Pierre is outside my licence — here is the useful part

Starting with what I cannot do

Buying at a distance is a different job from buying at home, and the licensee who suits it is not necessarily the one with the largest sign presence. Somebody has to walk the property with a phone in their hand, describe what is behind the fence rather than what is in the photographs, and be willing to say the thing that costs them the sale. That is what I am screening for when I make these calls. I cannot do it for you in South Dakota, and I would not trust a page that told you otherwise.

What changes when you leave Florida

• Licensing in this industry is granted state by state, not federally. A Florida licence carries no authority in South Dakota, and a South Dakota licence carries none in Florida — which is why an introduction, rather than representation, is the only honest offer on this page.
• South Dakota joins Florida in having no broad-based tax on wage income, so that particular line in the relocation spreadsheet does not move. Most of the other lines will.
• Closings in South Dakota 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. South Dakota 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.

How the introduction gets made

Where I stop, on purpose

I will not take a payment from you, and could not lawfully do so if I wanted to. A Florida sales associate may be compensated only through his registered broker, so any fee here is paid by the receiving brokerage to The Keyes Company out of a commission earned only if a transaction closes. There is no invoice at the end of this and no version of it in which you are billed for an introduction.

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

What to ask the agent I introduce you to

• If the property is listed by your own brokerage, what happens to my representation, what does South Dakota law permit in that situation, and what exactly would you be asking me to sign?
• How do closing costs divide by local custom, which of those items are genuinely negotiable, and which are simply the way it is done here?
• Can I sign remotely — electronically, or by post — or does something have to happen in person? If I am still in Florida on the day, what does that change?
• If my timeline slips by six weeks, what happens to the agreement I am about to sign with you, and what happens to any money already committed?

Other cities in South Dakota

• Box Elder
• Spearfish
• Yankton
• Mitchell
• Watertown
• Brookings
• Aberdeen
• Rapid City
• All of South Dakota