Referrals Outside Florida

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

I can still help — by introducing you to someone licensed where you are actually buying.

Referral only

The mechanics change at the state line

Real estate licensing is state by state. An agent licensed in Florida cannot represent you in California, and a California licensee cannot represent you in Florida.
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.
California is a community property state. How a married couple may take title, and what happens to cost basis on the first death, follow different rules than in Florida. Raise it with your attorney before closing, not 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.
Florida’s homestead exemption and its Save Our Homes assessment cap do not follow you. California 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

Step 1

Put both dates on one page

A Florida sale and a California purchase are two separate contracts with two separate calendars. Before anything else we write down what has to happen by when: the date you must be out, the date you can be in, and which of the two will not move under any circumstances.

Step 2

Introduce early, not late

An introduction is worth considerably more eight weeks out than two. An agent who knows your timeline from the start can tell you what is achievable on it. One who inherits it a fortnight before closing can only tell you what is not.

Step 3

We revisit when a date moves

One of them always moves. When it does, tell both sides on the same day. Most of the expensive repairs in a two-state move exist because somebody learned about a slipped date a week after everyone else did.

What this page is, and what it is not

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 California 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.

The questions that tell you who you are dealing with

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 Lafayette 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.
What does your written agreement say about the length of the term and how I end it if this is not working?

Where I stop, on purpose

I will not answer a legal, tax, insurance or appraisal question in any state, including my own. I am a sales associate, not an attorney, a CPA, a lender, an appraiser or an inspector, and an honest version of this job includes knowing where its edges are. What I can usually do is tell you which of those people you actually need, which is a cheaper question to get right early than late.

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 Lafayette, that part sits squarely inside my licence, and it is worth starting early, because the documents take longer than the marketing does.

Other cities in California

Questions people actually ask

How do I time a Florida sale against a purchase in Lafayette?

Deliberately, and from the start. The two closings are separate contracts and nobody controls both, so the work is in keeping each side informed of the other’s dates. If I am handling the Florida sale, I will speak to your California agent about the calendar directly. Where the dates cannot be made to meet, the usual instruments are a rent-back or interim financing, and both are cheaper to plan than to arrange in a hurry.

Do you get paid if I use an agent you did not refer me to?

No. A fee arises only where the introduction came through The Keyes Company and a transaction closes with that agent. If you find someone yourself, or use somebody you already know, nothing is payable to anyone — and that is a perfectly good outcome. I would rather you had the right agent than that I had a fee.

I have a relocation package through work. Does that change anything?

It might, so check before I introduce anybody. Some employer programmes and benefit schemes require you to register with them before you speak to an agent, and will not pay the benefit if you have already committed to someone. That order of operations is theirs rather than mine. Read the terms, make that call first, and then come back — the referral will still be here.

Does a VA loan change how the referral works?

Not on my side of it. Loan eligibility is a matter between you and a lender, not something an agent controls, and nothing on this page is a referral to any lender. What it may change is who you want at the other end: ask the licensee I introduce you to how often they work with buyers using that financing and what local practice is on the paperwork. It is a fair question and the answer is usually revealing.

What do you actually tell the agent about me?

The shape of the transaction. The city, roughly when, buying or selling, and anything you have told me matters to you in how you are dealt with. Not your finances, and nothing you have asked me to keep to myself. If you would rather I said less than that, say so — it is your information, and a shorter briefing costs nothing.

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 you will actually be working with

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.