Second Mortgage in West Palm Beach

Not on a rental held in an LLC, and usually not on one nobody in your family lives in. Article X, section 4(a) of the Florida Constitution ties homestead to property owned by a natural person, and inside a municipality limits it to the residence of the owner or the owner's family. An LLC is not a natural person, so an investment property it holds is not homestead. Florida also lets an owner mortgage even a true homestead voluntarily under section 4(c); the protection is against forced sale for unsecured judgments, not against a mortgage the owner signs. Our program lends only on non-owner-occupied investment property, never a primary residence or second home. Nothing we found settles how the rules apply to a 2 to 4 unit building where you live in one unit. This is not legal advice; your attorney or title company has the final say on your property.

It goes through court, and a second lender named in the case has to claim any surplus itself. Florida forecloses only through the courts under Chapter 702, with no power of sale, and the clerk runs the sale under section 45.031. Unless a court orders otherwise, Palm Beach County sales are held online at palmbeach.realforeclose.com, generally Monday through Thursday at 10:00 a.m.; check the calendar for a given sale. A subordinate lienholder can redeem only up to the later of the certificate of sale or the time set in the judgment. If the sale brings more than the judgment, section 45.032 pays subordinate lienholders who file a timely claim before the former owner, so a second lender is not paid automatically. Under Florida case law, a junior lienholder properly joined in the senior foreclosure is foreclosed out by the sale, so a default on the first can cut off the second. If you refinance the first later, the second-lien holder generally has to sign a resubordination agreement. Read lien position explained before you stack debt.

Florida's two mortgage taxes, about 0.55% of the loan combined, plus the Clerk's recording fees. A recorded mortgage, first or second, pays documentary stamp tax of 35 cents per $100 under section 201.08(1)(b), with no cap for a recorded mortgage, and nonrecurring intangible tax of 2 mills (0.2%) under section 199.133. On a $150,000 second that is $150,000 x 0.55% = $825, an illustration, not a quote. For a line of credit, documentary stamps follow each advance, while a revolving line pays intangible tax once on its maximum amount (sections 201.08(1)(b) and 199.143(3)). The Palm Beach Clerk accepts eRecording around the clock through third-party vendors, mortgages included, and does not guarantee same-day recording; it publishes a fee calculator for the page fees. None of these are USA Mortgage fees; they are the state's and the county's.

A tourist development tax account and a business tax receipt for each property. The county levies a 6% tourist development tax on rentals of six months or less, and the Tax Collector states that the host must collect and remit it; online platforms do not remit it to the county. Each property also needs a Short-Term Rental Local Business Tax Receipt, renewed every year by September 30, and monthly returns are due even in a month with no bookings. Florida's section 509.032(7)(b) bars new local bans on vacation rentals, but rules adopted on or before June 1, 2011 survive, so check the zoning of the parcel's city before you count short-term income. Short-term rentals are eligible for our program, subject to underwriting.

Insurance and property tax, and insurance runs high here. As of March 31, 2026, Florida's insurance regulator put Palm Beach County's average homeowners premium including wind at $6,323, the highest on the Florida mainland; that is an average, not a quote for a rental. Florida's 10% cap on non-homestead assessment increases resets on a sale, so the seller's bill is not yours. Test the rent against your own numbers before you take on a second payment, and talk to your CPA.

Florida draws the line at purpose, by its own definitions. Chapter 494 defines a covered residential mortgage loan as one primarily for personal, family, or household use, and a business purpose loan as one whose proceeds the borrower intends to use primarily for a business purpose, judged by the CFPB's official interpretation of 12 C.F.R. 1026.3(a). That interpretation deems credit to acquire, improve or maintain a non-owner-occupied rental to be business purpose, but not if the owner expects to occupy the property for more than 14 days in the coming year. The statute also makes it a violation to present a residential loan as a business purpose loan. Our program is for business-purpose use of the funds only. This is not a licensing opinion; talk to your attorney about your own structure.