Frequently asked questions

Two numbers, not one. The down payment can be 0% on a VA loan, 3% on a conventional loan for many first-time buyers, or 3.5% on FHA. Closing costs are separate and typically run 2–5% of the price in Florida because of documentary stamp tax on the note, intangible tax, and the large up-front escrow our insurance premiums require.

Work out your own figure in the down payment calculator.

To browse casually, no. To write an offer, yes — and most listing agents here now ask for a pre-approval letter before they will even confirm a showing on anything in demand. It takes a day or two and costs nothing.

Roughly 30–45 days from accepted offer to closing with a mortgage, and 10–21 days with cash. The search itself is the wildcard. See the full buying timeline.

Everything you pay at closing beyond the down payment: doc stamps on the note ($0.35 per $100 borrowed), intangible tax on the mortgage ($0.20 per $100), lender fees, appraisal, inspection, survey, recording, the settlement fee, and prepaid taxes and insurance into escrow.

Who pays the owner's title policy varies by county — the buyer customarily does in Miami-Dade, the seller in Broward and Palm Beach. The closing cost estimator accounts for that.

Typically 1–3% of the purchase price, held in escrow and credited back to you at closing. It is refundable while your inspection and financing contingencies are alive, and at risk once those deadlines pass.

All three are common here. One local caveat: FHA and VA both require the condo project itself to be approved, and many South Florida buildings are not — which quietly removes a large slice of inventory. Read the FHA, VA and conventional guides.

It is negotiated, and nothing is preset. Since the 2024 NAR settlement rules, a seller may offer to cover the buyer's agent, the buyer may pay directly, or it may be built into the contract as a concession. Buyers sign a written representation agreement before touring that states exactly what their agent is paid and by whom.

Yes — sell first and rent briefly, buy with a sale contingency, or carry both if you qualify. If you are moving within Florida, ask about Save Our Homes portability: you may be able to carry up to $500,000 of accumulated assessment savings to your next homestead.

Broadly: 620 for conventional, 580 for FHA at 3.5% down, and most VA lenders want 580–620. Qualifying and pricing well are different questions — on a conventional loan, moving from the 680s into the 740s can meaningfully change your rate and your PMI.

Yes. Florida Housing runs statewide programmes and both Miami-Dade and Broward administer local ones, with additional options for teachers, first responders, healthcare workers and veterans. Expect income and purchase price caps, a homebuyer education requirement, and a slightly longer closing — which the offer needs to be written around.

A comparative market analysis: closed sales in the last 90 days adjusted for real differences, the active listings you are competing against, and the expired ones that show where the ceiling sits. Condition, roof age, permit history and any pending assessment all factor in — none of which an automated portal estimate can see.

Request a valuation.

It varies enormously by price band and property type. Your valuation includes the current absorption rate for your specific area and price point. What is consistent: a correctly priced home draws its strongest offers in the first two weeks, and interest falls off sharply after that.

Paint, declutter, deep clean, tidy the landscaping, fix small visible defects, and gather your documents — survey, roof permit, wind mitigation certificate, four-point inspection and HOA paperwork. Above all, close out any open or expired permits before listing.

Yes. Buyers see a thumbnail before they see your home, and that thumbnail decides whether they book a showing. Photography, floor plan and video are included in the listing service.

Documentary stamp tax on the deed — $0.70 per $100 in most Florida counties, $0.60 per $100 in Miami-Dade plus a $0.45 per $100 surtax there on anything that is not single-family — along with negotiated brokerage compensation, title and settlement fees, recording, the HOA estoppel fee, tax proration and any agreed repairs. In Broward and Palm Beach the seller usually also buys the owner's title policy. Try the net proceeds calculator.

Fix the cheap and visible. Be selective with big-ticket work — a failing roof is worth addressing because it affects whether a buyer can insure and finance the home at all, but a dated bathroom generally is not. Sometimes pricing honestly for the condition is the better trade.

Yes. Close both the same day, sell first with a short post-closing occupancy, or buy first if you can carry both. If both homes are in Florida, raise homestead portability early — it can change what the next home actually costs you each month.

