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The illustrated journey

How a home is actually bought

Sixteen stops from “can we even do this?” to the keys — who's in the room at each one, what it costs when it goes wrong, and the Florida traps that don't exist anywhere else. Written for someone who has never bought a home before.

16 steps About a 25 minute read Written for first-time buyers
Start at step one Who's involved first
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The cast

Twelve parties, and only one of them is hired by you.

Most expensive surprises in a purchase come from not knowing who someone answers to. Here is everyone who touches your transaction, and whose side each of them is actually on.

You, the buyer

The only person here with a credit score and a down payment on the line. Everyone else gets paid or goes home; you live in the decision.

Your agent

Since 2024 you sign an agreement with them before they can tour you through a home. Read what you sign — it's a real contract, and the term and the exit matter as much as the rate.

The seller

Wants the most money and the most certainty, and those two are in tension. Your job is to look like certainty.

The listing agent

Works for the seller. Friendly is not the same as on your side — anything you tell them at a showing is theirs to use.

Your loan officer

Decides what you can borrow, not what you can afford. Those are different numbers and the gap is where people get hurt.

The underwriter

The person you never speak to who actually approves the loan, by issuing conditions until there are none left.

The appraiser

Hired by your lender through a management company. Decides what the bank will lend against, which is not necessarily what you agreed to pay.

The home inspector

Yours, and the best few hundred dollars in the transaction. In Florida you may need three of them: general, termite, and a four-point.

The insurance carrier

The one that ends Florida deals. Roof age, a four-point report and flood zone decide whether you can afford to own the house at all.

The title company

Holds your escrow, searches the record, and receives your wire. That last one is the single most dangerous moment in the whole process.

The association

Estoppel, approval, transfer fees, reserves, and — in a condo — the milestone inspection and structural reserve study that decide whether there's a special assessment coming.

The county property appraiser

Reassesses the home at what YOU paid, not what the seller was paying, and grants the homestead exemption that caps it afterwards.

Before You Look At Anything

The three things that decide which houses you can actually buy — done before you fall in love with one.

Step 1 · The two numbers are never the same

What you can afford is not what you're approved for

A lender approves you on a ratio. They take your gross income, add up your debts, and tell you the largest payment the guidelines allow. That number is a ceiling, not a recommendation, and nobody in the transaction is paid to tell you it's too high.

The payment itself is PITIA — principal, interest, taxes, insurance and association dues. In most of the country the last three are a rounding error. In Florida they routinely run $900 to $1,400 a month on a $425,000 house, and they are the three that rise.

Here is the specifically Florida trap, and almost every first-time buyer walks into it. The tax figure quoted to you is often the seller's — and if the seller has had homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes cap for fifteen years, their assessed value may be less than half what you're paying. The county reassesses at your purchase price. Your tax bill in year two can be double the number on the listing, and it is entirely predictable if anyone bothers to run it.

You, the buyerYour loan officer
$9,000 Buying at the top of your approval

Budget off the seller's homesteaded tax bill and a placeholder insurance quote, and the real year-two payment on a $425,000 Florida home lands roughly $750 a month higher than you planned — about $9,000 in the first full year, every year.

Where I earn the fee

Before you look at a single house I run the real PITIA: the tax at your purchase price rather than the seller's, a live insurance quote instead of a guess, and the actual HOA and CDD figures for that specific address. Then we pick a number you're comfortable with, which is usually well below what you were approved for.

Check the payment yourself →
Check yourself

A listing shows $3,100/year in property taxes. The seller has owned it since 2009 with homestead exemption. What should you budget?

Step 2 · Down payment is only one of five piles

The money you actually need (it isn't 20%)

The twenty-percent myth keeps more people renting than any other idea in housing. Conventional loans go to 3% down for qualified first-time buyers, FHA to 3.5%, and VA and USDA to zero for those who qualify. Under 20% you'll pay mortgage insurance — real money, but usually far less than the cost of waiting four more years in a rising market.

Five piles, not one: the down payment; closing costs, typically 2–5% of the price; prepaids, where the lender collects several months of taxes and insurance up front to start your escrow account (in Florida this is bigger than buyers expect, precisely because the insurance is); the escrow deposit you put up with the offer; and reserves plus moving costs.

