Do you work with owners who live out of state?

Taken step by step from wherever you live, a sale here begins with the one part that already runs at a distance: you ask for a valuation by phone, by email, or through the form on the free valuation page, and nothing about that request depends on the state you live in.

The request asks where the property is, not where you live. Lowell follows up by phone or email, and the valuation can be put in writing, which suits a sale where the people with a say in it are spread across several states.

The footprint belongs to the property, not to you: Carroll, Grayson, Wythe, Pulaski, Montgomery and Floyd counties and the City of Galax. Whether the request costs anything is answered in whether we charge for a valuation. An owner who inherited the ground or bought it long ago and has never stood on it has a different set of questions, taken up in selling land you have never visited.

When the owner lives far away and nobody at the office has met them in person, one Real Estate Board rule carries more weight than usual.

Actions constituting improper dealing include offering real property for sale or for lease without the knowledge and consent of the owner or the owner's authorized representative without taking reasonable steps to verify identity, or on any terms other than those authorized by the owner or the owner's authorized representative.

18VAC135-20-280 B

So expect a check, before the property is offered, that you are who you say you are and that you own it or are authorized to act for its owner. That is not suspicion aimed at you. A seller nobody ever sees is the easiest seller for a stranger to pretend to be, and the check protects the real owner first.

The second half of the rule matters as much: the property can be offered only on the terms you, or your authorized representative, have approved. Settling those terms on paper before the listing starts is what keeps a sale run from several states away from drifting from what the owner agreed to.

At the end of a sale, distance shows up in the signatures. Virginia's notary law gives an owner in another state two routes, and neither one is a promise that a given closing will accept it.

• A notary in your own state. Under Va. Code 47.1-13.1, a notarial act performed outside Virginia, for use in Virginia, by a notary public authorized under the laws of that jurisdiction has the same effect as one performed by a Virginia notary.
• Remote online notarization. Va. Code 47.1-2 defines it as an electronic notarization under Virginia's notary chapter where the signer is not in the physical presence of the notary. Under Va. Code 47.1-13, an electronic notarial act performed under that chapter is deemed performed within Virginia and governed by Virginia law.

Which of those a particular closing will take is settled by the people running it. Under Va. Code 55.1-1000, a settlement agent is a person other than a party to the transaction who provides escrow, closing or settlement services and is listed as the settlement agent on the settlement statement or closing disclosure, and a non-party who conducts the settlement conference and handles money is treated as one too. The role is described under what a settlement agent is. Put the signing question to that person, and to the buyer's lender if there is one, before planning how you will sign.

Remote closings and electronic recording, in full, are covered in whether a closing can happen remotely. Tax questions for an owner who lives outside Virginia sit outside a real estate licensee's work and belong with an accountant.