Sebring is inside my licence. Read on before you assume the rest.

Florida practicalities

• 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.

The parts that go wrong, and when

Where there is an association, the association sets part of the calendar and nobody can hurry it. Approval processes, estoppel letters and the fee that comes with them are all statutory or contractual, all predictable, and all capable of adding weeks when nobody orders them at the start. I order them at the start. It is not clever, it is just the difference between a closing that moves and one that waits.

Where I actually add something

Two true things sit next to each other here. The first is that my licence covers Sebring exactly as it covers Boynton Beach — Florida does not licence by region. The second is that a licence confers authority, not local knowledge, and pretending otherwise is how buyers end up badly advised. So: I can take this on, and the first thing I will do is tell you honestly whether I should.

Other cities in Florida

• Englewood
• Winter Garden
• Ormond Beach
• Fort Pierce
• Lakeland
• Wauchula
• Lehigh Acres
• Niceville
• All of Florida