Then the part most Florida buyers never hear about. Florida Housing runs real down-payment assistance: FL Assist (a deferred, zero-interest second mortgage, commonly up to $10,000) and Hometown Heroes, which has offered substantially more — recently up to $35,000 — for eligible teachers, nurses, first responders, law enforcement, childcare and military. Both attach to a Florida Housing first mortgage, both carry income and purchase-price limits by county, and both require a homebuyer education course. Funding and terms change by cycle, so confirm the current program with a participating lender before you count on a number.

You, the buyerYour loan officer
$10,000–$35,000 Leaving assistance on the table

Buyers who qualify for Florida Housing assistance and never apply — usually because nobody mentioned it — simply don't receive it. That is the program amount, straight out of your own pocket instead.

Where I earn the fee

I ask the eligibility questions at our first conversation, not at contract, because these programs have income and price caps that change which houses make sense. And I'll point you at a free homebuyer course that satisfies the requirement rather than a paid one.

Check yourself

Which is closest to the minimum down payment a qualified first-time buyer might need on a conventional loan?

Step 3 · A prequalification letter is not an offer's friend

Get genuinely pre-approved — then touch nothing

There are three tiers and sellers can tell them apart. A prequalification is a conversation — someone took your word for your income. A pre-approval means a lender pulled your credit and reviewed documents. A fully underwritten approval means a human underwriter has already reviewed the file, and all that's left is the property. In a competing-offer situation, the third one wins houses the other two lose.

Shop the loan itself, not just the letter. Rates, points, lender fees and mortgage insurance vary meaningfully between lenders on the identical file. Credit-scoring models treat mortgage inquiries inside a short window as a single event, so comparing several lenders in the same couple of weeks is designed to be safe — it's comparing them across three months that costs you.

Then freeze your financial life until you have keys. No new credit cards, no financed furniture, no car, no job change, no unexplained deposits, no moving money between accounts to “get it ready.” Your credit and employment get re-verified days before closing. People blow up their own approvals at the finish line constantly, and it is always avoidable.

You, the buyerYour loan officerThe underwriter
$8,000–$15,000 Shopping on a prequal letter

You lose the house you wanted to a better-documented offer and either settle or pay up on the next one. On a $425,000 purchase that premium runs about 2–3.5%.

Where I earn the fee

I'll tell you honestly whether your letter is strong enough to compete in the community you're targeting, and introduce you to lenders who actually underwrite up front. I don't take referral fees for it — I just want the file to survive underwriting.

Check yourself

You're under contract and see a great deal on a bedroom set. Financing it is…

Finding It

Who represents you, how to search without becoming somebody's lead, and what you are really buying in Florida.

Step 4 · And get it in writing, because now you have to

Decide who is actually on your side

As of 2024 you sign a written agreement with an agent before they tour you through homes. This is a real contract. Read the length of the term, how you get out of it, whether it's exclusive, and what the agent is to be paid — and negotiate all of it, because all of it is negotiable.

Compensation changed too. What your agent is paid is agreed between you and them; the seller may or may not contribute, and it's now a term of the negotiation rather than an assumption. Any agent who can't explain their own compensation in plain language is not the one.

The thing new buyers most need to hear: the listing agent at the open house works for the seller. They are usually pleasant and often helpful, and they owe their duty to the other side of your transaction. Telling them you love it and could go higher is information you have handed to your counterparty. The same is true of the smiling representative in a builder's model home — see the detour below.

You, the buyerYour agentThe listing agent
$3,000–$12,000 Signing a long exclusive with someone you just met

A twelve-month exclusive with an agent who turns out to be wrong for you means either buying through them anyway or negotiating your way out. Ask for a short initial term.

Where I earn the fee

I'll happily sign a short agreement first. If I'm any good you'll extend it, and if I'm not you shouldn't be stuck with me. I'd also rather tell you a house is wrong and lose the sale than put you in something you resent in a year — the referral is worth more than the commission.

Check yourself

At an open house, the agent hosting it represents…

Step 5 · The portals are advertising, not inventory

Search without becoming somebody's lead

Every listing you see started as a record in the MLS — Stellar MLS here in Central Florida. Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and the rest receive copies of that feed. They are advertising businesses: they aren't paid when you buy a house, they're paid for your attention and your contact details. The “contact agent” button frequently routes you to whoever purchased that ZIP code, who has no connection to the property.

