Referral, Not Representation
What a Florida licensee can do for a Tyler move
I can still help — by introducing you to someone licensed where you are actually buying.
Referral onlyStructural differences worth knowing before you go
- Licensing in this industry is granted state by state, not federally. A Florida licence carries no authority in Texas, and a Texas licence carries none in Florida — which is why an introduction, rather than representation, is the only honest offer on this page.
- 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.
- Like Florida, Texas has no broad-based tax on wage income. That removes one of the variables people most often assume they are trading away when they leave Florida.
- 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 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.
- 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.
How a referral works
You give me the shape of it
Price range, constraints you already know about, and whether you are on a deadline. I am not qualifying you — I am briefing whoever I call.
I make the call myself
The referral goes out through The Keyes Company. I would rather spend a week finding the right Texas licensee than send your details into a lead pool the same afternoon.
It stays your decision
Interview them. Interview two others if you want. Nothing about a referral obliges you to use anyone, and I have no way to make you.
First, the limitation
A licence is a jurisdiction, not a reputation. Mine covers Florida and stops there, which means that for a Tyler transaction I am not the person who represents you — no matter how much I know about moving, financing, or the mechanics of a closing. What I am is someone with a brokerage behind him and a reason to introduce you to the right person rather than the nearest one.
The first conversation, made useful
- What is the insurance picture on the kind of property I am looking at, and who should I be calling for a real quote?
- What is on the survey or title work here that a Florida buyer would not think to look for?
- If I need to back out, what actually happens to my deposit under a standard Texas contract?
- How do you prefer to communicate, how quickly do you normally reply, and who covers your clients when you are away? Settle that in the first week and most of the friction in a long-distance transaction disappears.
What this page is not offering
I will not promise you an outcome. Not a price, not a timeline, not a standard of service from somebody else’s employee. What I can give you is what I asked the agent, what they said, and anything in the conversation that gave me pause. Anyone offering more certainty than that about a transaction in a state they are not licensed in is describing a wish rather than a service.
The Florida side of a two-state move
Not everyone sells. If you are keeping the Florida property and letting it out, that is a different conversation with different consequences: the homestead position changes once it stops being your primary residence, and the insurance and association questions change alongside it. I am not your tax adviser and the county property appraiser is the authority on the exemption itself, but I can tell you what the Florida side of that decision looks like in practice before you commit to it.
Other cities in Texas
Questions people actually ask
What if the agent you introduce me to turns out to be no good?
Tell me, and tell me early. I will go back and look again, and I will say so to the brokerage that put them forward. What I cannot do is repair the transaction from Florida: I do not supervise them and I am not a party to your agreement with them. Your remedies are the ones written into that agreement, their own broker, and the body that licenses agents in Texas.
What if I am moving to Florida rather than away from it?
Then there is no referral to make — that is my licence and my market. Start on the About page instead.
Who actually pays you?
Only my broker can. Under Section 475.42(1)(d), Florida Statutes, a sales associate may be compensated only by the registered broker. Any referral fee is paid to The Keyes Company, and The Keyes Company may in turn compensate me. There is no direct payment from you or from the Texas agent to me.
Do you get paid if I use an agent you did not refer me to?
No. A fee arises only where the introduction came through The Keyes Company and a transaction closes with that agent. If you find someone yourself, or use somebody you already know, nothing is payable to anyone — and that is a perfectly good outcome. I would rather you had the right agent than that I had a fee.
Do I need a Texas licence to be referred?
No — that requirement falls on the agent, not on you. The licensee I introduce you to will hold a current Texas licence and will represent you under Texas law.
Ready when you are
Give me the city, the timeline and whether there is a Florida property involved. That is genuinely all I need to start making calls.
Ask for an introduction Moving to Florida instead?
Jacob Campbell · Florida Real Estate Sales Associate, license 3623732 · The Keyes Company · Licensed in Florida only — referrals outside Florida are made to independently licensed agents in your state.
Who takes it from here
The honest state of things: referral relationships are being formalised, and until one is signed there is no company I can point at without overstating it.
The referral is submitted through The Keyes Company, and a receiving brokerage licensed in your state is identified for your specific transaction. I look at what that brokerage and that agent actually work on — price band, property type, whether relocations are routine for them — and I speak to them before your name is passed along.
Three things stay true whoever it turns out to be:
- They will hold a current licence in the state where your transaction happens, and they will represent you under that state’s law — not under Florida’s, and not under mine.
- Any referral fee is paid brokerage to brokerage, out of the commission on a closed transaction. It costs you nothing and it does not increase what you pay. Under Section 475.42(1)(d), Florida Statutes, any share reaching me comes from my broker and from nowhere else.
- You are under no obligation to use them. Interview them, interview someone else, or decline entirely. If the fit is wrong, tell me and I will go back and look again.
As referral relationships are formalised, the brokerages involved will be named here, together with their licence number and the regulator that issued it, so you can verify them yourself rather than take my word for it.
Referral disclosure
- I am licensed in Florida only. I will not act as your real estate agent in any other state, and nothing on this page is an offer to represent you outside Florida. Your agent in your state will be licensed there and will represent you under that state’s law.
- A referral fee may be paid. If a referred transaction closes, the receiving brokerage may pay a referral fee to The Keyes Company, and The Keyes Company may in turn compensate me. Under Section 475.42(1)(d), Florida Statutes, a sales associate may be paid only by his registered broker, so any payment reaches me that way and no other.
- It costs you nothing. You are not charged for a referral. A referral fee is paid between brokerages out of the commission on the transaction and does not increase what you pay.
- Commissions are negotiable. Broker compensation is not set by law and is negotiable between you and the brokerage that represents you, in every state.
- No guarantee. I can introduce you to a licensed professional and give you my honest read. I cannot promise any outcome, price, timeline, or level of service, and I do not supervise or control the agent or brokerage you choose.
- Real estate brokerage referrals only. This page covers real estate brokerage referrals only. It is not a referral to any lender, title company, insurer, or other settlement service provider.
- Equal Housing Opportunity. Referrals are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, disability, or any other class protected by federal, state, or local fair housing law.