Relocating to Imperial Beach? Here is how a referral works.

Where my licence stops

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 actually happens next

What I will not do

I will not tell you where to live. Not which part of Imperial Beach, not which street, not which side of a road. Some of that is because I do not know. The rest is because steering people towards or away from particular areas is exactly what fair housing law exists to prevent, and an agent who does it casually is not doing you a favour. You set the criteria. Your agent shows you what meets them.

Things that surprise people moving out of Florida

• Licensing in this industry is granted state by state, not federally. A Florida licence carries no authority in California, and a California licence carries none in Florida — which is why an introduction, rather than representation, is the only honest offer on this page.
• California 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.
• Title works differently for married couples in California, 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 California, and it is better had before closing than after.
• Closings in California 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. California 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.

One move, two transactions

The referral is what I can do for Imperial Beach. The Florida sale is what I can do for you. When a move involves both, treat them as one project — the closing dates have to talk to each other, and the cost of them not talking is usually a rent-back or a bridge loan nobody budgeted for.

The questions that tell you who you are dealing with

• What goes into an offer here besides the price, and what do sellers in California expect to see attached to it? Local custom on this varies more than people moving between states tend to assume.
• 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 do closing costs divide by local custom, which of those items are genuinely negotiable, and which are simply the way it is done here?
• 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?

Other cities in California

• Chula Vista
• La Mesa
• Berkeley
• Allied Gardens
• Thornton
• San Clemente
• Mammoth Lakes
• Ontario
• All of California