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Florida Hard Money and Investor Loans
Florida is a law-and-cost state, and we underwrite it that way.
USA Mortgage funds investors across Florida. The state taxes the loan as well as the deed, forecloses through the courts, and resets your property tax bill the year after you buy. Those three facts shape more Florida deals than anything happening in any one submarket. Business-purpose loans only, and every structure is set in underwriting.
We decide in house, so you get a term sheet the same day.
We know the Florida cost stack
Deed stamps, mortgage stamps, and the intangible tax all land at recording. We price them into the file up front.
Direct lender, no broker
We underwrite and fund in-house. No middle layer slowing down your close.
Every investor strategy
Flips, rentals, new construction, bridge, and portfolio loans, all under one roof.
Loan programs in Florida
Acquisition through exit, all funded or arranged by one lender.
Florida lending questions
What does it actually cost to record a mortgage in Florida?
0.55 percent of the loan amount, and there is no cap. Two separate state taxes stack at recording. Documentary stamp tax on the mortgage runs 35 cents per $100 of indebtedness under section 201.08, and the nonrecurring intangible tax adds 2 mills on the secured obligation under section 199.133, which is $2 per $1,000. Together that is 0.55 percent. On a $1,000,000 Florida loan you pay $5,500 at recording before any lender fee (1,000,000 x 0.55% = 5,500). You will read that Florida doc stamps cap at $2,450. That cap sits in section 201.08(1)(a) and covers notes, not recorded mortgages, so a $3,000,000 recorded mortgage pays $10,500. Deed stamps are separate again. Budget the loan tax as a real closing line. Business-purpose only, and terms are subject to underwriting. See loan programs or talk to us.
Do you lend across all of Florida, and how different are the metros?
Yes, statewide, and the differences are real enough that we keep separate pages for them. State law is uniform: the same foreclosure chapter, the same doc stamps outside Miami-Dade, the same usury ceilings, the same promulgated title premium. What splits by metro is price, absorption, insurance pricing, condo exposure, and even who customarily pays for the owner's title policy. South Florida runs on condo and coastal product with buyer-pays title custom in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The I-4 corridor through Tampa and Orlando runs on single-family and small multifamily with seller-pays custom. Jacksonville is the cheapest basis of the eight and behaves more like a Southeast market than a Florida coastal one. Read the metro page for market conditions and this page for the law. Subject to underwriting.
How does Florida foreclosure affect a lender, and should it affect me?
Florida is a judicial state for everything, including investment property, and that cuts both ways. Chapter 702 governs. There is no power of sale and no deed-of-trust practice, so a Florida foreclosure runs materially slower than a non-judicial state. We will not publish a Florida day count, because no reliable series exists. The upside is on the back end. Under section 45.0315 the borrower may cure only until the clerk files the certificate of sale or the date the judgment sets, and otherwise there is no right of redemption at all. Section 702.10 gives a lienholder an order-to-show-cause fast track, and its deposit remedy expressly does not apply to an owner-occupied residence, which points the whole mechanism at non-owner-occupied property. For you as a buyer of distressed paper or property, that means title is final at the certificate, with none of the post-sale redemption windows other states impose.
Does business purpose put my Florida loan outside state lending law?
No, and this is where out-of-state investors get bad advice. In Texas or North Carolina, a business-purpose loan to an LLC clears the state mortgage statute. Florida is built differently. Section 494.001(25) has three limbs, and only the first is a purpose test. Limb (b) reaches a loan on commercial real property if the borrower is an individual or the lender is a noninstitutional investor, and limb (c) reaches five-plus-unit property the same way. Neither asks what the money is for. Section 494.0025(4)(d) also makes it a prohibited practice to misrepresent a residential mortgage loan as a business purpose loan, so occupancy and use documentation matter more in Florida than almost anywhere. Our licensing is handled. The practical instruction for you is short: title Florida deals in an entity, not personally, and have your attorney confirm the structure.
Is there a rate ceiling on a Florida private loan?
