CRE Bridge in Miami

Yes, and it runs the opposite direction from a single-family deal. Miami-Dade is the only Florida county with a deed surtax, and the county's own rule exempts single-family dwellings from it. A single-family deed here is 60 cents per $100 of consideration, which costs less than the statewide 70 cents. But a deed for anything other than a single-family residence, including a duplex, small apartment building, or commercial parcel, carries that 60 cents plus a 45-cent surtax, for $1.05 per $100. On a $600,000 leg that is $6,300 here against $4,200 anywhere else in Florida, a 50 percent premium on the transfer tax line alone. Model that into your closing costs before you size a bridge on a CRE bridge or a transactional funding double close, since the surtax rides both deeds on an A-to-B-to-C.

Not by a conventional lender, which is exactly the situation a bridge loan is built for. Florida's milestone inspection law requires condo and co-op buildings of three habitable stories or more to be inspected by the year they turn 30 (or 25, where a local agency sets that trigger), and Miami-Dade runs its own, separate recertification programme under section 8-11(f) of the county code on top of that, at 25 years coastal or 30 inland. Associations can no longer waive reserves for structural integrity reserve study items in any budget adopted on or after December 31, 2024, which is the mechanism pushing special assessments through right now. Under Fannie Mae's Selling Guide, a project is ineligible for financing where it has failed a mandatory jurisdictional inspection, carries an unremediated critical repair, or has unfunded repairs over $10,000 per unit due within the next 12 months. An investor buying into or out of that situation, or an owner who needs to close before the assessment clears, needs capital that doesn't depend on the building's warrantability. See CRE bridge for structure, or talk to us about a specific building.

Yes, and it's broader than the state's condo-only milestone law. Miami-Dade's section 8-11(f) recertification programme exempts only single-family homes, duplexes, and buildings with 10 occupant load or less and 2,000 square feet or less. A commercial or apartment building past its 25 or 30-year trigger is squarely inside it. Once the county issues a Notice of Required Recertification, the owner has 90 days to submit a signed and sealed structural and electrical report, pays a $403.12 fee, and faces a maximum $10,510 fine plus referral to the Unsafe Structures Unit for missing the deadline. Budget for that timeline and cost before you underwrite a value-add hold on an older Miami-Dade commercial asset.

Both push toward a longer, costlier worst case than a lender in most other states has to plan for. Florida is a judicial foreclosure state statewide, commercial included, meaning every default runs through the circuit court rather than a faster non-judicial process. On top of that, Florida's insurance regulator reports that the Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade region litigated 27.27 percent of closed property claims as of mid-2026, against 8.16 percent in the rest of the state, more than triple the rate. That combination, a slower court-run remedy and a market that fights claims harder than most, is priced into how a Miami-Dade bridge gets underwritten and structured.

We don't have a sourced Miami office, industrial, retail or multifamily vacancy or cap rate figure to hand you, and we're not going to invent one. What is documented: trade, transportation and utilities is the county's single largest employment sector at 24.3 percent of nonfarm jobs (327,700 positions in June 2026), well ahead of leisure and hospitality, which makes Miami-Dade a trade and logistics metro first. PortMiami and Miami International Airport are the anchors behind that, and the county is also the leading U.S. destination for foreign residential buyers, with Miami-Dade accounting for an estimated 73 percent of South Florida's $4.4 billion in 2025 foreign purchases, and 51 percent of South Florida foreign purchases paid all cash, per the MIAMI REALTORS 2026 International Report. That international-capital character shapes who you're competing against and who's on the other side of a deal here. We underwrite the specific asset and rent roll in front of us, not a market average. Talk to us about the property.

At least 25% of value. Leverage runs up to 75% LTV, so on a $2,000,000 Miami-Dade property that is up to $1,500,000 from us and $500,000 of equity from you (2,000,000 x 75% = 1,500,000), whether the deal is a purchase bridge or a cash-out. On a purchase, price the county's transfer tax into that gap: a commercial or multifamily deed here runs $1.05 per $100, which is $21,000 on a $2,000,000 transfer against $14,000 at the statewide rate. Subject to underwriting.

Up to $10,000,000, on a term up to 24 to 36 months, interest-only. The length is the point of the product in this county. An owner served with a Notice of Required Recertification has 90 days to file a signed and sealed structural and electrical report, and the repair work behind that finding can run well past a short-term loan. A 24 to 36-month interest-only term gives an older Miami-Dade building time to become financeable again before the takeout. Subject to underwriting.

Usually yes. We run credit, but a bridge is an asset-based loan and there is no minimum score on it. Weaker credit is normally answered with lower leverage rather than a decline, so a file that would otherwise price at 75% LTV comes in lower instead. There is no hard credit pull to start. The property, the equity, and the exit carry the file, which is what lets a bridge work on a Miami-Dade building a conventional lender has already ruled out over a failed inspection or an unfunded repair. Subject to underwriting.