A Florida licence does not reach Marietta. Here is what does.

Where the line actually falls

Most of what goes wrong in a long-distance move goes wrong at the handoff: nobody owns the introduction, so you end up cold-calling names off a search results page. I would rather own it. I cannot be your Georgia agent, but I can be the person who found them and who you can call when you want a second read.

What I do once you call

What this page is not offering

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.

What changes when you leave Florida

• Licensing in this industry is granted state by state, not federally. A Florida licence carries no authority in Georgia, and a Georgia 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 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.
• Expect an attorney at the closing table in Georgia. Florida closings typically run through a title company instead, so the cast of characters, the fee structure and the sequence of the last two weeks will all look unfamiliar.
• Georgia shares Florida's coastal exposure and, with it, a named-storm deductible regime in its property insurance market. The mechanism will be familiar. Do not assume the premium will be.
• Neither the homestead exemption nor the Save Our Homes cap travels with you out of Florida. Georgia 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

Worth asking yourself before you call: is there a Florida house in this? If so, the referral is only half the conversation. The other half is a Florida listing, which is my actual job, and coordinating the two is materially easier when the same person is watching both calendars.

Questions I would put to them myself

• 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 Georgia — 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 Georgia expect to see attached to it? Local custom on this varies more than people moving between states tend to assume.
• If I am buying before I have seen the property in person, what will you do on my behalf and what will you refuse to do? A clear answer to the second half of that question is worth more than the first.

Other cities in Georgia

• Smyrna
• Columbus
• Dunwoody
• Macon
• Valdosta
• Savannah
• Albany
• Athens
• All of Georgia