Miami Condo Due Diligence
How to Read a Miami Condo Budget
A condo budget becomes useful when you connect it to reserves, engineering needs, insurance, debt and the building's actual maintenance obligations.
Operating income
Regular assessments, parking or other association revenue and whether the budget depends on unusual non-recurring income.
Operating expenses
Insurance, staffing, utilities, management, repairs, contracts and the categories growing fastest.
Reserve funding
How much is being contributed and whether the funding plan aligns with the current SIRS where one is required.
Debt & assessments
Loans, lines of credit, special assessments and payment obligations that may not be obvious from the monthly HOA fee alone.
What I look for
Questions that turn accounting into decision intelligence
- Are major expense categories rising faster than the total budget?
- Does reserve funding appear consistent with the association's current SIRS or other reserve plan?
- Are there association loans or lines of credit, and what are their repayment obligations?
- Do the financial statements identify special assessments or alternative reserve funding methods?
- Are owner delinquencies material enough to affect cash flow or lender review?
- Are there major projects in minutes or engineering reports that do not yet appear fully in the budget?
Interpretation
What should trigger a deeper review?
Large budget jump
Not automatically negative. Find the cause: insurance, reserves, staffing, new contracts, debt service or a one-time catch-up.
Very low reserve contribution
Compare it with the SIRS and current Florida reserve requirements before assuming the building is inexpensive to own.
Association debt
Understand what the debt funded, remaining term, payment source and whether the debt reduced or merely delayed owner contributions.
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 §718.111 — accounting records and financial reports
- Florida Statutes §718.112 — reserves and SIRS funding
- Florida Statutes §718.503 — resale financial disclosures
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