Referrals Outside Florida
What a Florida licensee can do for a Hot Springs move
One introduction, made carefully, costs you nothing and saves you the guesswork.
Referral onlyWhy you are reading this
Two closings in two states means two contracts, two sets of local custom and two lenders’ calendars, and no single person has authority over both. What can be arranged is that each side knows what the other is waiting on. If I am handling a Florida sale for you, I will tell your Arkansas agent what my dates look like and I will ask for theirs. Where those calendars are never introduced to each other, the result is usually a rent-back nobody planned for or interim financing nobody budgeted for.
How the introduction gets made
What kind of transaction
A first purchase, a downsize, an investment, a relocation with a company behind it — these need genuinely different agents, and the difference is not obvious from a profile page.
A shortlist, not a name
Where Hot Springs supports it I would rather hand you two options than one. A referral that gives you no choice is just a redirect.
Nothing is owed either way
If you take a name and never call it, that is a fine outcome. No fee arises unless a transaction actually closes, so nothing about this obliges you.
Where I stop, on purpose
I will not tell you that you need to move quickly. I have no basis for saying it about a market I do not work, timing is not something a licensee should be selling anybody, and urgency manufactured by the person who benefits from your decision is the oldest device in this industry. If your timeline is tight, that will be because of your circumstances, not because of my advice.
The mechanics change at the state line
- Real estate licensing is state by state. An agent licensed in Florida cannot represent you in Arkansas, and a Arkansas licensee cannot represent you in Florida.
- Arkansas levies a tax on income; Florida does not. It is a change worth modelling against the housing cost before you commit to a price range, and it is a question for your own tax adviser rather than for any real estate agent.
- Closings in Arkansas 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. Arkansas 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.
If there is a Florida property on the other side
Sometimes the Florida property is not the one you live in. A second home, an inherited house, a unit that has been let for years — each of those sells differently and each carries paperwork that has to be in order before it can go on the market at all. If one of them is attached to your move to Hot Springs, that part sits squarely inside my licence, and it is worth starting early, because the documents take longer than the marketing does.
The questions that tell you who you are dealing with
- What disclosures is a seller in Arkansas required to make, and what are they entitled to stay silent about?
- How are deposits handled in Arkansas — 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.
- If my timeline slips by six weeks, what happens to the agreement I am about to sign with you, and what happens to any money already committed?
- Who handles the closing here — an attorney, a title company, an escrow agent — and when do they get involved?
Other cities in Arkansas
Questions people actually ask
Can you represent me in Hot Springs?
No. My licence is issued by Florida and is valid in Florida only. Representing you in a Arkansas transaction would be unlicensed activity there. What I can do is refer you to a licensee in Arkansas through The Keyes Company.
What does a referral cost me?
Nothing. You are not charged for a referral. If a referred transaction closes, a referral fee may be paid between the two brokerages out of the commission on that transaction. It does not increase what you pay.
Who actually pays you?
Only my broker can. Under Section 475.42(1)(d), Florida Statutes, a sales associate may be compensated only by the registered broker. Any referral fee is paid to The Keyes Company, and The Keyes Company may in turn compensate me. There is no direct payment from you or from the Arkansas agent to me.
Am I obliged to use the agent you introduce?
No. A referral is an introduction. You can interview them, interview others, and decline. If they are not right, tell me and I will look again.
How do you choose who to refer me to?
I look for someone whose recent, actual work resembles your transaction — price band, property type, and whether they handle relocations regularly. I speak to them before I pass on your name.
Tell me the city and the timeline
Give me the city, the timeline and whether there is a Florida property involved. That is genuinely all I need to start making calls.
Talk it through first Moving to Florida instead?
Jacob Campbell · Florida Real Estate Sales Associate, license 3623732 · The Keyes Company · Licensed in Florida only — referrals outside Florida are made to independently licensed agents in your state.
Who actually ends up representing you
A referral is only worth anything if the choice is made for your transaction rather than made once and applied to everyone. So there is no default name here.
The referral is submitted through The Keyes Company, and a receiving brokerage licensed in your state is identified for your specific transaction. I look at what that brokerage and that agent actually work on — price band, property type, whether relocations are routine for them — and I speak to them before your name is passed along.
Three things stay true whoever it turns out to be:
- They will hold a current licence in the state where your transaction happens, and they will represent you under that state’s law — not under Florida’s, and not under mine.
- Any referral fee is paid brokerage to brokerage, out of the commission on a closed transaction. It costs you nothing and it does not increase what you pay. Under Section 475.42(1)(d), Florida Statutes, any share reaching me comes from my broker and from nowhere else.
- You are under no obligation to use them. Interview them, interview someone else, or decline entirely. If the fit is wrong, tell me and I will go back and look again.
As referral relationships are formalised, the brokerages involved will be named here, together with their licence number and the regulator that issued it, so you can verify them yourself rather than take my word for it.
Referral disclosure
- I am licensed in Florida only. I will not act as your real estate agent in any other state, and nothing on this page is an offer to represent you outside Florida. Your agent in your state will be licensed there and will represent you under that state’s law.
- A referral fee may be paid. If a referred transaction closes, the receiving brokerage may pay a referral fee to The Keyes Company, and The Keyes Company may in turn compensate me. Under Section 475.42(1)(d), Florida Statutes, a sales associate may be paid only by his registered broker, so any payment reaches me that way and no other.
- It costs you nothing. You are not charged for a referral. A referral fee is paid between brokerages out of the commission on the transaction and does not increase what you pay.
- Commissions are negotiable. Broker compensation is not set by law and is negotiable between you and the brokerage that represents you, in every state.
- No guarantee. I can introduce you to a licensed professional and give you my honest read. I cannot promise any outcome, price, timeline, or level of service, and I do not supervise or control the agent or brokerage you choose.
- Real estate brokerage referrals only. This page covers real estate brokerage referrals only. It is not a referral to any lender, title company, insurer, or other settlement service provider.
- Equal Housing Opportunity. Referrals are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, disability, or any other class protected by federal, state, or local fair housing law.