SANTO DOMINGO.- Veteran real estate agent Bienvenido Paulino, with nearly four decades in the business, believes that the role of the Referrer should be taken into account in the law to regulate real estate intermediation in the Dominican Republic.
According to his statements, this is a denominator that has always existed and is in fact contemplated in article 8 of the Code of Ethics of the Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies (AEI), which assigns it 10% when the referrer is a real estate broker.
According to Paulino, this is the same system used between real estate agents and banks, where the former receive a commission for referring clients to the banks.
He explained that what needs to be established are clear rules in the contracts or with whom this type of negotiation is carried out, clearly stating what the Referrer is responsible for.
Welcome Paulino. (External source).
“Just as we currently receive commissions from banks, what are we? Loan referrals, and we're not bankers. And they give us a commission, so why don't we renounce that referral commission from the commercial bank?” asked the general manager of Plusval Venta Directa, emphasizing that those who are not in the real estate field should not be excluded from being referral agents.
“We have to be careful because so far in my 38 years of experience in this profession, I have always heard about that figure,” he noted.
He opined that what shouldn't be allowed is for a security guard or taxi driver to simply become a referrer, but rather for you to reward them. "But I would completely agree that it should be within the bounds of the law, because the figure of the referrer has always existed in this business," Bienvenido Paulino pointed out.
In his opinion, it is not necessary to establish a type of commission, but rather, when doing business with a Referrer, to establish from the very beginning what their participation is.
He added that the Referrer's involvement should be limited to the agent giving him a portion of his own commission, not the total amount of the deal. "It should be from my share because what he's doing is referring me, not the other party," Paulino stated.
He stated that he respects the opinions of colleagues who have taken a position contrary to his own.
What the AEI Code of Ethics says
In Article 8, Section C, regarding commission distribution, the AEI Code of Ethics states the following: “When the role of a CBR, or a group of CBRs, is limited to connecting the seller's broker with the buyer's broker, 'and in the absence of a written agreement to the contrary,' it is established that this liaison service shall be remunerated with 10% of the total commission for the transaction. If third parties, outside the profession, make the contact and request a share, it is established that this liaison service shall not exceed 5% of the total commission for the transaction. This figure is popularly known as 'the Referrer.'”.
