Before you choose an agent in Westminster, read this

The process, in three steps

The part most sites leave out

This page exists because you searched for something and a search engine had to answer you. That makes it an advertisement, and Florida requires me to say whose: I am a sales associate registered with The Keyes Company, licence 3623732. What is being advertised is not representation in Colorado, because I cannot lawfully offer that. It is an introduction. Its value is that the person making it has a professional reason to get it right and a broker who is answerable if he does not.

What I will not do

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.

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 Colorado, and a Colorado licence carries none in Florida — which is why an introduction, rather than representation, is the only honest offer on this page.
• Leaving Florida means picking up a state income tax in Colorado. 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.
• Closings in Colorado generally run through a title or escrow company rather than requiring an attorney as a matter of course — structurally closer to what you are used to in Florida than not.
• Neither the homestead exemption nor the Save Our Homes cap travels with you out of Florida. Colorado 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.

The first conversation, made useful

• How do you prefer to communicate, how quickly do you normally reply, and who covers your clients when you are away? Settle that in the first week and most of the friction in a long-distance transaction disappears.
• Do you work alone or as part of a team? If it is a team, ask who writes the offer, who attends the inspection, and who I will actually be speaking to at nine o’clock on a Tuesday morning.
• How are deposits handled in Colorado — 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 Colorado expect to see attached to it? Local custom on this varies more than people moving between states tend to assume.

The Florida side of a two-state move

There are two possible orders and they carry different risks. Sell first and you know your number but may need somewhere to live; buy first and you have somewhere to live but two sets of carrying costs until the Florida property closes. Which suits you is a conversation for you, your lender and me, and it is far better had before you are emotionally attached to a particular house in Westminster than after.

Other cities in Colorado

• Littleton
• Arvada
• Grand Junction
• Colorado Springs
• Centennial
• Castle Rock
• Fort Collins
• Greeley
• All of Colorado