Realtor: Money outweighs human life

Maria Miller, Horizon Properties, Guam Association of Realtors

By Troy Torres

troy@kanditnews.com

Is the ability for real estate agents to make money greater than the cost of even one life to COVID-19 infection?

A Guam real estate broker believes her ability to make money outweighs the cost of human life. Maria Miller, broker for Horizon Properties, Inc. also is calling on her fellow Realtors to retaliate politically if the governor does not see it her way.

Guam Association of Realtors leaders met recently with Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero asking her to allow the real estate industry to operate, at least partially. As it stands, many brokers and property managers are concerned about legal deadlines between landlords and tenants that require real estate agents to be on the field.

The governor's administration reportedly did not look favorably on the request, and Ms. Miller expressed her outrage in an open chat group with her fellow GAR members.

"Their thought is that if one life is saved all this is worth it and it is not! They need to realize that people are going to die regardless of whether we open or not but a lot more harm is done by letting the rest of us suffer so much. And need I say it again: We will remember who did what and who supported us." - Maria Miller, Horizon Properties and officer, GAR

"Maria is expressing her own personal opinion," GAR president Clare Delgado told Kandit News. She said Ms. Miller's comments about human life do not reflect on the Guam Association of Realtors, but that the membership soon will be taking up the question of mounting a political campaign against public officials who are standing in the way of the reopening of the real estate market.

Ms. Delgado believes her membership can go about their work in a responsible way that does not place other people at risk of contracting the Coronavirus. The decision of whether to mount this political campaign will be discussed at a GAR legislative committee meeting next week, according to her. Ms. Miller is a member of that committee.

Ms. Miller is the same broker, who on March 27, 2020 notified the tenants under the properties Horizon Properties manages that they would be charged late fees despite the passage of a federal law and a local price gouging order preventing such an action.