What a Florida licensee can do for a Carrollton move

What this page is, and what it is not

Real estate licensing is state by state. My licence, 3623732, is issued by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and authorises me to work under The Keyes Company on Florida property. It does not authorise me to advise on, list, show, or negotiate a home in Texas. Plenty of agents blur that line. I would rather say it first and then do the useful thing.

Where I stop, on purpose

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 actually happens next

What works differently in Texas

• Real estate licensing is state by state. An agent licensed in Florida cannot represent you in Texas, and a Texas licensee cannot represent you in Florida.
• Texas is a non-disclosure state: sale prices are not public record. Researching value works differently there than in Florida, where documentary stamps on the deed make the price effectively public. Your Texas agent will explain what that changes.
• Texas 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.
• Texas is a community property state. How a married couple may take title, and what happens to cost basis on the first death, follow different rules than in Florida. Raise it with your attorney before closing, not after.
• Closings in Texas 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.
• Like Florida, Texas 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. Texas 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 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.
• 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?
• 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.
• How is a shortfall on the appraisal usually handled in Texas, and what do buyers here commonly write into the contract to deal with it before it happens?

Where I stop being a referral and start being your agent

The referral is what I can do for Carrollton. The Florida sale is what I can do for you. When a move involves both, treat them as one project — the closing dates have to talk to each other, and the cost of them not talking is usually a rent-back or a bridge loan nobody budgeted for.

Other cities in Texas

• Victoria
• Pflugerville
• Austin
• Irving
• Killeen
• Mcallen
• Beaumont
• Harlingen
• All of Texas