Practical effects. Status drifts, so homes that went under contract days ago still show as available and you tour something you can't have. Price histories resurface with old figures. And the automated estimate printed under the asking price is a model that has never been inside the house — useful as a conversation starter, never as a valuation.

What you want instead is a direct MLS feed with a saved search that notifies you the morning a match appears, because in a tight price band the first showing slot genuinely matters. Learn the vocabulary too: active, active with contract, pending and withdrawn mean different things, and only one of them is worth your Saturday.

You, the buyerYour agentThe listing agent
$2,000–$6,000 Touring on stale data, buying through a stranger

Wasted weekends are cheap; being represented by a lead-buying agent who has never set foot in the community, at the moment you're negotiating repairs, is not.

Where I earn the fee

I'll set you a real MLS feed so you see accurate status the hour it changes, and I'll tell you before we drive that the one you circled went pending on Thursday. My phone number is my phone number — you're not getting a call centre.

Check yourself

A home still shows “for sale” on a major portal. That means…

Step 6 · HOA, CDD, flood, and the condo question

What you're really buying in Florida

HOA versus CDD. An HOA fee is dues to a homeowners' association. A CDD is different and much less understood: a Community Development District issues bonds to build the infrastructure, and the assessment arrives on your annual property tax bill, not as an HOA invoice. It can run well over a thousand dollars a year for decades, and there is usually an outstanding bond balance attached to the lot. Many buyers find out at closing. Some find out in November.

The condo question has changed completely. After Surfside, Florida requires milestone structural inspections and a Structural Integrity Reserve Study for condo buildings of three or more habitable storeys, covering roof, structure, fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and windows — and reserve funding for those items can no longer simply be waived by an owner vote. Associations that deferred maintenance for twenty years are now passing special assessments measured in five figures per unit, and compliance status can affect both financing and insurance. Before you offer on any condo: ask for the milestone inspection, the reserve study, the current reserve balance, the budget, and any assessment discussed but not yet levied.

Flood. Flood is never covered by a homeowners policy — it is a separate policy, and your lender will require it in a special flood hazard area. Plenty of Florida homes that flood are not in one, so check the zone and ask the neighbours. And the site-wide rule that matters most here: whether a property can be rented, and for how short a stay, is governed by the association documents and the local ordinance for that specific address. Never assume it because the listing says so.

You, the buyerThe associationThe county property appraiser
$15,000–$60,000 A CDD bond or a condo special assessment nobody mentioned

A CDD bond balance rides with the lot and the assessment lands on your tax bill for decades. A post-SIRS condo special assessment is frequently five figures per unit, due on a schedule the association sets, not you.

Where I earn the fee

I pull the governing documents, the budget, the reserve study and the CDD figures for the specific address before you write an offer — not after. I read association minutes, which is dull and is where the phrase “discussed a future assessment” lives. Running a property company means I know what these buildings actually cost to maintain.

What a CDD fee really is →
Check yourself

A CDD assessment usually shows up…

Central Florida's most common fork

The detour: buying new construction

A very large share of Central Florida inventory is new construction, and buying from a builder is a genuinely different transaction. It can be an excellent choice. It is not the same choice.

Bring your agent to the first visit
This is the one that costs people real money. Most builders require your agent to accompany or register you on your first visit; walk in alone and sign the visitor card, and you may have given up representation on that community for good. The pleasant person in the model home is the builder's sales representative and works for the builder.
The contract is the builder's, not the standard one
You're not on the familiar Florida AS IS residential contract. Builder contracts are written by the builder's lawyers: deposits may be non-refundable at stages, delivery dates are often estimates rather than obligations, and the remedies if they're late are usually thin.
Builder incentives versus the loan you shop
Incentives for using the builder's lender — rate buydowns, closing-cost credits — can be genuinely large and genuinely worth taking. Price the whole package against an outside quote anyway: sometimes the buydown is real value, and sometimes it's priced back into the house.
Still get your own inspection
New does not mean flawless. An independent inspection before drywall and again before closing routinely finds real defects, and the builder's warranty is much easier to invoke with a third-party report in hand.
Price the community, not just the house
New communities are where CDD assessments live. Ask for the CDD figures, the bond balance on the lot, the projected HOA dues once the builder turns the association over to residents, and what's still to be built next to you. The quiet lot backing woodland is sometimes phase four.

