Buying in Kenai? I will introduce you to someone licensed there.

What this page is, and what it is not

When a website offers you an agent in any city you care to name, one of two structures usually sits behind it: a network of brokerages with a fee arrangement between them, or a marketplace that resells enquiries to whoever is paying for that area this month. Neither is disqualifying. What matters is that you know which you are in and who is paid by whom. This is the first kind, the arrangement runs through The Keyes Company, and it is written out in full further down rather than buried in a footer.

What a Florida owner does not expect

• Licensing in this industry is granted state by state, not federally. A Florida licence carries no authority in Alaska, and a Alaska licence carries none in Florida — which is why an introduction, rather than representation, is the only honest offer on this page.
• 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.
• Like Florida, Alaska has no broad-based tax on wage income. That removes one of the variables people most often assume they are trading away when they leave Florida.
• 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.

How the introduction gets made

What I will not do

I will not read your Alaska contract and tell you it looks fine. I do not know that state’s standard form, its local addenda, or what its courts have made of the wording, and a Florida licensee’s reassurance about a contract in another state is worth precisely nothing. Put it to the agent, and where the sums are significant, put it to an attorney licensed where the property is.

If Florida is the other half of this move

There is a version of this where I am not a referral at all. If the property you are leaving is in Florida, I can list and sell it as your agent under The Keyes Company — that half is squarely my licence — while the Kenai side goes to the licensee I introduce you to. Say so early, because the two timelines have to be planned against each other.

What I would ask if I were you

• How are deposits handled in Alaska — who holds the money, what amount is customary, and at what point does it stop being refundable? Get that answer before you write the cheque rather than after.
• What goes into an offer here besides the price, and what do sellers in Alaska expect to see attached to it? Local custom on this varies more than people moving between states tend to assume.
• If I am buying before I have seen the property in person, what will you do on my behalf and what will you refuse to do? A clear answer to the second half of that question is worth more than the first.
• When an inspection turns something up, what is the local practice — a price reduction, a credit at closing, or the seller arranging the work — and who conducts that negotiation on my behalf?

Other cities in Alaska

• Juneau
• Wasilla
• Sitka
• Ketchikan
• Palmer
• Bethel
• Unalaska
• Anchorage
• All of Alaska