What a Florida licensee can do for a Scottsdale move

First, the limitation

After the introduction I am not in your transaction. I do not supervise the agent, I do not see your contract, and I have no authority to intervene when something goes wrong — that authority belongs to their broker and to the body that licenses agents in Arizona. What I do keep is the telephone. If something reads badly three weeks in, tell me. I would far rather make an awkward call to another brokerage than find out at closing that the introduction was the wrong one.

What works differently in Arizona

• Real estate licensing is state by state. An agent licensed in Florida cannot represent you in Arizona, and a Arizona licensee cannot represent you in Florida.
• Leaving Florida means picking up a state income tax in Arizona. Model it against the housing number before you settle on a price range, and take the actual arithmetic to a tax adviser rather than to any real estate agent, including me.
• Title works differently for married couples in Arizona, which is a community property state. It affects how you may hold the property and what happens to cost basis on a first death. That is a conversation for an attorney in Arizona, and it is better had before closing than after.
• Closings in Arizona 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.
• Neither the homestead exemption nor the Save Our Homes cap travels with you out of Florida. Arizona sets its own assessment rules, its own exemptions and its own limit on how fast a bill can rise — confirm the specifics with the local taxing authority rather than assuming a Florida analogue exists.

From this page to a licensed agent

Where I stop, on purpose

I will not send your details to several agents at once to see which one bites. One introduction, to one named brokerage, after a conversation with the person at the other end. If it turns out to be the wrong fit I would rather go back and make a second introduction than have set four strangers racing each other with your telephone number.

The Florida side of a two-state move

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.

Questions I would put to them myself

• 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?
• Which documents will you ask me to sign at the very start, what does each one commit me to, and how long does it run? Ask for them by email so you can read them somewhere other than at a kitchen table.
• How is a shortfall on the appraisal usually handled in Arizona, and what do buyers here commonly write into the contract to deal with it before it happens?

Other cities in Arizona

• Yuma
• Phoenix
• Glendale
• Surprise
• Flagstaff
• Chandler
• Peoria
• Goodyear
• All of Arizona