Where I'd be honest with you

I'll register you at the community before your first visit — it costs you nothing, it doesn't raise your price, and it keeps you represented. Then I'll read the builder's contract with you and tell you which clauses are normal and which are worth pushing on. Builders negotiate more on incentives and options than they do on headline price, because the headline sets the comps for the rest of the phase.

The Offer

Price is one of nine terms. The other eight are how you win without wrecking yourself.

Step 7 · Nine terms, one of which is the price

Write an offer a seller can believe

Sellers are choosing between certainty and money, and a well-built offer sells them certainty. The terms that do the work: your financing type and the strength of your approval; the escrow deposit, which is the clearest signal of seriousness you can send; the inspection period; the financing and appraisal contingencies and their deadlines; the closing date, matched to the seller's actual situation; what conveys; and any seller concession toward your closing costs.

That last one is worth understanding properly. Asking the seller to contribute toward closing costs is often smarter than asking for a lower price when cash-to-close is your constraint — it converts money you'd need on the table into money financed over thirty years. There are limits by loan type, and your lender needs to know it's coming.

Under Florida's standard AS IS residential contract, you get an inspection period during which you may cancel for any reason and have your deposit returned. “AS IS” does not mean you're stuck — it means the seller has no obligation to repair, while you retain the right to walk. Those are very different things, and the second one is your real protection.

You, the buyerYour agentThe seller
$8,000–$16,000 Losing on terms and paying up on the next one

Offers fail on structure more often than on price. Lose the right house and the replacement typically costs 2–4% more by the time you've competed twice.

Where I earn the fee

I call the listing agent before we write and ask what the seller actually needs — a date, a rent-back, a fast close, certainty about financing. Half the time the winning offer isn't the highest one, it's the one shaped around the answer to that question.

Check yourself

Under Florida's standard AS IS contract, “as is” means…

Step 8 · What to give up, and what never to

Compete without wrecking yourself

In a multiple-offer situation there are sensible levers. An escalation clause raises your price automatically above a verified competing offer up to a stated ceiling. Appraisal-gap language commits you to cover a shortfall up to a set amount, which is genuinely reassuring to a seller — and it must be an amount you actually have in cash, because that's exactly what it costs if it triggers. A larger escrow deposit signals seriousness at no real risk if you perform. A shorter inspection period costs you time, not rights.

Now the two you should be very slow to give up in Florida. Waiving the inspection entirely means buying a roof, an air handler and a plumbing system you have never had examined — on housing stock where roof age alone decides insurability. Waiving or skipping the insurance investigation means committing before you know whether you can afford to carry the house, which is a Florida-specific way to lose a deposit.

And the discipline that makes all of it work: decide your ceiling before you're emotionally invested, write it down, and let the house go if it passes. There is always another house. There is not always another $40,000.

You, the buyerYour agentThe seller
$12,000–$40,000 Waiving the wrong contingency

A waived inspection on a twenty-year-old Florida roof is a $15,000–$30,000 replacement you now own outright, plus whatever else was never looked at.

Where I earn the fee

I'll tell you which concessions are cheap and which are the ones people regret, and I'll hold you to the ceiling you set on a calm Tuesday rather than the one you feel on a Sunday afternoon. Losing a bidding war is not a failure — the second-best outcome is frequently the best one.

Check yourself

Which concession is usually the most dangerous for a Florida buyer?

Step 9 · These deadlines are not approximate

Under contract: everything becomes a date

The moment it's executed, your purchase turns into a calendar. The escrow deposit has a delivery deadline measured in days, and missing it is a default you handed the seller for free. The inspection period ends on a stated day. Loan approval has a date. Closing has a date. Florida's contract counts most of these in business days, and the mechanics are not forgiving of good intentions.

Buying a condo adds one more: Florida gives condo buyers a statutory window to cancel after receiving the governing documents and financial information. It exists precisely so you can read the budget, the reserves and the milestone and reserve-study status before you're committed. Use it — and start reading the day they arrive, not the day before it closes.

Order things in parallel rather than in sequence. Inspection booked immediately, insurance quotes started the same week, survey and association documents requested at once. Buyers who run these one after another discover the expensive problem after the cheap exit has already closed behind them.

You, the buyerYour agentThe title company
$5,000–$17,000 Missing a contractual deadline

A late escrow deposit or a blown inspection deadline can hand the seller the right to cancel — or cost you the deposit itself, which on a $425,000 purchase is commonly $4,000 to $17,000.

