Question 1

Do you lend across all of Miami-Dade County?

Accepted Answer

Yes, across the county, from Miami and Miami Beach to Hialeah, Homestead, Doral, Coral Gables, Miami Gardens, and North Miami. We are a Texas-based direct lender headquartered in Bee Cave, and every loan is business-purpose only, on investment property, with terms subject to underwriting. See loan programs or talk to us.

Question 2

Is the Miami-Dade transfer tax higher or lower than the rest of Florida?

Accepted Answer

It depends on what you're transferring, and most people get the direction backwards. Miami-Dade deeds are stamped at 60 cents per $100, not the statewide 70 cents, and a single-family transfer (which the county defines to include townhouses and condo units) owes no surtax at all. On a $600,000 house that is $3,600 in deed stamps, $600 cheaper than anywhere else in Florida. The moment the property is anything other than a single-family dwelling, a duplex or small apartment building, a 45-cent surtax applies on top, bringing the same $600,000 transfer to $6,300, about 50 percent more than the statewide rate. Run the math for your specific exit before you underwrite the deal. See the fix and flip program.

Question 3

What does the Miami-Dade building recertification and milestone inspection mean for financing?

Accepted Answer

There are two separate inspection regimes here, not one, and either can knock a condo project out of conventional financing. The state milestone inspection applies to condo and co-op buildings three habitable stories or higher, due by 30 years of age (or 25 if the local enforcement agency requires it). Miami-Dade separately runs its own recertification under county code section 8-11(f), which is broader (it is not limited to condos or to three-story buildings) but exempts single-family homes, duplexes, and buildings of 10 occupant load or less and 2,000 square feet or less: coastal buildings built 1998 or later recertify at 25 years, inland buildings built 1993 or later at 30, with 90 days to respond to a notice and a maximum fine of $10,510. The "25 years within three miles of the coast" rule you may have heard cited as Florida law was repealed statewide in 2023; Miami-Dade separately adopted its own 25-year coastal trigger, which is why the number still applies here. If a project fails a mandatory inspection, carries an unremediated critical repair, or has more than $10,000 per unit in unfunded repairs due within 12 months, it becomes ineligible for a Fannie Mae loan, which is where our DSCR and bridge programs come in. See the DSCR program.

Question 4

Is Miami-Dade growing, and should that change how I underwrite a rental?

Accepted Answer

No, and the honest number matters more than the marketing. Miami-Dade's population fell to 2,802,029 as of July 1, 2025, down 10,115 on the year after peaking in 2024. International migration of 54,204 people was outweighed by domestic out-migration of 72,254. What still supports rental demand: single-family rents hit $3,461 a month in June 2026, the highest of any Florida metro in our research and roughly 40 percent above Tampa or Orlando, and the county remains a trade economy first (24.3 percent of jobs in trade, transportation, and utilities against 11.6 percent in leisure and hospitality). Underwrite the rent roll and the trade-economy job base, not a growth story. See the DSCR program.

Question 5

Why does the cheapest submarket in Miami-Dade sometimes cost more to carry?

Accepted Answer

Because millage runs backwards from home value here. The 2025 adopted millage rates put an investor with no homestead exemption at 24.0024 mills in Opa-locka and 22.3921 in Miami Gardens, both entry-price submarkets, against 15.5108 in Key Biscayne and 17.5257 in Pinecrest, the two highest-value submarkets in the county. Add insurance: Miami-Dade averages $5,975 a year including wind for a homeowners policy and $2,801 for a condo unit owner, more than double Orlando's Orange County on the condo line, and Citizens now requires flood coverage on any wind policy outside a flood hazard zone once the home's replacement cost hits $400,000 (rising to every policy on January 1, 2027). Pull an address-level tax and insurance estimate before you underwrite a "cheap" Miami-Dade property.

Miami Hard Money and Investor Loans

Single-family and condo have decoupled

The transfer tax runs backwards from what you'd expect

Highest rents in Florida, on a shrinking population

Loan programs in Miami

Miami lending questions

Funding Miami deals fast.