Moving to Anchorage, Alaska?

Where my licence stops

Real estate licensing is state by state. My licence, 3623732, is issued by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and authorises me to work under The Keyes Company on Florida property. It does not authorise me to advise on, list, show, or negotiate a home in Alaska. Plenty of agents blur that line. I would rather say it first and then do the useful thing.

What works differently in Alaska

• Real estate licensing is state by state. An agent licensed in Florida cannot represent you in Alaska, and a Alaska licensee cannot represent you in Florida.
• Alaska is a non-disclosure state: sale prices are not public record. Researching value works differently there than in Florida, where documentary stamps on the deed make the price effectively public. Your Alaska agent will explain what that changes.
• Alaska joins Florida in having no broad-based tax on wage income, so that particular line in the relocation spreadsheet does not move. Most of the other lines will.
• Closings in Alaska are generally handled through a title or escrow company rather than by an attorney as a matter of course, which is closer to the Florida pattern than not.
• Florida’s homestead exemption and its Save Our Homes assessment cap do not follow you. Alaska has its own property tax treatment, its own exemptions, and its own rules on how fast an assessment may rise. Confirm the specifics with the local taxing authority.

Where I stop, on purpose

I will not treat the introduction as the end of my involvement when that suits me and the beginning of it when that suits me better. What I owe you afterwards is honesty and a returned telephone call. What I cannot offer is supervision of another brokerage’s agent, because I have no authority over them at all. I would rather draw that line now than have you rely on something I am unable to deliver.

What actually happens next

Questions worth asking on that first call

• What is the local practice on possession — do I get the keys at closing, or do sellers here commonly stay on for a period afterwards, and how is that documented?
• Have you worked with buyers who were selling in another state at the same time? Ask for the mechanics of how they handled it rather than for a reassurance that they have.
• How many transactions have you closed in Anchorage in the last twelve months, and how many were on the side of the table I am on?
• Who actually answers the phone — you, or someone on your team? Ask early; the answer changes the whole relationship.

Where I stop being a referral and start being your agent

A tenanted Florida property does not empty because you have decided to move. The lease runs with the property, the tenant holds rights until it ends, and both of those facts sit in the middle of your closing date whether or not they are convenient. That is Florida work and it is mine to do, but it wants a start measured in months rather than weeks, so raise it on the first call rather than the fourth.

Other cities in Alaska

• Bethel
• Wasilla
• Palmer
• Juneau
• Kenai
• Fairbanks
• Ketchikan
• Unalaska
• All of Alaska