Before you choose an agent in Everett, read this

Starting with what I cannot do

People sometimes ask me what they should offer in Everett, and I will not answer. Not because the question is difficult, but because answering it is the advisory half of brokerage, and doing that where I hold no licence is the precise thing this page says I do not do. It is also a protection for you. A number from someone who has not stood in the property and does not work the area is worth nothing, however confidently it is delivered.

Three steps, and what each one commits you to

What I will not do

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 Washington, and a Washington licence carries none in Florida — which is why an introduction, rather than representation, is the only honest offer on this page.
• Washington 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.
• Washington 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 Washington 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.
• Florida’s homestead exemption and its Save Our Homes assessment cap do not follow you. Washington 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.

If there is a Florida property on the other side

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.

Questions worth asking on that first call

• 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 Washington 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.

Other cities in Washington

• Redmond
• Spokane
• Kent
• Yakima
• Pasco
• Sammamish
• Tacoma
• Renton
• All of Washington