CRE Permanent in Tampa

Bring trailing collections, not asking rents. The two Zillow rent series for the Tampa metro have split: single-family rent was $2,426 in June 2026, up 1.1% year over year, while the all-property-types index was $2,020, down 0.7%. That gap is the apartment side softening under a delivery wave, and it shows up as concessions rather than as a lower advertised rent. A rent roll built on asking rents will not survive an agency underwriter's look at what the property actually collects. Trailing 12 collections plus the concession schedule on the first call is what moves a placement along.

Plan on it. Florida caps the annual assessment increase on non-homestead property, which is everything an investor owns, at 10% a year, and the cap applies automatically with no application. The catch for a buyer is that the cap resets on change of ownership, so your first full tax year is typically assessed at market value with none of the seller's capped basis carried over. The seller's tax bill systematically understates what you will pay. Underwrite the permanent loan to a market-value assessment, and price the specific parcel through the county property appraiser's own estimator rather than a metro-wide millage figure. Your CPA or tax attorney should sign off on the number before you lock a long-term rate.

Enough to decide whether a deal pencils. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation's own county table, as of March 2026, puts the average homeowners premium including wind at $4,063 in Pinellas, $3,525 in Hillsborough and $2,756 in Pasco. Those are homeowners numbers, not commercial ones, so treat them as direction rather than as your quote. The direction is the point: Pinellas is a coastal peninsula and Pasco is not, and the roughly $1,300 gap between them on an otherwise similar building is larger than most rate spreads you will negotiate. Flood is a separate policy from wind, and much of coastal Pinellas sits in a Special Flood Hazard Area where a lender will require it. One piece of good news: FLOIR reported that the average premium including wind fell in 51 of 67 counties between its January 2026 and July 2026 reports, so the trend is finally down off the highest base in the country. Get a real bound quote on the asset before you lock a permanent rate, because insurance moves the expense line and the expense line moves your DSCR.

Documentary stamps, on both the deed and the note. Florida charges 70 cents per $100 of consideration on the deed in every county except Miami-Dade, and consideration expressly includes the amount of any mortgage or other encumbrance, whether or not the underlying debt is assumed. Stamps on notes and mortgages run 35 cents per $100 of the obligation. Both apply to commercial financings as well as to houses. The statute puts the deed stamps on the purchaser, but in most Florida counties the seller pays them by contract, so the contract and not the statute controls at your closing. Florida also imposes a nonrecurring intangible tax on mortgages, so expect it as a line item. Have closing counsel price the whole stack on your file before you size the loan.

Judicial foreclosure. Every Florida foreclosure runs through the circuit court, and that applies to commercial mortgages the same as to residential. The national average time from foreclosure start to completion was 563 days in the second quarter of 2026, while Texas, a non-judicial state, was the fastest in the country at 155 days. Florida also led the country on foreclosure rate in the first half of 2026, with 27,494 properties carrying filings, or 0.27% of housing units. A lender's remedy timeline here is materially longer, and that is priced into Florida bridge and permanent terms rather than hidden in them. If your asset is not stabilized yet, the usual path is bridge debt and a business plan first, then permanent financing once it performs.

Florida statute gives you a clock with teeth. Under Florida Statutes section 553.792, a local government has 60 business days to approve, approve with conditions, or deny a complete and sufficient application for commercial work under 25,000 square feet, and the same 60 business days for a site plan. The jurisdiction has to tell you in writing within 5 business days what is missing from your application. Miss the deadline and the permit fee drops by 10% for each business day of delay, and by 20% per business day after a resubmitted revision. That is the number to budget a lease-up or repositioning schedule against, and it is a statutory backstop rather than a courtesy target. Observed review times in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco vary, so confirm the current queue with the jurisdiction.