Daniel Harvey

Start by getting clear on your goals, your budget, and what matters most to you before you start looking at homes. Get fully pre-approved with a trusted lender, and choose an experienced local real estate professional who will educate you about the market and advocate for you throughout the process. Don’t focus only on the purchase price—consider the total monthly payment, insurance, taxes, HOA or CDD fees, condition of the home, and potential future expenses. Most importantly, ask questions. You should understand what you’re buying, what you’re signing, and what your options are before making a decision. A good agent’s job isn’t to sell you a house; it’s to help you make a well-informed decision that is right for you.

Start with the right price and a realistic understanding of the current market. The first few weeks your home is on the market are extremely important, and pricing too high can cost you valuable time and leverage. Pay attention to the competition, recent sales, buyer activity, and what the market is telling you, not simply what you hope the home is worth. Prepare the property well, make it easy for buyers to see, and have a strategy for what you’ll do if the market doesn’t respond as expected. Most importantly, work with an agent who will communicate openly and tell you the truth, even when it isn’t necessarily what you want to hear. My job is to help you make informed decisions and position your home to achieve the best possible outcome.

I’ve worked with a wide variety of buyers and sellers, including first-time homebuyers, move-up buyers and sellers, families relocating to and within Central Florida, downsizers and seniors, investors, and homeowners selling everything from starter homes to luxury properties. I’ve also helped people navigate more complicated situations, including probate and inherited properties, divorce-related sales, short sales and foreclosures, new construction, and transactions requiring creative problem-solving or strong negotiation. Every situation is different, so I focus first on understanding what someone is trying to accomplish and then developing a strategy around those goals.

One of my favorite recent transactions involved buyers relocating to Central Florida from Virginia. They purchased their new home without ever physically walking through it until the morning of their final walkthrough. Throughout the process, I conducted detailed video walkthroughs and consultations so they could evaluate the property and make informed decisions from hundreds of miles away. We ultimately negotiated a purchase price $31,000 below the appraised value, secured a seller concession toward their closing costs and prepaids, and negotiated a credit toward replacing the roof. The best part came on closing day. They walked into the home for the first time during their final walkthrough, about an hour before they were scheduled to sign their closing documents, and absolutely loved it. Helping them confidently make such a significant move from another state and then seeing their reaction when they finally walked through the front door, is what made that transaction particularly memorable for me.

I spent 15 years as a music educator and absolutely loved what I did. I was fortunate to experience a high level of success, but even with a master’s degree and years invested in my career, education simply wasn’t providing the financial opportunity I needed to support a growing family. I knew I needed a different career, but I didn’t want to give up what I felt was my calling: educating, serving, and helping people. Real estate became the perfect fit. It gave me the opportunity to build a business that could support my family while still allowing me to be an educator, just in a different way. I get to help buyers and sellers understand complicated decisions, guide people through major transitions in their lives, and give them the information they need to make confident choices. It has also given me the flexibility to remain involved with local school music programs, continue performing, give back to my community, and most importantly, be present for my family. In a lot of ways, I never really stopped being an educator. I just changed classrooms.

Yes. I hold the Real Estate Negotiation Expert (RENE) and Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource (SFR) designations, along with additional training in senior real estate, home staging, and working with real estate transactions involving collaborative divorce. This specialized education has helped prepare me to navigate negotiations, difficult or complex transactions, distressed properties, downsizing, and other situations that may require more than a typical real estate transaction. Before entering real estate, I earned an undergraduate degree in Instrumental Performance and a master’s degree in Instrumental Conducting and spent 15 years as a professional educator. That background has had a tremendous impact on how I practice real estate. I believe buyers and sellers should understand the process, their options, and the reasoning behind the advice they receive. My role isn’t simply to tell someone what to do, it’s to educate them, advocate for them, negotiate on their behalf, and give them the information they need to make the decision that is right for them.