An introduction to an agent licensed in Georgia

Where the line actually falls

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 Georgia. 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.

From this page to a licensed agent

What works differently in Georgia

• Real estate licensing is state by state. An agent licensed in Florida cannot represent you in Georgia, and a Georgia licensee cannot represent you in Florida.
• Leaving Florida means picking up a state income tax in Georgia. 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.
• Residential closings in Georgia customarily involve an attorney, rather than being handled by a title company as they typically are in Florida. Budget for it and expect the timeline to be structured differently.
• Like Florida, Georgia has coastal exposure and a named-storm deductible regime in its property insurance market. The mechanism will feel familiar; the numbers will not necessarily.
• Florida’s homestead exemption and its Save Our Homes assessment cap do not follow you. Georgia 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.

What this page is not offering

I will not tell you where to live. Not which part of Macon, 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.

The first conversation, made useful

• 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.
• What are the property tax mechanics — how is assessment set, when does it reset after a sale, and what exemptions exist?
• What does a normal contract-to-close timeline look like in Georgia, and what most often blows it up?
• How many transactions have you closed in Macon in the last twelve months, and how many were on the side of the table I am on?

One move, two transactions

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.

Other cities in Georgia

• Warner Robins
• Dunwoody
• Gainesville
• Augusta
• Sandy Springs
• Alpharetta
• Valdosta
• Newnan
• All of Georgia