How to Buy in Miami

The most expensive mistake isn't a weak negotiation. It's buying the wrong property. So clarity comes before any tour. Skip that step and you can see thirty homes and still not know which one you want. First, separate what you can't live without from what would simply be nice. The non-negotiables stay fixed: a minimum bedroom count, a short trip to work, a top price. That top price has to absorb taxes, insurance and HOA dues as well as the mortgage. Anything else on the list is a preference, and preferences can be traded. Next, decide what the place is for: your primary home, a seasonal residence or an investment. Almost everything after that depends on the answer. If it's your primary home, you can claim Florida's Homestead Exemption. The first $25,000 comes off the assessed value for all property taxes. A second, inflation-indexed amount, $26,411 for 2026, comes off for the non-school taxes only. The same status brings the Save Our Homes cap, so your assessment can grow each year by no more than the lower of 3% or the change in CPI, which works out to 2.7% for 2026. On a purchase of $700,000 or more, the two together save real money every year. A seasonal home or an investment qualifies for neither, and that changes both the tax math and the insurance calculation. Lenders also price an investment-property loan differently from a primary-residence loan. Want to rent by the night or the week? Answer that before you buy, not after. Most Miami condo buildings ban it, and three separate rulebooks each have the power to say no. Before you tour, compare your wish list with today's listings. When the list outruns what your budget buys right now, a good agent tells you straight, then works with you to shift either the expectations or the budget. Better to hear it on day one than after thirty showings.

A pre-approval and a pre-qualification are different things. Pre-qualification is a five-minute call that ends in a rough estimate. Pre-approval means a lender has checked your income, assets and credit against documents, and it produces a letter listing agents take seriously when several offers land at once. The best properties here still move quickly. Without a pre-approval, you start behind. If you're a U.S. buyer, the lender will ask for two years of tax returns, two months of bank statements, your W-2s and your latest paycheck stub. Working for yourself? Then add two years of business returns and a year-to-date P&L. Foreign nationals bring a different file. Plan on your passport, usually two years of statements from banks abroad and a reference letter from your home bank. Many buyers also need an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) from the IRS. The IRS puts that at about seven weeks, or nine to eleven if you apply from abroad or during tax season, so file early. Foreign-national loans typically require 25–35% down, priced above standard conforming loans. Roughly six in ten international buyers in Florida skip the loan and pay cash. That removes the financing complications altogether and cuts the timeline from 45–60 days to 15–30 days. For a ballpark before you talk to any lender, the Mortgage Calculator and Affordability Calculator on this site give you a working framework in seconds. Then bring in a lender before the first showing, ideally one with a track record on international files.

A Miami purchase pulls in more professionals than most buyers expect. And each one's quality matters more here than in a simpler market. A buyer's agent is the quarterback. That means finding the property, structuring the offer and keeping the timelines on track. It also means handling inspections and arguing your side at each contingency. Buyers here come from dozens of countries, so experience with cross-border deals, several languages and foreign-national financing is a real advantage, not a marketing line. Add a real estate attorney, especially if you're a foreign national or buying through an entity. Florida law doesn't require one at closing, but international complications, title review and contract negotiation make one essential. You also want a CPA who knows Florida tax law and international tax treaties. That person handles the Homestead analysis and estimated tax payments, and plans for FIRPTA on a future sale, a critical step for foreign owners. Then fill the remaining seats with a lender, plus an insurance broker and an inspector who both hold licenses. In South Florida, property, flood and wind are three separate insurance items. Picking whoever charges least for each role rarely pays off. Next to the price of the home, what you pay the attorney, the inspector and the CPA barely registers. What they decide, or overlook, is another matter.

Start with the numbers, because one county figure can't describe both kinds of home. In August 2026, the Miami-Dade median was about $680,000 for single-family homes and nearer $408,000 for condos. August 2026 data also show houses there taking about 40 days to reach a contract, while condos took about 66 days. Higher prices mean a longer wait. In 2025, South Florida saw 361 sales close above $10 million, counting Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach together, and that tier plays by entirely different rules. County averages hide wide gaps between submarkets. Brickell and Downtown Miami have added a lot of high-rise condo supply, and it gets absorbed at a different pace than in Coral Gables. There, the supply of single-family homes is structurally tight, and buyers pay for the tree canopy and streets kept consistent by architectural review. Coconut Grove has its own small pocket of demand, built around the arts and life on the water. In Sunny Isles and Bal Harbour, supply is mostly oceanfront towers. So competing offers play out differently there than in Kendall or Doral. Absorption, meaning how fast the inventory gets bought, tells you more than asking prices do. Under three months of supply, sellers hold the leverage. Over six months, buyers do. Before you offer, figure out where your neighborhood sits on that scale. It's basic preparation. Many buyers skip it anyway. Florida has drawn the largest share of foreign-buyer activity in the U.S. for well over a decade. That matters for when you offer. You're not only up against locals.

