Gary is outside my licence — here is the useful part

The mechanics, without the gloss

Read this part before the rest

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 Indiana agent, but I can be the person who found them and who you can call when you want a second read.

What I will not do

I will not treat the introduction as the end of my involvement when that suits me and the beginning of it when that suits me better. What I owe you afterwards is honesty and a returned telephone call. What I cannot offer is supervision of another brokerage’s agent, because I have no authority over them at all. I would rather draw that line now than have you rely on something I am unable to deliver.

What works differently in Indiana

• Licensing in this industry is granted state by state, not federally. A Florida licence carries no authority in Indiana, and a Indiana 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 Indiana. 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 Indiana 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. Indiana 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.

Questions worth asking on that first call

• If the property is listed by your own brokerage, what happens to my representation, what does Indiana law permit in that situation, and what exactly would you be asking me to sign?
• How is a shortfall on the appraisal usually handled in Indiana, and what do buyers here commonly write into the contract to deal with it before it happens?
• 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.
• When an inspection turns something up, what is the local practice — a price reduction, a credit at closing, or the seller arranging the work — and who conducts that negotiation on my behalf?

One move, two transactions

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 Gary, 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 Indiana

• Lafayette
• Bloomington
• Carmel
• Evansville
• Indianapolis
• Terre Haute
• Noblesville
• Kansas
• All of Indiana