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Fort Lauderdale Hard Money and Investor Loans

In Broward, condos and single-family houses are two different trades.

USA Mortgage funds investors across Broward County. Rental demand here is replacement demand, not a boom. Broward's wind code makes rehab a code question first. Business-purpose loans only, and every structure is set in underwriting.

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You get a straight answer from the people holding the capital.

Broward is two markets in one county

Single-family values are down 2.9% year over year, a soft landing. Condo values are down 8.4% and off 19.6% from their January 2024 peak, a slide that tracks milestone inspection and reserve-funding law landing on the aging coastal stock. Quoting one Broward number averages two unrelated stories.

Insurance is the line that decides the deal

Broward and Miami-Dade are the only High Velocity Hurricane Zone counties in Florida, and the average Broward homeowners premium including wind runs $6,136, roughly 2.2 months of gross rent a year on a typical Fort Lauderdale unit. South Florida claims are litigated at more than three times the rest-of-state rate.

Population is holding steady on international arrivals, not growth

Broward lost 372 residents net in the year to July 2025 as domestic outflow of 29,517 was nearly offset by 24,944 international arrivals, and employment fell too. The rental case here is replacement demand, not a Sun Belt boom.

Loan programs in Fort Lauderdale

Acquisition through exit, all funded or arranged by one lender.

Fix and Flip in Fort LauderdaleRental / DSCR in Fort LauderdaleGround-Up Construction in Fort LauderdaleCRE Bridge in Fort LauderdaleTransactional Funding in Fort LauderdaleBank Statement / No-Doc in Fort LauderdaleConventional Investment in Fort LauderdalePortfolio Loans in Fort LauderdaleCRE Permanent in Fort LauderdaleSBA Financing in Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale lending questions

Do you lend across Broward County?
Yes. We fund across the county. That includes Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Pembroke Pines, Coral Springs, Davie, Plantation, and Sunrise. We are headquartered in Bee Cave, Texas, and every loan is business-purpose only, on investment property, with terms subject to underwriting. See how we lend across Florida or talk to us.
Does Fort Lauderdale charge the same transfer tax as Miami-Dade?
No. Broward pays the standard statewide documentary stamp rate, not the Miami-Dade surtax structure. A Broward deed carries 70 cents per $100 of consideration and the note and mortgage carry 35 cents per $100, the rate used in every Florida county except Miami-Dade. Miami-Dade alone runs a different structure, a 60 cent base plus a 45 cent discretionary surtax that is not due on a document transferring only a single-family dwelling. Do not budget a Fort Lauderdale purchase or a double close as if it were a Miami-Dade one. See transactional funding for how doc stamps run on both legs of a double close.

Sources: floridarevenue.com

Why does insurance cost so much on a Fort Lauderdale property?
Broward and Miami-Dade are the only two counties in Florida's High Velocity Hurricane Zone, the strictest wind-design and product-approval code in the state, and it shows up on the premium. Every window, door, shutter, and roofing line item on a Broward rehab has to meet HVHZ product approval. As of March 2026 the average Broward homeowners premium including wind ran $6,136, against $4,063 in coastal Pinellas and $2,650 in inland Lake County, and South Florida property claims are litigated at 27.27% versus 8.16% in the rest of the state. Build that line into the deal before you underwrite the rent. See the DSCR program.

Sources: up.codes, floir.gov

Is my Fort Lauderdale condo automatically on a 25-year milestone inspection clock because it's near the coast?
No, that three-mile coastal rule was in the original 2022 law and has since been repealed. Current Florida law sets a single statewide trigger at 30 years of age for condominium and cooperative buildings three habitable stories or higher, with recurrence every 10 years. A local enforcement agency may require an earlier inspection at 25 years where salt-water proximity warrants it, but that is a local option, not an automatic coastal mandate. Talk to your attorney or the association before assuming either clock on a specific building.

Sources: flsenate.gov

Is Fort Lauderdale still a booming Sun Belt rental market?
Not on the current data. Broward's population and job base are shrinking, not booming. The county lost 372 residents net in the year to July 2025, with 29,517 more people leaving for elsewhere in the U.S. than arrived, nearly offset by 24,944 international arrivals. Total nonfarm employment fell to 909,100 in June 2026 from 914,100 a year earlier, and unemployment rose to 4.5% from 3.7%. The defensible rental thesis is that international arrivals are replacing the domestic outflow and renting before they buy, not that the metro is filling up.
What property tax cap applies to my Fort Lauderdale rental?
The non-homestead 10% assessment cap, never the 3% homestead cap, and it resets to market value the first full tax year after you buy. 2025 millage across Broward's cities runs from 16.28 in Weston to 23.19 in Lauderdale Lakes, with the City of Fort Lauderdale itself at 18.4464, a spread of nearly 7 mills inside one county. A multi-property Broward portfolio can span several of those millage codes, so pull an address-level estimate from the county property appraiser rather than a single county rate, and talk to your CPA on the specifics. See portfolio loans.

Sources: bcpa.net

Which Fort Lauderdale loan programs have a minimum credit score, and which do not?
The asset-based loans do not. The documented ones do. Fix and flip, ground up construction, and CRE bridge carry no minimum score: we run credit, but weaker credit usually means lower leverage rather than a decline. DSCR and bank statement loans start at 640, conventional investment at 580, and transactional funding has no credit check at all. There is no hard pull to start a conversation. Subject to underwriting.
How much do I need to put down on a Fort Lauderdale investment property?
It depends which program fits the deal. Fix and flip funds up to 90% of purchase plus up to 100% of rehab, capped to ARV. DSCR and conventional investment run up to 80% LTV, so on a $500,000 Fort Lauderdale rental that is $400,000 from us and $100,000 from you (500,000 x 80% = 400,000). CRE bridge runs up to 75% LTV and ground up construction up to 85% of cost. Whatever the program, budget Broward's insurance line separately, because the average premium including wind runs $6,136. Subject to underwriting.

Sources: up.codes, floir.gov

What is the smallest loan you will write in Fort Lauderdale?
$100,000 on most residential programs. That is the floor for fix and flip, DSCR, and bank statement loans. SBA starts at $350,000 and a portfolio blanket loan at $500,000 across five or more properties. Ceilings run to $3M on DSCR, $5M on fix and flip and construction, and $10M on CRE bridge. Subject to underwriting.
Serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby
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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 2026-08-13.

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