From the outside-looking-in, impacts on the business of property may initially see the tariff as minimal on the local industry, but a deeper dive by those involved in brokering such deals reveals a foundational concern.

"A lot of our construction materials come from China," Liz Duenas, principal broker from REMAX/Diamond Realty Guam, told KUAM News. "Many of the items, the raw materials, unless the US beefs it up and starts to produce them, but a lot of the construction things do come from China and some other foreign countries. So if the tariffs go up, what does that that mean? It just means prices coming to us will go up as well. So that could be a factor."

And has been the source of much speculation across industry, from manufacturing to retail to services, there are likely short- and long-term economic consequences that filter down to consumers.

Gina Campos, drawing from her 30+ years of experience in Guam's real estate, said, "There's no such thing when dealing with building materials, where you can say 'buy local'. Because whatever we have here came from somewhere. Okay, tariffs go up 10%, but in the overall picture, if he [President Trump] increases a surplus, with with our gas that's going to bring down the cost of bringing materials in.

"And I think at some point, everything is going to level itself off, because when he was in office the first time he put tariffs on China; we just didn't talk about it then, we're talking about it now. But I think what we need to be mindful of is this isn't a new strategy, and when he did it back then, honestly, our costs did go down because the fuel cost went down."

However, most agree an immediate hike in prices seems eminent, as Duenas shared, "I think the objective for President Trump was to strengthen the US economy, strengthen construction, strengthen the ability to produce some of these products within the the US. In the meantime, we're probably going to get hit with some price increases for a period of time."

And while not the definitive prophecy that's been the subject of so many water cooler conversations this week, both businesswomen also say the smartest strategy may be to simply stay prepared and stay informed, but wait and see.

Said Campos, "If I'm building something, I'm going to hold off, maybe for six months to the end of the year and buy my materials then, because by that point we'll have enough gas that our gas prices have come down substantially.

"And I think that's going to level everything out."