Deals die for four main reasons: inspection issues, appraisal gap, financing failure, or buyer cold feet. When a deal dies, you don't get paid — and you may not get your time back either.

What to do: Keep communication tight through every contingency period. Know your contract dates cold. When a deal looks shaky, call your broker before doing anything. Document every conversation.

Earnest money: Who keeps it depends on the circumstances and the contract language. If the buyer backed out without a valid contingency, the seller typically keeps it. If there was a valid contingency (inspection, financing), the buyer typically gets it back. When in doubt, get the broker involved before releasing it to anyone.

Three things changed as of August 17, 2024: (1) Buyer compensation can no longer be offered through MLS. (2) You must have a signed buyer representation agreement before showing homes. (3) Seller offers of buyer-agent compensation still happen — they just happen outside of MLS, through negotiations.

In practice: Most sellers are still offering buyer agent compensation, just not through MLS. The signed agreement protects you and sets buyer expectations upfront. Don't skip it — it's now required in Florida.

Your pitch for the agreement: "This agreement is standard now and it protects you as much as it protects me — you'll know exactly what I'm earning before we start, not after."

Call your broker when: a client threatens a complaint, you're not sure if a disclosure is required, a deal has a structural issue you haven't seen before, you're buying or selling personally as a licensed agent, someone asks you a legal or tax question, or anything feels off.

The rule: Calling your broker for something you could have handled yourself wastes 10 minutes. Not calling your broker for something you couldn't handle yourself can cost you your license. The math is obvious.

Most new agents undercall their broker out of embarrassment. The brokers who stay brokers are the ones who call every time they're unsure.

Pre-qualification: A lender reviewed what the buyer told them verbally. No verification, no documentation reviewed. Worth almost nothing in a competitive offer situation.

Pre-approval: The lender pulled credit, reviewed income documentation, and issued a conditional approval. This is what sellers and listing agents actually respect in an offer.

TruLux advantage: Your in-house mortgage team can get buyers to full pre-approval in 24 hours. Lead with this. In a competitive market, a buyer with a 24-hour TruLux pre-approval letter has a real edge over a buyer with a generic pre-qual.

Zone X: Minimal flood risk. No federal flood insurance required. Most buyers don't even think about it.

Zone AE/A: Moderate-to-high risk. Federally required flood insurance if there's a federally backed mortgage. This significantly affects monthly payment calculations and some buyers walk away when they see the premium.

Zone VE/V: Coastal, high-velocity wave action zones. Highest premiums. Generally applies to oceanfront or very near-ocean properties.

Your job: Check the FEMA flood map for every property before a showing with a serious buyer. Don't let them fall in love with a house and then find out about flood insurance costs at inspection. It kills deals and your reputation.

Look it up at: msc.fema.gov

New construction contracts are builder contracts — written by the builder's lawyers, for the builder's benefit. Common traps:

• Completion date is not a guarantee — builders typically have 6–12 month windows and penalties for delays are almost non-existent in their standard contracts.
• Upgrade pricing locks in at contract — buyers who add upgrades post-contract often pay premium pricing. Lock in all selections at signing.
• Builder preferred lender incentives — builders offer closing cost credits if you use their lender. Run the full cost comparison before accepting. Their lender's rate may offset the credit.
• Change order creep — small changes add up fast. Everything in writing before it goes in the contract.

TruLux's builder access means you know which contracts are reasonable and which aren't before your client signs anything. Use that.

The worst thing you can do is get defensive. The second worst thing is to go silent and hope it resolves itself.

Step one: Acknowledge it directly. "I hear you — that wasn't handled the way it should have been. Let me understand what happened from your side."

Step two: Own what's yours. Not everything, but what's actually yours. Vague over-apologizing doesn't help anyone.

Step three: Tell them exactly what you're going to do to fix it. A specific action with a specific timeline.

Step four: If the situation is escalating or involves potential legal exposure, call your broker before your next conversation with the client.

Most client complaints are about communication failures, not skill failures. Solve the communication problem and most of them resolve.

In a Florida residential contract (FAR/BAR standard), the buyer typically has these contingencies to exit and get EMD back: inspection period (default 15 days), financing contingency, appraisal contingency.

If the buyer walks outside of a valid contingency window with no contractual basis, the seller is entitled to the earnest money as liquidated damages — up to whatever the contract specifies (usually the full EMD amount).

What agents get wrong: Releasing earnest money without both parties signing a release or a court order. Never release EMD without proper documentation, even if everyone verbally agrees. This creates escrow liability for the broker.

When a deal falls apart and both parties want the EMD, the escrow agent cannot release it unilaterally. They either need a mutual release signed by both parties or a court order. If it's disputed, Florida has a statutory process that real estate brokers follow.

For your licensed real estate activities: you typically cannot hold your license under an LLC unless TruLux's broker sponsorship structure allows it. Check with your broker. Most Florida agents hold their license personally, not through an entity.

For your investing activities (buying land, development partnerships, holding rental properties): yes, an LLC makes sense from a liability separation standpoint. Keep the investor entity separate from your licensed agent activities.

For the timing: Don't spend $500 on an LLC setup before you have revenue. Get your first deal done, then talk to a CPA and set up the right structure. The CPA conversation is more valuable than the LLC — they'll tell you whether an S-Corp election makes more sense once you're generating consistent income.

The most critical thing: Start a mileage log the day you get your license. The IRS requires contemporaneous records for vehicle deductions — meaning you can't recreate it from memory at tax time. Use MileIQ or just a Google Sheet. Date, destination, business purpose, miles. Every trip.

Other deductions to track from day one:

• Home office (if dedicated space used exclusively for business)
• Phone and internet (business-use percentage)
• All software subscriptions used for business
• Education and licensing renewal fees
• MLS and board dues
• Marketing spend — mailers, ads, photography
• Professional services — your CPA, any contracts attorney

Get a dedicated business debit or credit card for all business expenses. Don't mix personal and business. The 15 minutes a month it takes to keep them separate saves hours at tax time.