Cell phones and other everyday objects could potentially carry the coronavirus. Washing your hands and disinfecting areas frequently touched are the best strategies for stopping the spread of germs, according to the CDC.

For real estate pros, that also likely means paying careful attention to your laptop, car, and keys (particularly your clients’ keys). Homesnap, a real estate search portal, recently spoke with medical expert Amanda Nemecz to learn the most important strategies for keeping your tech and everyday objects clean.

“Soap and water are one of the most effective weapons in keeping germs and viruses at bay,” Nemecz told Homesnap. “We advise people not to share screens and devices, and to wipe down frequently used items with soap or antibacterial cleaners, especially if others have been in contact with them.”

Homesnap also offers these tips for keeping common objects and surfaces clean daily:

Smartphones: Your smartphone should be disinfected two times per day. To effectively kill a virus or germs on your phone, use a disinfectant solution of at least 55% isopropyl alcohol. “Apple and Google have both confirmed that it is OK to use wipes that contain 70% isopropyl alcohol and it will not damage the phone,” Homesnap notes.

Laptops: Similar to your smartphone, wipe your laptop down two times per day with an antibacterial alcohol wipe (Clorox, Lysol, etc.) of at least 55% isopropyl alcohol, Homesnap advises. To clean the keyboard, lightly dampen a Q-Tip to get in between the keys.

Cars: The main areas to focus on cleaning in a car include door handles, the steering wheel, the shifter, seat belt buckles, and radio controls. You should quickly wipe down these frequently touched surfaces every time you return to your car after being in public. You can do this easily with disinfectant wipes or even soap and water. “Soap and water remains one of the most highly effective solutions to fight viruses and germs regardless if it has antibacterial properties or not,” Homesnap reports.

Keys: Car and house keys should be cleaned with soap and water (for non-electronic keys) or antibacterial wipes once per day. Keep your keys in your pocket or bag when out in public. Similar to washing your hands, wiping down the surface for at least 20 seconds allows the soap time to fully break down the virus or germs.

Just how long mortgage rates will remain at rock-bottom percentages is tough to judge, but don’t be surprised if they do what they did last week and rise again over the next few weeks.

Despite the effects of the coronavirus on already turbulent financial markets and concerns of a recession, mortgage rates will “likely stabilize but remain low for now,” predicts Joel Kan, associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Last week, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.36%, after a record low average of 3.29% during the week ending March 5, Freddie Mac reported.

“I was disappointed it went up,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, told The New York Times. The lower rates can help homeowners lower their monthly payments at a time when some may be out of work due to the outbreak, he continued.

Mortgage rates typically follow those of 10-year Treasury bonds, which have been pushed to record lows over recent weeks. Yet, mortgage rates didn’t follow suit last week.

Could lenders be facing a capacity issue that is preventing rates from going lower? Mortgage brokers reported a slew of customers flocking to refinance their loans after rates sank to record lows. Some lenders said they actually ended up having to charge higher rates just to slow demand.

Nevertheless, mortgage rates remain at “extraordinary levels,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said last week in a statement. A year ago, 30-year rates averaged 4.31%.

The Fed announced in an emergency meeting on Sunday that it would buy up at least $500 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds and $200 billion in government mortgage-backed securities over the coming months. Economists predict this will help support the surge in refinancings and stabilize mortgage-backed securities, which could help mortgage rates then move lower.

“That would stabilize rates and bring them back down lower,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “They’ll [likely] go back to the low 3% [range]. Might we see rates below 3%? I wouldn’t rule it out.”

Ali Wolf, chief economist at Meyers Research, a national real estate consulting firm, expects rates to fall into the 3.1% to 3.2% range within the next few weeks, but stay within or under the mid-3% range through the rest of the year,

“Today’s low mortgage rates are equivalent, in some cases, to $30,000 off the price of a home” in some of the country’s priciest markets, Wolf told realtor.com®. “Mortgage rates are turning back time on affordability.”

Is gray cooling for interiors? Where do those trendy blues work best? Paint can do a lot to upgrade a space. Fixr, an online marketplace for home improvement services, spoke to home design experts to gather insights on the hot color trends for 2020. Here are a few trends they found in their study:

Gray interiors are falling to the wayside.

Gray has been the go-to color in design, but it may be losing some of its appeal. Only 20% of designers say that gray will remain popular this year. Others feel it’s on its way out. That said, despite it losing popularity, 57% of designers say people likely will continue to use it.

Cool neutrals reign.

Neutral earth tones can go well with many different design styles, Fixr notes. Fifty-seven percent of designers surveyed say that cool neutrals will be the most popular interior paint colors of 2020 (the next most popular group—at only 20%—was jewel tones).

Gray and white exteriors sell best.

Gray may be waning for interiors, but not on the exterior. Fifty-two percent of designers said gray is the best exterior color choice for someone who wants to sell their house, 52% of designers also said white is a good color choice for the exterior. “If you’re looking to sell your home this year, gray and white are the top recommended colors for the exterior of your home,” the report notes. “This gives your home a neutral look that appeals to a wide range of buyers, helping them picture themselves living there.”

Pale blue is best for small spaces.

Blues have been trending, including a pale blue that designers see as their top choice for small spaces. Thirty-seven percent of designers surveyed said that pale blue is the best color for small spaces, while 22% said gray or green is a great choice. “While the size of a space is a key factor in selecting a paint color, it is only part of the equation, as lighting and architecture can also play a major role in the color selection process,” the report notes.

Rental returns on single-family homes decreased from a year ago in the first quarter in more than half of the 389 U.S. counties tracked by ATTOM Data Solutions, according to the real estate firm’s Q1 2020 Single-Family Rental Market report.

On average, the annual gross rental yield was 8.4% in the first quarter (measuring the annualized gross rent income divided by the median purchase price of single-family homes), ATTOM reports.

“The business of buying single-family homes for rent has lost a little steam this year across the United States as rents aren’t rising quite as fast as prices for investment rental properties in the majority of the country,” says Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions. “But from the national perspective, things are generally holding steady for landlords in the single-family home rental market. Also, profit trends are moving in favor of investors in higher-rent counties and against those in lower-rent regions.”

The counties with the highest potential annual gross rental yields for 2020, according to the report, are:

• Baltimore City/County, Md.: 28.9%
• Cumberland County, N.J., in the Vineland-Bridgeton metro area: 20.1%
• Bibb County, Ga., in the Macon metro area: 18.2%
• Mobile County, Ala.: 15.7%
• Clayton County, Ga., in the Atlanta metro area: 15.1%

Baltimore City, Cumberland, and Bibb counties also had the top three yields in 2019, ATTOM researchers note.

The report noted the top growth markets for single-family homes include Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Memphis. These areas are showing increasing wages over the past year and carry a potential 2020 annual growth rental yields of 10% or higher.

However, prices rose faster than rents in 59% of the markets that ATTOM researchers tracked in the first quarter. The largest annual gross rental yield decreases for 2020 compared to 2019 in the first quarter were in Delaware County, Pa., in the Philadelphia metro area (down 30.5%); Bibb County, Ga., in the Macon metro area (down 27%); Erie County, Pa. (down 26.6%); Saint Louis County, Mo. (down 26.5%); and Sussex County, Del., in the Salisbury metro area (down 26.4%).