Where I earn the fee

You get a calendar with every deadline on it and I run the list. I book the inspection in the first forty-eight hours and push you to get insurance quotes in week one, because the whole point of an inspection period is to still be inside it when you learn something.

Check yourself

Why start insurance quotes in the first week rather than at day twenty?

Due Diligence

You're under contract. This is the stretch where you find out what you actually agreed to buy — and where Florida bites hardest.

Step 10 · General, termite, four-point, wind mitigation

Inspections: in Florida you need more than one

The general inspection is a few hundred dollars and the best value in the transaction. Go, and follow the inspector around — an hour walking behind someone who is pointing at things teaches you more about the house than the report will.

Then the Florida additions. A WDO (termite) inspection is close to mandatory here and frequently required on government-backed loans; subterranean termites and wood rot are ordinary, not exotic. A four-point covers roof, electrical, plumbing and HVAC and exists for the insurance carrier rather than for you. A wind mitigation report documents roof shape, attachment and opening protection, and can earn genuine premium credits — it routinely pays for itself in the first year.

What to focus on: the age and condition of the roof and the HVAC, any sign of past or present water intrusion, polybutylene plumbing in certain eras, aluminium wiring, whether additions and pool enclosures were permitted and closed out, and — if there's a pool, a septic system or a well — a separate look at each. Your response is then a negotiation: ask for the safety items and the genuine defects, let the cosmetic list go, and remember that a credit at closing is often worth more to you than a repair done cheaply by a seller who has already moved on.

The home inspectorYou, the buyerYour agent
$5,000–$25,000 Skipping the Florida-specific inspections

Undiscovered termite damage, an unpermitted addition or a roof at the end of its life all become yours at closing, at full retail, with no leverage left.

Where I earn the fee

I'm at the inspection, and I have the trades to price what it finds properly — my company runs handymen and contractors across Central Florida every day. A real number from someone who does the work is a much better negotiating instrument than a guess.

Check yourself

A wind mitigation report is mainly worth ordering because…

Step 11 · Not day twenty

Insurance is the Florida deal-killer. Start on day one

In most states insurance is a box to tick. In Florida it decides whether the purchase is possible. Get quotes in the first week of your inspection period, on the actual address, with the actual roof age — not a placeholder figure your lender dropped into an estimate.

Roof age governs everything. Many carriers become difficult past roughly fifteen years on a shingle roof and some simply decline. The four-point and wind-mitigation reports are what they price off. If the roof is at that edge, the question to negotiate is not a small repair credit — it's whether the seller replaces the roof, credits you toward one, or you walk.

Two more. Flood is a separate policy and your lender will require it in a special flood hazard area; get the elevation certificate if one exists, because it can move the premium enormously. And for condos, the association's own compliance now matters to your policy: where an association hasn't met its milestone inspection and reserve-study obligations, coverage options narrow — including through Citizens, the state-backed insurer of last resort. “We'll sort the insurance out later” is how Florida deals die at day thirty-five.

The insurance carrierYou, the buyerYour loan officer
$6,000–$30,000 Finding out what it costs after your exit closed

A premium $250/month above plan is $3,000 a year for as long as you own it. A roof that must be replaced to obtain any policy at all is $15,000–$30,000 — discovered too late, it's yours.

Where I earn the fee

I push insurance quotes into week one, every time, and I'll read the four-point with you before you're out of your inspection period. If the answer is that this house can't be insured at a price you can live with, I'd rather you lose an inspection fee than a deposit.

Check yourself

Flood damage on a Florida home is covered by…

Step 12 · Four outcomes, decided weeks earlier

The appraisal, and who covers the gap

Your lender orders an appraisal through a management company. You don't choose the appraiser, you can't influence them, and you'll never speak to them. They pull closed comparable sales, adjust for differences, and produce a number.

At or above contract price, nothing happens. Below it, there are exactly four outcomes: you bring the difference in cash, the seller reduces the price, you split it, or the contract terminates. The lender will not lend against a number its own appraiser didn't support, and there is no appeal that changes that.

Which of the four you get is mostly determined by what your contract already says about an appraisal shortfall — written weeks earlier, when nobody knew there'd be one. If you agreed to cover a gap in order to win the house, that bill is now due in cash on top of your down payment. This is why the ceiling you set at station eight has to be a number you genuinely have.