Fair housing law means an agent cannot rank areas for you or steer you based on who lives there — and honestly, a ranking would not be much use anyway, because the answer depends entirely on your commute, budget and what you want out of a weekend.

What is genuinely useful: families tend to weigh yard space, the specific school assignment for the exact address, drive time to work at the hour you would actually make it, and whether they want a gated community with amenities or a traditional neighbourhood. Tell Jade those four things and you will get a short list of areas that fit, with the official district boundary lookup for each address so you can evaluate the schools yourself.

Florida has no state income tax, and property tax is set by combined millage rates from the county, city, school board and special districts — so the rate varies by exact municipality, not just by county. Across Miami-Dade and Broward, effective rates commonly land somewhere around 1% to 1.3% of value, but you should always check the actual millage for a specific address.

The critical thing for newcomers: the assessed value resets to roughly your purchase price when you buy. The seller's low tax bill reflects years of Save Our Homes protection you do not inherit. Budget from your own purchase price, not the current bill.

If the home is your permanent residence as of 1 January, you can claim a homestead exemption that reduces the taxable value — the first $25,000 applies to all taxes, and an additional $25,000 on value between $50,000 and $75,000 applies to non-school taxes.

The bigger long-term benefit is Save Our Homes: once homesteaded, your assessed value cannot rise more than 3% a year (or the change in CPI, whichever is lower) regardless of what the market does. Over a decade that becomes substantial.

Two practical points. It is not automatic — you must file with the county property appraiser, and the deadline is 1 March. And if you already own a Florida homestead, portability lets you transfer up to $500,000 of accumulated savings to your next one, which has its own filing requirement.

A recurring charge to a homeowners or condo association covering shared costs — landscaping, security, amenities, and in a condo, the building's insurance, exterior maintenance and reserves. They range from modest for a townhome community to very significant for a coastal condo with a full amenity deck.

Since Florida's post-Surfside reforms, buildings three storeys and up must carry out milestone structural inspections and fully fund reserves. That has pushed dues up sharply in older buildings and triggered special assessments in some. Before your inspection period ends, always read the estoppel letter, the reserve study, and the last two years of board minutes — that is where an upcoming assessment shows up first.

Flood is not required by law, but any lender will require it if the property sits in a high-risk flood zone. Much of South Florida is close to sea level, and plenty of homes outside the mandatory zones still flood — carrying it is often worth doing regardless. Flood is never covered by a standard homeowners policy.

Hurricane and windstorm coverage is generally part of a Florida homeowners policy rather than a separate product, but it carries its own deductible — usually a percentage of the insured value rather than a flat dollar amount, so it can be a large number. Lenders require homeowners coverage on any financed home.

Roof age and construction type drive the premium more than almost anything else. A wind mitigation inspection can earn meaningful credits. Get a real quote on any home you are serious about before your inspection period runs out.

Typical commutes across both counties run around half an hour, but that average hides a lot. The region is built around a few north–south arteries — I-95, the Turnpike, US-1, the Palmetto and I-75 — and journey times on them at peak differ enormously from off-peak.

Miami-Dade has the better transit: Metrorail, Metromover and Tri-Rail. Broward has Tri-Rail and Brightline connecting the downtowns. Outside those corridors, driving is the default.

The only number that matters is your own. Before committing to an area, drive the actual route at the actual hour you would travel — a 20-mile trip that takes 25 minutes on a Sunday can take well over an hour on a Tuesday at 8am.

That is the right question, and it is best answered on a call rather than a web page. The variables that actually decide it are where you commute to, whether you want walkability or space, how much you will really use the beach, and your all-in monthly budget once insurance and HOA dues are included.

The relocation guide walks through each county and the areas people ask about most. From there, a twenty-minute call plus video tours of two or three shortlisted areas will tell you more than weeks of browsing.

Yes, and many relocating buyers do. The usual pattern is video tours to shortlist, then one focused trip of two or three days seeing eight to twelve homes with an offer ready to write. Remote closings are routine in Florida — you can sign with a mobile or remote online notary without flying back.