Real Estate Market Archives - Demetree School of Real Estate

Florida’s Open Carry Law and How It Affects Realtors

For years, Florida did not allow the open carrying of weapons in public. Now it is legal. Do you have to allow people with a visible weapon into your open house? What about a private showing? Yesterday, Sheriff John Mina spoke to several members of Orlando Realtors about the new open carry law in Florida, and how it affects our business.

Here are some highlights…

He reiterated that a private businesses can make choices about their private property. As has always been the case, a private business can say, “No weapons on our property.” He used Walt Disney World as an example. Disney World does not allow guests to bring weapons on their property.

He said as a real estate agent, if you are showing a house, for that moment, the home you are showing is your place of business. It is fair to tell the prospective buyer that they cannot bring a firearm into the house. He said it doesn’t even have to be equal. If the agent wants to carry a firearm, but tell the customer they cannot, this is legal.

What Sheriff Mina didn’t discuss because it’s not related to his job is who makes the decision about this: is it the seller’s decision or the agent’s decision? If the seller doesn’t care about it, is it OK for the agent to say “No firearms at the open house.”? Or vice versa, is it OK for the seller to dictate the terms even if the agent is uncomfortable with it?

It would happen just like any other term of the listing. It is not unusual for the seller to say that they want all buyers to be pre-approved, or they want everyone to take their shoes off when they come to the house, or some other condition they set for seeing the property. The agent would be bound to honor those conditions. If the agent does not like the terms, they are the wrong agent for this client.

Let’s say you have an agent who is adamantly against firearms and does not want someone to bring weapons to the property, but the seller is very comfortable around firearms. If the agent makes an arbitrary rule that we are not going to allow someone into the open house who has a firearm on their hip, they are limiting the prospective buyer pool. The seller has the right to limit the buyer pool, but the agent does not have a right to limit the pool for them.

Many agents don’t care about this one way or the other. They are happy to have people with weapons on the property. They are equally happy to not have them. However, if you are an agent that cares deeply about this, and do not want to be in an open house with someone who has a machete on their belt, this is something that needs to be discussed when you are signing the listing agreement.

Please note that Karen Climer has no affiliation with Climer School of Real Estate. Her father, Ron Climer, sold Climer School of Real Estate in 2014. It has since been involved in several mergers and acquisitions and is owned by a large investment company. Karen owns Demetree School of Real Estate in Orlando, Florida.

Is This A Good Time To Get A Real Estate License in Florida?

The best time to get a Florida real estate license is when the market is on the upturn. Here is the typical timeline of someone getting a real estate license…

Month 1 – Real estate agents realize that the market is hot.
Month 3-4 – The general public realizes the market is hot. Potential agent begins mulling over getting a real estate license.
Month 9-12 – Potential agent makes the plunge and registers for school.
Month 12-16 – Potential agent has license and begins training with a new brokerage.
Month 14-18 – Downturn of market begins, just as potential agent is getting started.

Back in the 1990s, my Dad had a student in his postlicensing class. This woman said she got her license just before Hurricane Andrew hit Miami in 1992. She was a rookie agent in Boynton Beach. She joined a brokerage and spent about three months writing contracts. People just walked into the office and said, “I have a $300,000 check from my insurance company, and I’m looking to buy a house.”

If she had waited until after Hurricane Andrew hit, she would not have had that initial success. When she was getting her license, no one knew that Hurricane Andrew was going to hit Miami. Also, no one knew that it would destroy as many homes as it did. At the time that it hit, it was the most devastating hurricane that anyone alive could remember.

If this agent has waited until the hurricane to get her license, by the time she was ready to start working, the initial wave of people with insurance checks looking to move a little north of Miami would have passed.

So the time to get a real estate license is right now. No one knows when the market is going to get hot. There are many events that can happen that will change the real estate market in Central Florida. No one can predict when they will happen.

By getting your license now, and beginning your real estate career, you can be ready when the upturn happens. If you don’t have your license, you will likely miss the upturn and get in just as the peak has past.