The appraiserYour loan officerThe seller
$15,000 A low appraisal you already agreed to cover

A $425,000 contract appraising at $410,000 with gap language you signed is $15,000 in cash, on top of your down payment and closing costs, or the deal.

Where I earn the fee

I send the appraiser the comps and the improvement list in writing — that's allowed and it's useful — and if it still comes in low I'll tell you whether it's worth disputing or whether the number is right and we should be renegotiating instead.

Check yourself

The appraisal comes in $15,000 below your contract price. Which is not an option?

Step 13 · Read this one twice

Title, survey, estoppel — and the wire

The title company searches the public record for anything that follows the property rather than the person: mortgages, contractor's liens, old judgments, a solar loan filed against the equipment, unpaid code liens, an heir who never signed. A survey shows encroachments and easements — the neighbour's fence three feet over the line, the utility easement across the back of the lot where you were going to put a pool. Buy the owner's title policy; who customarily pays for it varies by Florida county and it's negotiable everywhere.

In an association, the closing agent orders the estoppel certificate, which states officially what's owed and what transfers. Alongside it, read the budget, the reserves, the rules and — for condos — the milestone and reserve-study status. And watch for open permits: a permit pulled years ago and never inspected sits on the property indefinitely and can take weeks to close.

Now the most dangerous moment of your entire purchase. Wire fraud. Criminals monitor real estate email, then send you a convincing message with new wiring instructions days before closing — correct logos, correct names, correct file number. People lose their whole down payment this way and it is frequently unrecoverable. The rule is absolute: never take wiring instructions from an email. Call the title company on a number you already had, verify every digit verbally, and call again after sending to confirm receipt. Nobody legitimate will ever email you to change wiring instructions at the last minute.

The title companyThe associationYou, the buyer
$10,000–$85,000 Wire fraud, or a title defect found late

A diverted closing wire is usually your entire cash to close and is commonly never recovered. A missed lien or open permit is smaller but still lands on you, or delays your closing.

Where I earn the fee

I give you the title company's verified number early and tell you plainly that I will never email you wiring instructions. I read the title commitment and the survey, and I ask about permits, liens and solar equipment well before we're up against a closing date.

Check yourself

You get an email from the title company with updated wiring instructions two days before closing. You should…

Closing And After

The last signatures, the most dangerous wire of your life, and the deadline nobody tells first-time Florida buyers about.

Step 14 · Conditions, and the furniture that kills deals

Underwriting: the quiet stretch where loans die

While you're thinking about paint colours, an underwriter is working through your file and issuing conditions: an updated statement, a letter explaining a deposit, a gift letter, an association questionnaire, proof of insurance, a re-verification of your employment days before closing. Answer every one of them the same day. Files stall far more often on a document nobody chased than on a real problem.

This is also where buyers damage themselves. New credit, a financed car or sofa, a job change, a large unexplained deposit, moving money between accounts — any of these can change your ratios or your documentation trail and push an approved file back out of approval.

And understand the deadline that matters: once your financing contingency expires, a loan that then falls apart is no longer automatically a protected exit. That is the mechanism by which a buyer loses an escrow deposit — not bad luck, a date.

The underwriterYour loan officerYou, the buyer
$8,500–$17,000 A loan that dies after the financing contingency expired

Past that date your escrow deposit is exposed, and on a $425,000 purchase that deposit is commonly $8,500 to $17,000 — plus the inspection, appraisal and moving costs already spent.

Where I earn the fee

I ask your loan officer for the outstanding condition list weekly and chase it, and I'll push for a contingency extension in writing the moment a file looks slow — before the date passes, which is the only time it's worth anything.

Check yourself

Your loan falls through after the financing contingency has expired. Your escrow deposit is…

Step 15 · Three business days, and one last look

Closing: compare the numbers, then walk the house

You receive a Closing Disclosure at least three business days before closing. That window exists so you can read it — so read it, against the Loan Estimate you were given at the start. Some figures are allowed to move and some aren't. Question anything that changed, particularly lender fees and the cash-to-close line.

Do the final walkthrough as late as possible, ideally the morning of closing. You're checking that the home is in the condition you agreed, that agreed repairs were done, that what conveys is still there, and that nothing broke during the move-out. Run the air conditioning, open the windows, flush everything, and look under the sinks. Problems found now are negotiable; problems found the day after are yours.

