Florida Real Estate FAQs
Whether buying, selling, relocating, or investing, luxury real estate transactions often raise questions that go beyond the property itself. These answers provide a starting point for understanding the South Florida market.
What areas of South Florida does Ray Contreras cover?
Ray assists buyers and sellers throughout Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties, including Palm Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Bal Harbour, Surfside, Miami Beach, Key Biscayne, and surrounding luxury communities.
Florida Keys properties are also represented separately throughout the Keys.
What qualifies as luxury real estate in South Florida?
There is no single price that defines luxury throughout South Florida.
Luxury is market-specific. Price levels, scarcity, waterfront access, views, land, architecture, privacy, building quality, amenities, location, and property conditions all influence how a residence is positioned within its particular market.
Is Fort Lauderdale a good location for waterfront property?
Fort Lauderdale offers an extensive network of navigable waterways, Intracoastal access, marinas, and established waterfront neighborhoods.
For boating buyers, the suitability of an individual property depends upon factors such as dockage, water depth, canal width, vessel size, fixed bridges, and access to an inlet.
What does “no fixed bridges” mean?
For boaters, “no fixed bridges” generally indicates that the navigable route from the property toward open water does not require the vessel to pass beneath a fixed bridge.
This can be particularly important for larger vessels with substantial height requirements.
Actual routes, bridge conditions, clearances, tides, water depth, and vessel requirements should always be independently verified.
What is deepwater property?
“Deepwater” is commonly used in waterfront real estate marketing to describe property with water depths suitable for larger vessels.
It should not be interpreted as a guarantee that a particular vessel can access or dock at the property.
Buyers should verify actual depths, tides, draft requirements, bridge restrictions, dock dimensions, and navigational conditions.
Should I have a seawall inspected?
When a property includes a seawall, understanding its condition, age, maintenance history, and potential future needs can be an important part of waterfront due diligence.
A qualified marine or seawall professional can provide property-specific guidance.
Do I need flood insurance?
Flood-insurance requirements depend upon factors including the property, flood designation, lender requirements, and insurance circumstances.
Even when coverage is not required by a lender, a buyer may still choose to obtain it.
Consult an insurance professional regarding the specific property.
What should I investigate when buying a luxury condominium?
Consider both the residence and the condominium association.
Review applicable information concerning association fees, reserves, insurance, assessments, major projects, building condition, rules, leasing restrictions, pets, parking, storage, amenities, management, and applicable inspection information.
Professional legal, financial, inspection, and other guidance may be appropriate.
What is a special assessment?
A special assessment is generally an amount charged to condominium owners beyond regular assessments to fund specified association expenses or projects.
Buyers should determine whether assessments are pending, approved, underway, or recently completed and review how responsibility is addressed in the transaction.
Is buying pre-construction different from buying a resale condominium?
Yes.
A pre-construction buyer may be purchasing based upon plans and specifications before the residence and building are complete.
Developer contracts, staged deposits, construction timelines, permitted changes, finishes, closing requirements, and other considerations can make these transactions significantly different from resales.
Qualified legal review is particularly important.
Should I get pre-approved before viewing luxury homes?
Buyers intending to finance their purchase can benefit from discussing financing with an appropriate lender before beginning a serious property search.
Sellers of significant properties may also request evidence of financial capability before accepting an offer or, in some circumstances, before granting access to a private showing.
Can I purchase South Florida real estate with cash?
Yes. Cash transactions are common within luxury markets.
Cash buyers still need to consider title, inspections, insurance, surveys, association requirements, closing costs, and other appropriate due diligence.
Are there private or off-market luxury properties?
Some owners choose to market properties with limited public exposure for privacy or strategic reasons.
Availability varies considerably, and no real estate professional can guarantee access to every privately marketed property.
How much are closing costs in Florida?
There is no single percentage appropriate for every transaction.
Closing costs depend upon price, financing, contractual selections, title arrangements, insurance, association requirements, inspections, taxes, and other circumstances.
Request a transaction-specific estimate before making financial decisions.
Will my property taxes be the same as the seller's?
Not necessarily.
Property taxes can be affected by ownership changes, assessed value, exemptions, and other factors.
Buyers should investigate anticipated taxes for their circumstances rather than assuming the seller's current bill will continue unchanged.
What is Florida's Homestead Exemption?
Qualifying Florida homeowners may be eligible for homestead-related property-tax benefits on their permanent residence.
Eligibility and benefits depend upon applicable requirements. Buyers should consult official Florida and county property-appraiser resources or appropriate tax professionals for current information.
What is Save Our Homes portability?
Qualifying Florida homeowners may, under applicable rules, be able to transfer—or “port”—some or all of an assessment difference associated with a previous Florida homestead to a new qualifying homestead.
Because individual circumstances matter, consult the appropriate property appraiser or tax professional.
Should I buy an oceanfront condo or a waterfront single-family home?
That depends upon lifestyle.
A luxury condominium may offer extensive amenities, staffing, security, views, and lower day-to-day maintenance responsibilities.
A single-family waterfront residence may provide greater privacy, land, customization, outdoor space, and private dockage.
What should I consider when relocating to South Florida?
Start with lifestyle rather than the property.
Consider proximity to airports, business centers, beaches, boating, golf, dining, cultural amenities, healthcare, schools when applicable, and the amount of time you expect to spend at the residence.
Then compare communities based upon those priorities.
What should sellers do before putting a luxury property on the market?
Begin with a property-specific consultation.
Pricing, preparation, staging, photography, repairs, landscaping, privacy requirements, showing procedures, and marketing should be considered before the property is introduced to buyers.
The objective is to launch with the strongest possible positioning rather than correcting avoidable issues after the property has already entered the market.
How is a luxury property's value determined?
Comparable sales are one component, but distinctive properties frequently require a broader analysis.
Location, water frontage, views, lot characteristics, architecture, condition, renovations, dockage, privacy, building reputation, amenities, current competition, and buyer demand can all influence market positioning.