What Happens, Step by Step
How I work, start to finish, with the paperwork explained and the exits marked. Nothing here is a surprise later, which is the point of writing it down.
1. The instant number, about a minute, no cost to you
You put in the address and a few facts the county record cannot tell me: your actual rent, how many units are occupied this month. The model runs an income capitalization against Florida Department of Revenue parcel and sale data and returns a range.
It arrives as a range on purpose. A single number would be more satisfying and less honest.
Exit: Take the number and stop. No account, no agreement, nothing owed.
2. Twenty minutes on the phone
If you want the real number, this is the part that produces it. What I ask about: your actual collections rather than your rent roll, what is vacant and why, what you have deferred, what insurance did to you at renewal, whether there is debt and when it matures, what your basis is and what the tax would look like, and whether anybody else has an interest in the decision, a partner, a sibling, an estate.
What I will tell you in return: whether now is a reasonable time to sell your specific building, and if it is not, what would have to change. Sometimes the answer is that you should wait, and I will say so.
Exit: Still nothing signed. There is no agreement in existence at this point.
3. The underwritten number, in writing, no cost to you
I underwrite it the way the buyer's lender will and send it to you as a document: the income, the expense lines a new owner will actually carry, the cap rate buildings in your county are trading at, and the resulting value. It is a broker price opinion under section 475.612(3), Florida Statutes, not an appraisal, and it says so on it.
It is normally lower than the instant one, for three reasons that apply to every Florida sale: the tax assessment resets at closing, insurance is re-quoted, and management gets budgeted whether or not you pay yourself today.
Exit: The document is yours. Keep it, use it with your accountant, or hand it to a different broker. I would rather you had an honest number from me than a flattering one from someone else.
4. If you decide to sell, one page
The listing agreement is a single page. Ninety days. 4% at closing, nothing before it, no marketing fee, no cancellation fee, no automatic renewal. If ninety days pass and it has not sold, it ends on its own unless you choose to continue.
Ninety days is short on purpose. A year-long listing protects the broker. If I cannot sell your building in ninety days, either I priced it wrong or I am not the right broker for it, and either way you should be free.
Exit: It expires by itself. You do not have to do anything to get out of it.
5. Going to market, quietly
No sign. Your listing can have its own public page, or stay private and go only to buyers I send it to. You choose. The buyers I send it to already own buildings in Florida, and before an NDA they know the county and the size, not the name, not the address.
From there I run it: the offers, the buyer's lender, due diligence, the estoppels, the appraisal, and the closing. Not an assistant, not a transaction coordinator. If something is going wrong you hear it from me while it is still fixable.
What I will not do
- Give you a high number to win the listing and renegotiate you down after the appraisal.
- Contact your tenants, your manager or your lender without your say-so.
- Sell your information to anyone, or keep emailing you after you tell me to stop.
- Ask you to sign anything to find out what your building is worth.
- Tell you to sell when the honest answer is to wait.
Or call and skip step one: 321-275-KING
