Conventional Investment in Fort Lauderdale

Only if the building has cleared Florida's milestone inspection and reserve requirements. Condominiums three habitable stories or taller must complete a milestone inspection at 30 years, and a structural integrity reserve study was due by December 31, 2025 (extendable to December 31, 2026 if paired with the inspection). Associations can no longer waive reserves for the items that study covers. A building with an incomplete inspection, an underfunded reserve, or an active special assessment can be ineligible for conventional, FHA and VA financing, and Broward's older coastal condo stock sits squarely in that window: countywide condo values are down 19.6 percent from their January 2024 peak and still falling at 8.4 percent a year, the steepest decline of the three South Florida counties. Single-family is a calmer story: Broward house values are down a milder 2.9 percent and Fort Lauderdale rents are up 3.2 percent over the same year, so a documented-income buy-and-hold on a house still pencils here. If your building doesn't clear, a DSCR loan is usually the faster path to closing.

Not automatically, and the old three-mile rule is gone. The three-mile coastal trigger from the original 2022 law was repealed. Current Florida law sets a single statewide milestone inspection clock at 30 years for condominiums and cooperatives three habitable stories or taller, with a local option that lets a local enforcement agency require the earlier 25-year inspection where environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water warrant it. Whether any Broward jurisdiction has adopted that local option isn't confirmed by any public source we have, so check directly with the building's association and the city or county building department before you rely on a 25-year or a 30-year date.

The standard statewide rate, not Miami-Dade's surtax. Broward County charges 70 cents per $100 of consideration on the deed and 35 cents per $100 on the note and the mortgage, the same rate as most of Florida. Miami-Dade is the only county that adds a discretionary surtax on top of its deed stamp, and that surtax doesn't apply here. Budget the standard rate on both legs of the transaction and don't let a Miami-Dade quote get applied to a Broward closing.

More than the seller was paying, and it varies a lot by city. As a non-homestead owner you get Florida's 10 percent annual assessment cap, but it resets to full market value in your first tax year, so you inherit none of the seller's capped basis. 2025 final millage across Broward ranges from about 16.28 mills in Weston to 23.19 in Lauderdale Lakes, with Fort Lauderdale itself at 18.45, roughly 1.84 percent of assessed value. That's close to a $2,800 swing on a $400,000 assessment depending which city the parcel sits in, so price the specific address on the Broward County Property Appraiser's site before you underwrite the deal.

It's the line that decides whether the deal pencils, so run it before you make an offer. Broward's average homeowners premium including wind was $6,136 as of March 2026, versus $3,008 excluding wind, more than double inland Lake County's $2,650. On a typical Fort Lauderdale rental renting near $2,794 a month, that premium alone runs about 2.2 months of gross rent a year. Part of the reason: property claims in the Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach region are litigated at a 27.27 percent rate, versus 8.16 percent in the rest of Florida. Get a real quote before you finalize your conventional debt-service numbers, not a statewide average.

Conventional investment financing starts at a 580 score, the lowest floor of anything we write. The trade for it is full documentation: income is documented, not stated, so tax returns and the rest of the file have to hold up. If the paperwork is the problem rather than the score, DSCR starts at 640 and qualifies on the property's rent instead. Subject to underwriting.

At least 20%. Leverage runs up to 80% LTV on a non-owner-occupied purchase, so on a $500,000 Fort Lauderdale rental that is up to $400,000 from us and $100,000 from you (500,000 x 80% = 400,000). Budget the first-year carry on top: as a non-homestead owner your assessment resets to market value in year one, and Fort Lauderdale's 18.45 mills runs roughly 1.84 percent of assessed value a year. Subject to underwriting.