redlining hurts the entire community, not just owners of color, says Noel Andres Poyo, director of the National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders, testified during a congressional field hearing.

“When people do not have fair access to mainstream financial products and services, they tend to be less economically productive and experience less economic mobility,” he said. “Redlining and other forms of financial discrimination are market distortions, an insidious form of financial inefficiency, that threaten this nation’s economic future.”

-- Freelance writer Mark Fogarty contributed to this column.

At last count, some 4.7 million homeowners were in some kind of forbearance plan. That represents almost 9% of all mortgages. Taken together, just over $1 trillion in principal has gone unpaid during the COVID-19 crisis, according to analytics firm Black Knight.

When these folks’ forbearance plans end, some will go back to making regular house payments and make up the balance at the end of their loans. Others will have to add something to their normal payments until they catch up. But some folks won’t be able to make payments of any kind.

No one knows exactly how many borrowers will find themselves in deep trouble when their government-mandated forbearance plans end Aug. 31. But it’s likely to be so many that their lenders will find it difficult be to keep up with requests for further relief. Ditto for landlords, who also seem likely to be overwhelmed with requests for respite.

The good news is that the vast majority of people in forbearance have strong equity positions in their homes. According to Black Knight, “only” 9% have a combined loan-to-value ratio of 90% of higher. Put another way, some 446,000 owners have less than a 10% equity position in their homes and could be in danger of foreclosure.

Most of the remaining owners have enough equity in their properties to weather the storm. But the bad news is that many lenders have tightened the rules on loans based on the stake people have in their homes. Even with high credit scores and good employment histories, people may find it difficult to access the money they have stored in their home if they no longer have a regular income.

The next best choice for financially strapped borrowers, then, is to approach their lenders about what so-called “workout plans” may be available. Despite what some believe, lenders aren’t in the business of owning houses. So they should be willing to extend an olive branch to borrowers who meet the rules.

The kind of workout plans available are very similar to the forbearance plans offered to borrowers during the first months of the pandemic. Here’s a quick rundown:

-- Refinancing. A new loan with new terms, interest rates and monthly payments that are more affordable.

-- Repayment. Allows you pay the past due amount, along with your current payments, over a specified period to bring your mortgage current. The repayment period could be months or years, depending on your situation.

-- Forbearance. Your lender will suspend or reduce your monthly payments for a specific time, after which you must start paying. You also will be required to make up the payments you missed as you go along.

-- Modification. The lender will agree to change the terms of your mortgage -- the amount you owe, the length of the loan, the interest rate -- to make your payment more affordable.

While each of these options has drawbacks, they are all designed to help you stay in your home while recovering from your financial setback at the hands of COVID-19. Your only other choices are to sell and move, or to slide into foreclosure.

If you choose to sell, inventory is so tight right now that you should be able to sell quickly and at a good price. If you opt for foreclosure, the process isn’t likely to start until you’re four months in arrears, so at least you’ll have extra time to figure out where you are going.

Applying for extended relief won’t be nearly as easy as it was to obtain forbearance. Under the government’s forbearance rules, all you had to do was apply. This time around, though, the paperwork needed could be overwhelming.

Late last month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gave lenders permission to offer certain loss mitigation options even if the borrower turns in an incomplete application for assistance. But even with that, it’s always a good idea to align yourself with a housing counselor who knows the ins and outs of the process. You can find government-certified counselors on the Department of Housing and Urban Development website (hud.gov).

But start the process early. Servicers of federally backed mortgages are required to contact borrowers at least 30 days before their original forbearance period ends to determine an appropriate next step. But lenders and loan servicers of all kinds are likely to be inundated with requests, so don’t wait. Be proactive.

“Communication is key to a successful outcome,” Bob Driscoll of Rockland Trust, a community bank in Massachusetts, advised. “Asking for help isn’t always easy, especially if you’ve already been in a forbearance plan. But in my experience, if you are honest and can state what you want, you should be successful. We know you need help.”

Take notes about every conversation you have, and make and save copies of every form and document you are asked to submit. And if you don’t hear back within a reasonable amount of time, get back on the horn. You must be your own best advocate.

Remember, though, more relief is not automatic. The decision “will depend on the homeowner’s financial situation when the forbearance plan has concluded, and whether they can afford to make extra payments over time, they can make only their existing monthly payment or they’d had a permanent impact to their ability to pay their existing monthly payment,” Malloy Evans, vice president and chief credit officer at Fannie Mae, told me in an email.

Now, a quick word about help for renters. According to LawAtlas.org, a million tenants are evicted from their homes annually, and that number is likely to be compounded when temporary eviction moratoria end.

Twelve states are set to lift their protections by Aug. 31. And in some cities within those states, landlords need only 24 hours after receiving an eviction judgment to retake possession. “Eviction is a looming crisis as we begin to lift out of the pandemic,” says Megan Hatch, a research fellow at the Center for Public Health Law Research and an associate professor at Cleveland State University.

A tenant’s best defense is to know the landlord-tenant laws where they reside. There isn’t a central clearinghouse that I know of for these laws everywhere, but LawAtlas has a data set of state-, county- and city-level laws and court rules in effect as of Aug. 31, 2019, in 10 of the largest cities in each of the four census regions.

“The data set is the only comprehensive resource on eviction law at the city level that provides not only the proper citations but also the full text of the law in each city,” according to CPHLR’s Joshua Waimberg.

Also take a look at KnowYourOptions.com, a site set up by Fannie Mae as a resource for renters and owners.