Seeing thirty homes without a framework isn't due diligence. It's putting off a decision. The buyers who move decisively usually see far fewer homes, because the groundwork was done before the first showing. Tour in two rounds. The first visit tests the basics. Does the place work once you're standing there, not just on a map? Does the floor plan suit your daily routine? At that hour, do the building and the street feel right to you? A clear no to any of them means you move to the next property. If everything is a yes, come back at another time of day, and if the place needs work, bring an inspector or contractor to that return visit. In Florida, every home at every price gets the same physical check. Start with the HVAC: in South Florida heat, a system older than 10–12 years has little life left, and replacing one is expensive. Then the roof. Its age and material drive the price of insurance and whether you can get it at all. From the year a roof turns 15, underwriters look hard, may want an inspection first and can refuse coverage outright unless the roof has at least five years of useful life remaining. Impact-rated windows and doors change your premium and your protection in a hurricane. Ask whether a four-point inspection was ever done, and get the report if so. Cracks in the stucco can point to movement; stains on ceilings or walls point to water getting in. Check the pool equipment's condition too. For a condo, request the HOA board minutes from within the last two years and the reserve fund study. Since Surfside, new laws have hit older buildings with large special assessments, so reading those papers is now standard diligence, not an afterthought. What should you always ask the listing agent: why the owner is selling, how long the home has been listed in its current condition and whether any earlier offers fell apart?

Once the tours narrow things down to three to five serious options, stop going on gut feel and run the total cost of ownership. The asking price is one number. What you'll pay each month is another. Build the full monthly cost for each home on the list. Start with principal and interest on the mortgage. Then estimate the tax as your purchase price times the county millage, not whatever the seller pays now. Add homeowner's insurance, flood coverage if the home sits in or near a flood zone, HOA dues and a reserve for maintenance. In Miami-Dade in 2026, the insurance line deserves extra attention. Florida's insurance market was restructured after years of lawsuits and weather losses, and premiums have jumped, most of all along the coast, in houses lacking impact windows and under aging roofs. That's why a bindable quote now comes before the offer, not after. Without it, the affordability math has a hole in it. Don't budget from the tax bill the seller pays today. A change of owner resets the assessed value to full market value on January 1 following the closing year. The Save Our Homes cap stays with the seller rather than passing to you, and their homestead exemption stays too. Your contract's property tax disclosure summary (Florida Statute 689.261) flags this exact point. Run the figure yourself: purchase price times the county millage rate, millage being the tax per $1,000 of assessed value. Read a condo HOA's finances with the rigor an investor brings to a company's balance sheet. Under Florida's SB 4-D and the laws that came after it, any building three stories or taller needs milestone inspections and has to fund its reserves to a set minimum. Older associations that postponed reserve funding are now stuck paying special assessment after special assessment. To see a building's real health, read its reserve study, its newest audit and the minutes its board keeps. Homes on your list rarely share a size or layout. The Price-Per-Sqft Calculator here converts each one to a cost per square foot, so you can compare them quickly.

Price is the headline of an offer. The offer itself is a document full of levers, and how you set them decides whether you win and on what terms. In Miami, earnest money typically runs 5–10% of the price. A deposit near 10% shows the seller you mean it and have the funds, while one near 5% keeps less of your money on the line should a contingency come into play. The contingencies for financing, inspection and appraisal are the legal exits from the deal. When the market is balanced, nobody blinks if you keep all of them. If one specific home has sellers holding the cards, you might waive some or shorten them. Do that only after you know the property's condition in full, never by habit. Sellers care about more than price and deposit. Timing matters to them. Match the closing date they want, or offer a rent-back if they need time to move, and your offer stands out without costing an extra dollar. Personal property can become a bargaining point too, from light fixtures to appliances and furniture. Seller credits toward closing costs cut the cash you bring to closing, and some sellers agree to them if the price goes up a little. An escalation clause raises your offer automatically so it beats a competing offer, up to a ceiling you set. It makes sense when several buyers really are bidding on the same home. The downside: the seller learns your ceiling. Save it for the occasions that call for it. How well the buyer's agent knows the listing agent matters more than it looks. The listing agent sees every rival offer, so a good relationship brings better information. It can even bring a first call on a home that hasn't hit the MLS yet.

