Christopher Kull

Get fully underwritten, not pre-qualified, before you look at anything. In Palm Beach County the difference decides whether your offer is taken seriously. Then decide what you're actually buying: the house, the location, or the timing — because you will have to give up one of the three. We've closed over 1,000 homes across three states since 1994, and the buyers who do best are the ones who knew which of those three was negotiable before they walked into the first showing.

Price it against what's actually closing, not what's listed. Listings are asking prices; closings are the market. Beyond that, the two things that move a sale most are condition and access — a house that shows well and can be seen on short notice sells faster than one that's priced slightly lower. If you're selling under circumstances that aren't a standard move — an estate, a divorce, a relocation, a property you inherited from out of state — say so to your agent up front. It changes the whole sequence, and agents who haven't handled it will run the standard playbook anyway.

Over 1,000 closings since 1994, including more than 100 probate and inherited-property sales and more than 100 senior relocations. First-time buyers through luxury and equestrian properties in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee and the western communities. The work we're known for is the situations that don't fit a standard transaction: probate and estate sales, senior transitions and downsizing, divorce-related sales, and families managing a sale from out of state. In probate and estate work that means working with the personal representative and the estate's attorney, keeping multiple heirs informed, and coordinating title companies, clean-out crews and contractors.

The ones we're proudest of tend to be the grandparents' house. We've worked with families in Wellington long enough that we've helped three generations of the same family buy and sell. Eventually we get that call — one parent has died and the other is ready for assisted living, or both have passed and the house is now the family's to deal with. A recent one ran the way most of them do. The adult children all volunteered to get the house ready, which is useful and also means a lot of opinions in one place. So we walked the property with them and sorted it into three piles: what has to be repaired, what could be repaired depending on the return, and what doesn't need to be touched at all. That last list is usually the longest. People spend money updating things buyers don't care about, and on an estate property that comes straight out of what the family takes home. Then we said the hard part out loud before anything started. The clean-out is harder than anyone expects. One or two children live locally and step up to clear the house, on top of full schedules, with a deadline attached. Going through your parents' things isn't a weekend project — we've watched a single closet take weeks. That's normal, and it also blows the schedule, and the painting somebody promised never gets started. What follows is friction between heirs that was never really about the house. So we set that expectation up front and brought in people who handle the sorting, donating and removal without the emotional weight. The family kept what mattered, the house went on the market on schedule, and nobody spent money on work that wouldn't come back.

Chris and Sue started in 1994 and have worked as a team since — three states, over 1,000 closings, RE/MAX Hall of Fame during those years, and now The Kull Group with Keller Williams Wellington. What shaped the practice was ending up repeatedly in situations where a family put their trust in us after a parent passed, to handle the family home — often the house all the kids grew up in, one their parents had been in for forty years. Those sales need someone who can manage the situation, not just the listing. Over three decades that became the thing we're known for. We've also handled more than 100 senior relocations, helping Mom or Dad, or both, get settled somewhere new when the house became too much to manage. And a great many younger families along the way — first homes, moving up when the family grew, and everything in between.

Sue holds the SRES designation — Seniors Real Estate Specialist — which pairs with more than 100 senior relocations we've actually handled. Beyond that, thirty-one years and over 1,000 closings since 1994, including more than 100 probate and inherited-property sales. Coursework is worth having, and we have it. But it doesn't substitute for having sat in the room. This is a people business, and the advice that matters most in an estate or a senior move isn't procedural — it's knowing how a given recommendation is going to land on a family that's already under strain. You learn which closet conversation derails a timeline, or which repair a family will regret paying for, by having been there when it happened. That part doesn't come out of a book. Worth asking any agent you interview: how many of these have you actually closed?