Questions Owners Actually Ask

Is it really free, and what's the catch?

It is free, and the catch is this: I am a broker, and I built this because owners who get a number from me sometimes hire me later. Not usually, and not soon, most people who run it are years away or never selling. That is a trade I am happy with. You get a number, I get to be the person you thought of. Nothing is charged, nothing is signed, and you are not on a call list.

Does getting a number obligate me to anything?

No. There is no agreement, no fee, and no listing involved in getting a number. If you want the written version I will do that free too. You can hand it to another broker, put it in a drawer, or use it to argue with your accountant. Nothing about it commits you.

How accurate is it?

It is a starting point and it is deliberately shown as a range. Where I have your real rent and occupancy it is usually close. Where it is working from the tax roll alone it can be well off, especially on buildings with unusual configurations. The methodology page lists exactly what it does and does not account for. The number that actually matters, the one a lender will finance, takes a twenty-minute conversation, and it is also free.

Is this an appraisal?

No. Under section 475.612(3), Florida Statutes, a licensed real estate broker may prepare a comparative market analysis or opinion of value, and in no event may it be referred to or construed as an appraisal. If you need an appraisal, that is a state-certified appraiser and a separate engagement. I will tell you who I would call.

Will you contact my tenants or my staff?

No. Nothing goes to your tenants, your manager or anyone on site, and there is never a For Sale sign out front. I keep buyers at arm's length as long as I can: before anyone walks the property I want them to have driven past it on their own and read the financials, so the only people who ever set foot there are people already serious enough to buy it. That cuts the number of visits from a dozen to one or two.

I will be straight with you about the limit of that. Somebody notices an unfamiliar car, or a tenant hears something, and word moves. I cannot promise it never happens. What I can promise is that it will not come from me, that I plan every step around keeping it quiet, and that when it is time for your tenants to know, you are the one who tells them, on the day you choose.

What does the 4% cover, and when do I pay it?

It covers everything: pricing, the marketing package, working the buyer list, the offers, the lender, due diligence, and getting it to the closing table. You pay it at closing, out of proceeds. Nothing before that, ever. It is 4% instead of the usual 6% for a boring reason, there is no team splitting it and I do not buy leads.

What if I am not ready to sell for two or three years?

Then don't. That is the common case and it is fine. Get the number now so you know where you stand, and if you want, I will send you a quarterly note with what buildings in your county actually traded for. One click stops it. I would rather be useful to you for five years than chase you for five months.

Do you actually answer your own phone?

321-275-5464 is my cell. Not an office line, not an assistant, not a call center. Sometimes I am in a closing and it goes to voicemail, and then I call back. That is the whole system.

What happens to my information?

It stays with me. I do not sell it, trade it, or hand it to a lead vendor, and running the valuator does not enroll you in an automated drip campaign. If you ask me to delete you, I delete you the same day. The privacy policy is the long version.

What if I already have a broker?

Then stay with them. If you are under a listing agreement I am not going to interfere with it, and you should not want a broker who would. Getting a second number is your business, and if it is useful to you in a conversation with your own broker, good.

What if the number comes back lower than I hoped?

That is worth knowing in August rather than in December after forty-five days on the market. If it is lower than you need, the useful next conversation is usually about what would move it, which line item, over what period, at what cost, rather than about selling. Sometimes the answer is to hold two more years on purpose instead of by accident.

What about my 1031 exchange clock?

Forty-five days to identify and 180 to close, from the date your relinquished property closes, and the two run concurrently. That timeline drives everything else, so if a 1031 is in play tell me at the first conversation rather than the fifth. I am not your tax advisor and you should not take exchange advice from a broker, but I should be building the calendar around it, and I will.

Why a specialist rather than a bigger firm?

A bigger firm gives you a name on the sign and, in practice, an analyst you have not met doing the work. You get me for all of it. The honest counter-argument is that a national firm has a wider buyer reach on a very large asset, if you own something institutional, that is a real point and I will tell you so. On Florida buildings at the size I work in, the buyers are a knowable list and I know it.

I think this market is inflated.

You might be right, and it is the reason I price the way I do.

Owners who bought decades ago look at today's asking prices and do not believe them. Often that instinct is sound. Asking prices and closing prices have been further apart than usual, and a number no lender will finance is not a real number at all.

What I will show you is not what buildings like yours are listed at. It is what they have actually closed at, and what a lender will finance today. If that comes in lower than what someone else told you, that is the point.

I'm waiting for my balloon to come due.

Then you need this number sooner, not later.

When you go to refinance, the lender orders an appraisal and runs the same arithmetic a buyer's lender would, real income, real expenses, today's cap rates. If it comes back short, you find out with weeks to spare and no room to fix it.

Getting the number now tells you which conversation you are actually in: a refinance, a sale, or two more years of collecting rent on purpose instead of by accident. All three are fine. Not knowing which is the only bad one.

The tax bill would eat me alive.

Sometimes. Sometimes not, and it is worth ten minutes to find out which.

Most owners know about capital gains and get blindsided by depreciation recapture, which comes back at its own rate. A 1031 defers it, but forty-five days to identify and a hundred and eighty to close is a real constraint, and plenty of owners trade into something worse purely to avoid a tax. Seller financing spreads the gain across years instead of taking it in one, and almost nobody brings it up because it slows the closing down.

And if you are older with a low basis, holding may beat selling outright, your heirs get a stepped-up basis and much of the gain disappears. That is the one case where the right answer is do not sell, and I will tell you so.

I am a broker, not a tax advisor, and none of this is tax advice. Your CPA is the one who applies it to your situation.

I'm just not ready.

That is the most common answer and it does not need defending.

Nothing here asks you to be ready. Get the number, put it somewhere, and come back to it when something changes, a renewal, a tenant, a partner, a birthday. No one calls you afterward. If you want to talk, the number is at the top of the page.

What happens if I get the number and then go quiet?

Nothing. You will not hear from me. If you get in touch in three years I will still have the file, and I will re-run it before we talk so you are not working from a stale figure.