In Florida, the inspection contingency typically gives you 7–15 days from contract execution. That stretch is your main legal protection. Treat it as working time, not a formality. A general inspection covers the HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems. It also looks at the roof and the structure. That's where you start, not where you finish. In South Florida, a full set adds at least a roof inspection by a licensed roofer and a four-point inspection of electrical, plumbing, HVAC and roof. Many insurers want that report before binding coverage on homes over 25–30 years old. Add a wind mitigation inspection too: its report documents features that lower hurricane risk and can cut your premium meaningfully. If you see water stains or the home has a flood history, mold testing is worth ordering. A pool calls for its own pool and spa inspection, booked separately. No home is perfect, so the question after the report is not whether this one is. Sort what the inspector found into real financial exposure and routine deferred maintenance. Exposure means active water intrusion, unpermitted work, a failing roof or structural problems. Routine means cosmetic wear, an HVAC that needs servicing, caulk that's getting old. The agent and the attorney then turn those findings into a renegotiation position: a seller credit, a repair escrow or a price reduction. In the cases that truly warrant it, the inspection contingency gives you a clean exit. If you're financing, the lender will require an appraisal. When it comes in under the price, you can push the price down, cover the gap in cash, or use the appraisal contingency to walk away. Decide which before the appraisal is ordered. Condo buyers often mix up three papers that sound alike. Florida Statute 553.899 sets the milestone inspection for residential condos and co-ops reaching three habitable stories or higher. The first one falls within 30 years of the certificate of occupancy, and another follows every 10 years. Miami-Dade and Broward have recertification programs of their own that can kick in earlier, though they're usually lined up with the state milestone instead of adding a separate inspection. Ask the local building department for the real due date. A structural integrity reserve study (Florida Statute 718.112) is something else entirely. A building may be up to date on the milestone while it lags on the study, or the reverse. Florida Statute 718.503 doesn't make the seller hand over the master policy, the board minutes or the full engineering report. Request all of them regardless, knowing the answer may be no. Roughly half of Miami-Dade condo resales close in cash. In a cash deal, no lender checks the building on your behalf; the review falls to you.

In Miami-Dade, an all-cash closing takes roughly 15–30 days. Domestic buyers with a loan should plan on about 30–45 days, and foreign nationals with financing about 45–60 days. If your move depends on a date, such as a lease running out, a job starting or a booked flight, build it into the contract from day one instead of rushing at the end. Florida buyers typically pay 2–5% of the price in closing costs. Lender fees, points and title insurance are the largest items. The owner's title policy runs about 0.5% of the price at Florida's promulgated rate, and the contract decides who pays for it. Your lender gets its own title policy, which comes with the owner's policy for a small fee. The mortgage also carries documentary stamp tax, a major item at $0.35 per $100 borrowed. If you hire an attorney, those fees go on the list too. On a $1,000,000 purchase with 20% down, the total generally lands in the $20,000–$40,000 range, depending on the lender, the title company and the attorney. The Closing Cost Calculator on this site gives you a Florida-specific estimate on your own numbers. Wire fraud happens in real deals. Buyers have lost millions to fake wiring instructions sent from spoofed email addresses. Before any wire goes out, confirm the details by phone at a number you've verified independently. Do it every time, even if you've already wired money to the same title company. Raise two points with the closing team. First, if the home has a National Flood Insurance Program policy, ask your insurer and the title company whether that policy can pass to you when the deal closes. A transferred NFIP policy carries the seller's earned discount, while a fresh policy is generally priced at current rates and may not include it. Congress decides whether the program is authorized and keeps renewing it for short stretches, so the sale of new policies can stop for a time. Check NFIP's current status with an agent before you count on it. Second, when you're buying from a foreign person, FIRPTA puts you in the role of withholding agent, and the FAQ below walks through it. In the week before closing, confirm the homeowner's insurance binder is in place, set up the utility transfers and mail forwarding, and lock in the walkthrough on closing day. After closing, if the home is your primary residence, send in your Homestead Exemption application by March 1 of the following year. Get to know the HOA if there is one. Change the security system codes and start your hurricane checklist. A South Florida home needs a stocked supply kit and a storm plan, without exception.