At the table you'll sign the note, the mortgage, the deed paperwork and a stack of disclosures. Bring photo ID. Your wire should already have been sent and verified by phone. Then the lender funds, the deed records, and somebody hands you keys.

The title companyYour loan officerYou, the buyer
$500–$4,000 Not reconciling the Closing Disclosure to the Loan Estimate

Fee creep, a duplicated charge or a proration run to the wrong date are ordinary and correctable — but only if somebody actually compares the two documents before closing day.

Where I earn the fee

I read the Closing Disclosure against the Loan Estimate line by line and raise anything that moved, and I do the walkthrough with you. If an agreed repair wasn't done, that's a conversation to have before you sign, not a text message afterwards.

Check yourself

The best time for the final walkthrough is…

Step 16 · The deadline nobody tells Florida buyers

After the keys: file homestead by March 1

This is the most valuable paragraph on the page and it takes fifteen minutes to act on. If the home is your permanent residence, file for homestead exemption with your county property appraiser. The filing deadline is March 1 for that tax year. It reduces your taxable value and — far more valuable over time — it triggers Save Our Homes, which caps how fast your assessed value can rise each year. Miss the deadline and you wait a full year for both.

Also expect year two to cost more. The county reassesses at market value following a sale, so the first tax bill you see may still reflect the seller's capped assessment. Budget for the step up rather than being surprised by it. If you already had homestead on a prior Florida home, ask about portability — you may be able to carry a portion of your accumulated savings to the new one, and it has its own deadline and form. Exemption amounts, portability limits and additional exemptions for veterans, seniors and surviving spouses change, so take the current figures from your county property appraiser rather than from any website, including this one.

The rest of the first year: keep the settlement statement somewhere you can find it, review the insurance at renewal instead of auto-renewing, and get on a maintenance rhythm — in this climate the air conditioning, the roof and the water heater are the three that decide what the house costs you.

The county property appraiserYou, the buyer
$2,500–$6,000 Missing the homestead filing deadline

A missed March 1 filing costs you a year of the exemption and, more importantly, a year of the Save Our Homes cap — which compounds for as long as you own the home.

Where I earn the fee

I remind my buyers about homestead in January, every year, including the ones who closed through somebody else. It costs me nothing and it's the single highest-return fifteen minutes in Florida homeownership.

The Florida maintenance rhythm →
Check yourself

The deadline to file for Florida homestead exemption for a tax year is…

The ledger

Add it up.

Every figure on this page, in one place. These are illustrative models on a $425,000 Central Florida purchase, not statistics — each one shows the mechanism rather than quoting a study. No buyer makes all sixteen mistakes. You only need two or three of them to lose more than everything this page is trying to save you.

What each step costs when it goes wrong — modelled on a $425,000 purchase
StepThe mistake Illustrative cost
1 Buying at the top of your approval $9,000
2 Leaving assistance on the table $10,000–$35,000
3 Shopping on a prequal letter $8,000–$15,000
4 Signing a long exclusive with someone you just met $3,000–$12,000
5 Touring on stale data, buying through a stranger $2,000–$6,000
6 A CDD bond or a condo special assessment nobody mentioned $15,000–$60,000
7 Losing on terms and paying up on the next one $8,000–$16,000
8 Waiving the wrong contingency $12,000–$40,000
9 Missing a contractual deadline $5,000–$17,000
10 Skipping the Florida-specific inspections $5,000–$25,000
11 Finding out what it costs after your exit closed $6,000–$30,000
12 A low appraisal you already agreed to cover $15,000
13 Wire fraud, or a title defect found late $10,000–$85,000
14 A loan that dies after the financing contingency expired $8,500–$17,000
15 Not reconciling the Closing Disclosure to the Loan Estimate $500–$4,000
16 Missing the homestead filing deadline $2,500–$6,000
Midpoint total, if every one of them went wrong $255,750

That's the whole process.

Sixteen steps, twelve parties, and about thirty days in the middle where the real work happens. You now know more about buying a home in Florida than most people who already own one here.

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Ask me about your own search What can you afford?

