Racine is outside my licence — here is the useful part

Things that surprise people moving out of Florida

• Real estate licensing is state by state. An agent licensed in Florida cannot represent you in Wisconsin, and a Wisconsin licensee cannot represent you in Florida.
• Wisconsin levies a tax on income; Florida does not. It is a change worth modelling against the housing cost before you commit to a price range, and it is a question for your own tax adviser rather than for any real estate agent.
• Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin 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. Wisconsin 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.

Where my licence stops

A referral fee is not a finder’s fee and it is not something you pay. It is a share of the commission the Wisconsin brokerage earns on a transaction it closes, paid across to The Keyes Company under an agreement signed between the two firms before you are ever introduced. Nothing is added to your closing statement, and nothing arises at all unless a transaction completes. I set this out early because the word “referral” has been used to describe several quite different arrangements, and you are entitled to know which one you are being offered.

How the introduction gets made

The limits, stated outright

I will not read your Wisconsin contract and tell you it looks fine. I do not know that state’s standard form, its local addenda, or what its courts have made of the wording, and a Florida licensee’s reassurance about a contract in another state is worth precisely nothing. Put it to the agent, and where the sums are significant, put it to an attorney licensed where the property is.

The questions that tell you who you are dealing with

• What is the local convention on inspection and financing contingency periods, and how tight are people making them right now?
• What disclosures is a seller in Wisconsin required to make, and what are they entitled to stay silent about?
• What are the property tax mechanics — how is assessment set, when does it reset after a sale, and what exemptions exist?
• If I need to back out, what actually happens to my deposit under a standard Wisconsin contract?

The Florida side of a two-state move

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 Racine, 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 Wisconsin

• La Crosse
• Menomonee Falls
• Green Bay
• West Allis
• New Berlin
• Madison
• Janesville
• Brookfield
• All of Wisconsin