A Florida licence, and Davie is inside it

Florida-specific things worth planning for

• Windstorm and flood are underwritten separately from the main policy across much of Florida. Price them on the specific address before you are under contract, not after.
• For condominium buildings of three storeys or more at the relevant age, Florida requires milestone structural inspections and a structural integrity reserve study. Both change assessments and financeability. Read them before waiving anything.
• The homestead exemption reduces taxable value on a Florida primary residence, and the Save Our Homes cap limits how fast the assessed value rises afterwards. Portability may carry a benefit from a prior Florida homestead. Your county property appraiser is the authority, not your agent.
• Title in Florida is customarily handled through a title company rather than an attorney as a matter of course, which changes who you call when a question arises mid-contract.

What the work actually consists of

The parts of this job that matter least are the ones marketing is loudest about. What decides whether a Davie transaction closes on time is whether somebody is chasing the association for documents, whether the lender’s conditions were read the week they arrived rather than the week they were due, and whether the survey was ordered early enough to be useful. None of that photographs well. All of it is the work.

What actually decides a Florida closing

The survey is where the story of a property is usually kept. Encroachments, an easement nobody mentioned, a fence that has been in the wrong place for twenty years, an addition that crosses a setback — none of that appears in the listing and all of it can affect title, insurance or your ability to do what you were planning to do. Order it early enough that its findings can still be negotiated.

Other cities in Florida

• Pembroke Pines
• Hollywood
• Gainesville
• Miramar
• Coral Springs
• Clearwater
• Palm Bay
• Pompano Beach
• All of Florida