Where to check me

I'd rather you verified this than took my word for it. These are free, neutral and not trying to sell you a mortgage:

  • HUD — Buying a Home — the federal nine-step framework this page follows, plus HUD-approved housing counselling, your fair housing rights and RESPA
  • Fannie Mae HomeView — a free six-chapter homebuyer course in English and Spanish; its certificate satisfies the education requirement on most loan programs, including Florida's assistance programs
  • Florida Housing Finance Corporation — the current down-payment assistance programs, income limits and purchase-price caps by county — check these rather than trusting any figure quoted to you
  • CFPB, Owning a Home — loan comparison tools and plain-English explanations of the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure, from the federal regulator

Nothing on this page is legal, tax, insurance, lending or financial advice, and none of it is specific to a property. Figures are illustrative models; program amounts, statutory deadlines, exemption figures and county customs change and must be confirmed from the primary source before you rely on them. Whether any property may be rented, and for how short a stay, is governed by the association documents and the local ordinance for that specific address and must be verified there.

Common questions

The ones I get asked first.

How much do I need for a down payment in Florida?
Less than you think. Conventional loans go to 3% down for qualified first-time buyers, FHA to 3.5%, and VA and USDA to zero for those eligible. Separately budget 2–5% for closing costs plus prepaid taxes and insurance, which are larger here than in most states. Florida Housing also runs down-payment assistance — FL Assist and Hometown Heroes — with income and price limits by county; confirm current terms with a participating lender.
What credit score do I need to buy a house?
It varies by loan type, and the score is only part of it — your debt-to-income ratio, employment history and documentation matter just as much. FHA is generally the most forgiving on score, conventional the most rewarding of a strong one through pricing and mortgage insurance. The useful step is a free conversation with a lender who'll pull your actual file rather than guessing from a chart.
Why is homeowners insurance such a big deal in Florida?
Because it can make an affordable house unaffordable, or uninsurable. Roof age is the dominant factor — many carriers get difficult past roughly fifteen years on shingle — and the four-point and wind-mitigation reports are what they price from. Flood is always a separate policy. Get real quotes on the real address in the first week of your inspection period, while you can still walk.
What's the difference between an HOA fee and a CDD fee?
An HOA fee is dues paid to a homeowners' association. A CDD is a Community Development District that issued bonds to build the community's infrastructure, and its assessment appears on your annual property tax bill rather than as an HOA invoice — often with an outstanding bond balance attached to the lot. Many Central Florida communities have both. See what a CDD fee really is.
Is it still safe to buy a condo in Florida?
Yes, with homework that didn't used to be necessary. Buildings of three or more habitable storeys now face milestone structural inspections and a structural integrity reserve study, and reserves for those components can no longer simply be waived by owner vote — so associations that deferred maintenance are passing significant special assessments. Before you offer, read the milestone inspection, the reserve study, the reserve balance, the budget and the minutes. A well-funded building is a perfectly good buy; an underfunded one is a bill you're inheriting.
How long does buying a home take?
Finding the right home is the unpredictable part — weeks to many months. Once you're under contract, a financed purchase typically closes in about 30 to 45 days, and cash can be two weeks. The preparation before you shop, though, is what determines whether the middle goes smoothly.
Do I have to pay my own agent now?
You agree what your agent is paid, in writing, before they tour you through homes — that's been the rule since 2024. Whether the seller contributes toward it is a term of the negotiation rather than an assumption, and it's something I negotiate on your behalf in the offer. Anyone who can't explain their own compensation plainly isn't the right agent.
When do I file for homestead exemption?
By March 1 for that tax year, with your county property appraiser, if the home is your permanent residence. It reduces taxable value and starts the Save Our Homes cap on annual assessment increases, which is worth more over time than the exemption itself. If you had homestead on a previous Florida home, ask about portability.

Next

Where this goes next

What can you actually afford?

Run the real Florida payment — taxes at your purchase price, insurance and association dues included.

Run the numbers →

Selling at the same time?

The same journey from the other side of the table — fifteen steps, and where sellers lose money.

Walk the sell side →

Working with me to buy

How I actually work, what I'll tell you not to buy, and why running a property company changes the advice.

How I work →

Let's Talk

Tell me what you're trying to do, and I'll tell you if it works.

Buying in Orlando, Kissimmee, Winter Garden, St. Cloud or anywhere in Central Florida? I'll run the real payment on a real address — taxes at your purchase price, a live insurance quote, the HOA and CDD figures — before you fall in love with anything. No cost, and if the honest answer is “rent another year and save,” I'll say that.

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863-443-6890
Email
john@vacationhomehelp.com
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Orange, Osceola & Polk Counties, Florida

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