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Real Estate continued

She does find it frustrating that everybody in her profession “Now they are going to have to sign an agreement and
is getting seemingly getting lumped into one category. “In agree to pay compensation if that agent is not compensated
life in general, we all have bad apples, but the good apples by the seller.”
shouldn’t have to suffer because of the bad apples,” she said.
Carrara can absolutely see one potential scenario that’s been
That said, she also believes the cataclysmic headlines were talked about - a world of more bespoke fees based on what
overblown. consumers want and how much they can spend.
“I have not heard one negative thing other than the lawsuit is “The wealthy pay for service,” she said. “I actually think in
huge,” she said. “I haven’t heard anything negative within our some instances commissions might go up, because agents are
circle. It will weed out certain people, and maybe that real picking what their value is.”
estate world was not meant for them. Everybody changes their
careers in life.” “I think some agents will command higher commissions
because of their value and especially in the luxury market,
For people who keep up with real estate news, this particular people want to pay for the best service.”
news was not shocking.

“We’ve kind of known that this is coming,” Caroline Carrara Real estate professionals had better know what their value is -
of Balistreri Real Estate said. “For the people in the know, and they’d better have some value. “It’s going to flush the
they’ve known that this has been coming potentially for three industry of all the wishy washy realtors,” Carrara said. “It’s
years. So there was already training and conversations and going to clean house because everybody and their mother,
preparation.” especially in Florida, has a license. It’s unfortunate that the
threshold to get your real estate license is not that high. There
That said, the early days will still be a shock to the system.
are are just too many realtors who get a license, hang it with
“Initially it sucks because it changes the whole industry,” a broker and don’t know all the nuances of a person’s
Carrara said. “Nobody wants to wake up and something biggest investment.”
you’ve been doing for a long time is suddenly changed.
However, being an optimist, I always say if you can’t fix it, Carrara sees this firsthand; as a broker, she gets plenty of
you can’t change it, what’s the opportunity here? What’s the calls from people whose realtors screwed up. If this helps
good in this?” leave the industry to full-time professionals who know their
community and the ins and outs of what they’re selling, that
The people hurt most, she said, will be first-time home buyers will be a positive.
and others who are scraping together the money to buy
something at the high end of what they can afford. “Now they “It’s going to leave the best of the best,” she said. “They just
are going to have to sign an agreement and agree to pay know everything about the community and to me, that is what
a professional realtor is.

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