No. A preconstruction purchase can be reserved, contracted, funded and closed entirely from abroad. Whether to buy without visiting is a different question.
Written for international buyers and for U.S. buyers in other states. The desk works in English, Spanish and Portuguese. All notes from the desk.
Buyers in Bogotá, London and São Paulo ask this constantly, usually because a sales office has told them they must come in for a presentation. You do not have to. Here is what can be done remotely, what needs a notary, and what is worth a plane ticket anyway.
Reservation agreements and purchase contracts for Miami preconstruction are signed electronically as a matter of routine. The developer sends the documents, you sign, the deposit is wired. The 15-day rescission period runs from delivery of the condominium documents, which are sent electronically too.
Your attorney reads the documents wherever you are. Nothing in the contract stage requires physical presence.
Each deposit on the schedule is a wire from your account, domestic or foreign, to the escrow agent or the developer as the contract specifies. The receiving bank will want source-of-funds documentation the first time; after that, each wire is routine. A U.S. account makes it simpler but is not strictly required at the deposit stage.
At closing, the deed and the closing documents must be signed and notarized. For a buyer abroad this is done either through a power of attorney, granting a trusted person in Miami the authority to sign, or by signing in front of a U.S. consulate or a foreign notary with an apostille. Remote online notarization is also now permitted in Florida for many documents.
The title company coordinates all of this. Buyers close from Mexico City, Madrid and Zurich without incident when the paperwork is set up in advance.
Your situation is specific. Tell the desk in one message and we will say what applies to you, what does not, and who to speak with.
Not the sales presentation. A visit is worth making to walk the neighborhood at different hours, to stand on the site and see what the view will actually contain at your floor, to see the finished product of the same developer elsewhere in the city, and to meet the attorney and the banker in person.
For a first purchase in Miami, the desk's view is that one visit before contract is worth more than any brochure. For a buyer who already knows the city, it is optional.
It works when the buyer has an independent adviser who has walked the site, read the plans, and knows the developer's record; when the building is by a developer with delivered projects to inspect; and when the buyer's reasons are clear. It fails when the buyer is choosing from renderings alone, because renderings do not show the building across the street or the line that faces the parking structure.
That is the gap the desk exists to close. The floor plan analysis for each building, which lines earn the premium and which do not, is the remote buyer's substitute for standing on the site.
After delivery, a foreign owner who is not in residence typically uses the building's concierge and a local property manager for maintenance, and an accountant for the annual U.S. filing. Buildings with a hotel operator, such as Ocean Terrace or Waldorf Astoria Residences, have this built in. Buildings without one rely on the association and outside managers. Ask before you choose.
Your situation is specific. Tell the desk in one message and we will say what applies to you, what does not, and who to speak with.
This note is general information for people considering Miami, written by a real estate desk, not by a law or accounting firm. Nothing here is legal, tax, immigration or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own circumstances. Rules change, treaties differ by country, and the right answer for one family is the wrong answer for another.
Speak with your own attorney and CPA before you commit to anything. If you do not have one who works with international buyers in Florida, the desk is glad to recommend an attorney, a CPA or an adviser suited to your situation, and to sit in the first conversation so that nothing is lost in translation.
Structure, financing, currency, timing, the right building and the right line: the desk works through these questions with international buyers every week, and the answer is nearly always that it can be done, in order, without surprises. If Miami is on your mind, as a home or as an allocation, we would be glad to share what we are seeing, privately, and to start with the question this note did not answer.