Yes, and it turns on loan size, not on whether you are an entity. Chapter 687 caps interest at 18 percent at or below $500,000 and 25 percent above it. Section 687.03(1) sets the 18 percent line; loans over $500,000 run to the section 687.071 ceiling. Florida has no business-entity carve-out, so an LLC borrower does not lift the cap the way it does in some states. Two details matter on small Florida paper. Section 687.03(3) requires points and fees taken as an advance to be valued and spread across the term, so a short loan with heavy origination points can annualise past 18 percent at a modest note rate. And section 687.071(7) provides that credit extended in violation is not an enforceable debt. That is why the $500,000 line is operational for us and not academic. We are not your counsel on it.
Can I shop title insurance to cut my Florida closing costs?
Not on the premium. The state sets it. Section 627.782 requires the Financial Services Commission to adopt a rule specifying the premium title insurers charge in Florida, and the statute says those rates apply throughout the state, reviewed at least every three years. So the premium on a given policy amount is identical at every Florida title agency. What still varies is settlement fees, endorsements, and how fast an agency can actually close you. One more Florida wrinkle: who customarily pays for the owner's policy is county custom, not law. Statewide the default is seller-pays, but the buyer customarily pays in Miami-Dade, Broward, Sarasota, and Collier, so a Sarasota file and a Tampa file allocate that cost differently on identical contract language. It is always negotiable, and the paying party customarily picks the closing agent.
Does Florida having no income tax help my returns?
Yes on the rent line, and it is durable in a way most state tax breaks are not. Florida Constitution Article VII section 5(a) bars a state tax on the income of natural persons, so changing it takes a constitutional amendment, not a session. Rental income from a Florida property is not reduced by a state income tax. The corporate income and franchise tax is 5.5 percent after a $50,000 exemption, and an LLC taxed as a partnership or disregarded entity, which is the standard investor vehicle, is not itself subject to it. An LLC electing corporate treatment is. Florida makes some of it back on the transaction side, through deed stamps and the 0.55 percent loan tax, and on the property tax side, where your bill resets the year after you buy. Confirm your own position with a Florida CPA.
What credit score do I need to borrow in Florida?
It depends entirely on the program. On our asset-based loans, meaning fix and flip, bridge, and ground up construction, there is no minimum score. We run credit, but it carries far less weight than it would at a bank, and weak credit is usually answered with lower leverage rather than a decline. DSCR and bank statement loans start at 640, conventional investment starts at 580, and transactional funding runs with no credit check at all. There is no hard pull to open a Florida file. Subject to underwriting.
What is the smallest loan you will write in Florida?
$100,000 on most residential programs. Fix and flip, DSCR, and bank statement loans all start there. Portfolio loans start at $500,000 across five or more properties, and SBA starts at $350,000. At the top, fix and flip and construction run to $5,000,000, DSCR and bank statement to $3,000,000, and commercial bridge to $10,000,000. Note the other Florida number that keys off $500,000: the usury ceiling steps from 18 percent to 25 percent at that line. Subject to underwriting.
How much do I have to put down on a Florida deal?
Anywhere from nothing to 30 percent, depending on the program. Fix and flip funds up to 90% of purchase plus up to 100% of rehab, so on a $400,000 Florida purchase that is $360,000 from us and $40,000 from you (400,000 x 90% = 360,000). DSCR and conventional investment run up to 80% LTV, commercial bridge up to 75%, construction up to 70% of value and 85% of cost, and SBA finances up to 90%. Transactional funding covers up to 100% of the A-to-B purchase. Add the 0.55 percent recording tax to whatever cash figure you land on. Subject to underwriting.
Serving Florida and nearby
MiamiTampaOrlandoJacksonvilleFort LauderdaleWest Palm BeachSarasotaFort Myers
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About the local figures on this page
Local rules move. Every tax rate, fee, ordinance and market figure here comes from a primary source and carries the date we read it, and we correct them as the rules change. Where a number is mid-change or we could not verify it, we say so rather than guess. Before you commit a budget, confirm anything that drives it with the city or county, and talk to your attorney or CPA on questions of law or tax.
Published by USA Mortgage Funding, LLC, NMLS #152588. Researched from primary sources by our team, drafted with AI assistance, and every figure checked against its source before publishing. Where an answer rests on a public record, that record is linked under it. Figures read on 2026-08-23.
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