Miami Condo Intelligence
Miami Condo Due Diligence: What Buyers Should Review Before Closing
A condominium purchase is an acquisition of both the unit and a proportional interest in the building’s financial, structural, operational, and governance obligations.
The six-lens review
A condominium should be evaluated as a system
Weak due diligence isolates one document. Strong due diligence connects documents that describe the same risk from different angles.
Budget & financials
Income, expenses, reserves, owner delinquencies, loans and whether recurring costs appear structurally adequate.
Review financial health →SIRS & reserves
What major components are expected to cost, when they may need work, and how the association plans to fund them.
Read SIRS & reserves →Milestone inspections
Structural inspection status, findings, follow-up work and whether Phase 2 or repairs are required.
Understand inspections →Master insurance
Property coverage, deductibles, flood exposure, exclusions and what still belongs on the unit owner's policy.
Review insurance →Minutes & governance
Projects, disputes, bids, budgets, rule changes, owner concerns and decisions that may not be obvious in marketing material.
Read meeting intelligence →Financing eligibility
A qualified buyer can still have a financing problem if the condominium project does not meet the lender's project standards.
Review financing risk →What to collect
The core document stack
Florida law specifies several documents for condominium resales, but serious due diligence usually goes beyond the statutory delivery package.
| Document | What it can answer | What it cannot answer by itself |
|---|---|---|
| Declaration, bylaws & rules | Use restrictions, leasing, pets, parking, alterations, association powers | Whether current enforcement is consistent or whether a rule may soon change |
| Annual budget & financial statement | Recurring operating costs, reserve contributions, debt and major expense categories | Whether every future project is fully funded |
| SIRS / reserve study | Major component useful lives, estimated costs and reserve funding plan | Whether a recently discovered condition has changed those assumptions |
| Milestone inspection | Structural inspection findings and recommended follow-up | The final cost or exact disruption of repairs unless separately documented |
| Insurance policies | Master coverage, limits, deductibles and named coverages | Your personal unit coverage needs or future renewal pricing |
| Board / membership minutes | Projects, votes, disputes, bids and issues under discussion | A complete engineering or legal assessment |
| Special-assessment records | Purpose, amount, schedule and status | Whether another assessment will ever be needed |
How to interpret risk
A red flag is not the same as a deal breaker
The useful question is usually not “Does this building have an issue?” but “What is the issue, how mature is the plan to address it, and what does it mean for this buyer?”
More reassuring
Known project, defined scope, credible professional reports, funded plan, clear owner communication and documented progress.
Needs more work
Major project identified but scope or funding is still evolving; lender or insurer questions remain open; owner cost is not yet fully defined.
Not automatically negative
A special assessment, repair project or old building can still be reasonable when the obligation is understood, priced correctly and compatible with the buyer's plan.
Why this matters beyond buyers
The same documents matter to owners and sellers
Owners
Understanding the building's obligations helps you anticipate carrying costs, future projects, leasing limitations and what a future buyer will scrutinize.
Sellers
Preparing the association story before listing can reduce surprises when the buyer, lender or insurer begins asking questions under a deadline.
Buyers
The goal is not to eliminate uncertainty. It is to identify the important uncertainty early enough to make a deliberate purchase decision.
Practical workflow
Do the reviews in parallel, not one after another
Contract deadlines can move faster than an association, lender, insurer or attorney. Waiting for one review to finish before starting the next can waste the due-diligence window.
Immediately
Request the full condo package, engineering/reserve records and current assessment information.
At the same time
Send the project to the lender and insurance contact. Do not wait for the unit inspection to finish.
After documents arrive
Cross-check financials, SIRS, inspection findings, minutes and assessment funding rather than reading each in isolation.
Before the deadline
Resolve the issues that can change the decision, price, financing or closing timeline; elevate legal, engineering and insurance questions to the appropriate professional.
Looking at an Edgewater building?
Start with the building, your intended use, and the question you are trying to answer. The same document can matter very differently to a full-time resident, snowbird, investor or seller.
Primary sources
Official references used for this guide
Rules and lending standards can change. These are the government and agency sources this page was checked against.
- Florida Statutes §718.503 — condominium sale disclosures and resale documents
- Florida Statutes §718.111 — association insurance and official records
- Florida Statutes §718.112 — reserves, SIRS and milestone obligations
- Florida Statutes §553.899 — mandatory structural inspections
- Florida DBPR — Milestone Inspection and SIRS guidance
- Florida DBPR — Condominium official-records FAQs
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