Which Bal Harbour or Surfside condo suits a family office?

Ocean House Surfside is the most office-friendly on our file: 25 homes, a private garage for six cars with private storage, staff quarters with a service kitchen and a mailroom that receives packages, which is the list a family office writes before it visits. Rivage Bal Harbour is the largest holding, about 56 homes on about 2.7 acres with house cars and marina services, From $14,100,000. The Perigon gives private elevator entry to each of about 73 homes with a resident-only restaurant, From $12,500,000.

The same five questions, put to each building from the developers' published material:

Rivage Bal Harbour. Price point: From $14,100,000. Delivery: no date on file. Unit mix: about 56 homes across 25 stories, three to six bedrooms, about 3,300 to 12,600 square feet. Position: about 2.7 oceanfront acres with about 200 linear feet of private shoreline, the last oceanfront parcel in Bal Harbour. Operator: Related Group and Two Roads Development, with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for the tower and Rottet Studio inside; no brand, no hotel.

Ocean House Surfside. Price point: on request. Delivery: no date on the fact sheet. Unit mix: 25 residences of two to five bedrooms. Position: 9309 to 9317 Collins Avenue, on the ocean between Bal Harbour and Miami Beach. Operator: MTP Oceanside LLC, the developer of record, with Arquitectonica; no brand, no hotel.

The Perigon. Price point: From $12,500,000. Delivery: no date on file. Unit mix: about 73 homes of two to four bedrooms with private elevator entry to each. Position: 5333 Collins Avenue in Mid-Beach, about 200 linear feet of shoreline on the ocean and on the bay. Operator: Starwood Capital Group and Mast Capital, with OMA and Tara Bernerd; no brand, no hotel.

A family office rarely buys in a principal's name. It buys through a trust, a company or a layered structure, and the questions start before the contract: who signs the purchase agreement, whose funds pay the deposit, and whether the buyer named at contract can be changed to the entity before closing.

Ask each developer whether the contract allows the buyer to assign to an entity the same principal controls, what the fee is, and what the developer needs to see: formation papers, the authority of the signer, the source of the deposit. Ask the association whether an entity owner must name the occupant, and whether the rules on guests treat a principal's family as owners or as guests. Read LLC, trust or personal name and buying a Miami condo through an entity, and take the structure to counsel, because the buyer named in the contract is the buyer.

An office counts spaces the way it counts shares. Three questions by building.

Parking. Ocean House publishes a private garage for six cars with private storage and 24-hour valet. Rivage publishes house cars, which changes how many of the principal's own cars need to be here. The Perigon's published material on our file does not count spaces. Ask each developer whether a space is deeded with the home, assigned by the association, or valet only, and whether it can be sold or moved. The building notes on Ocean House parking and storage and Rivage parking and storage collect the questions.

Storage. Private storage is published at Ocean House. Ask whether a storage room is a limited common element tied to the home or a licence the association can revoke.

Staff. Ocean House publishes staff quarters with a service kitchen; Rivage publishes house cars and private marina services; The Perigon publishes a resident-only restaurant and speakeasy. Ask where a driver waits, where staff enter, and where a package sits until someone collects it. Read Rivage household staff and service entry.

An office underwrites a home as a line in a budget that must hold for a decade. Three things make a condominium budget predictable, and the documents show all three.

The first-year budget. The developer's estimated operating budget is in the condominium documents. Read it per square foot and compare it across the three. A building of 25 homes shares fixed costs among fewer owners than one of 73; the per-home number is higher, and the office should know that before it is surprised by it.

The reserves. Florida now requires a structural integrity reserve study for buildings of three storeys or more, and reserves funded to it. Ask the developer what study is planned, what it funds and when the first one is due. Read what a beach building reserve study tells you and milestone inspection and reserves.

The insurance. The association's master policy carries the building; the owner's policy carries the interior and contents. On the ocean, the windstorm deductible is the line that moves. Ask for the master policy summary and the deductible as a percentage of the insured value. Read climate, insurance and the Miami buyer.

Ocean House Surfside suits the office that wants the fewest neighbours, a garage for six, staff quarters and a package room, in a building where the staff know every name. You give up a published price and a large amenity program. Read the Ocean House family office diligence file.

Rivage Bal Harbour suits the office buying a long-term holding on the last private shoreline in Bal Harbour, with house cars and marina services, and homes up to about 12,600 square feet. You pay the highest entry here. Read the Rivage family office diligence file and the Rivage dossier.

The Perigon suits the office that wants private entry and a resident-only restaurant in a building of about 73, with shoreline on both sides. You give up the quiet of a building of 25. Read the Perigon family office diligence file.

The Bal Harbour and Surfside zone page maps the coast, and relocating from Paris to Surfside or Bal Harbour covers the office whose principal is arriving from Europe. For the process once the building is chosen, read how a family office buys several Miami condos, from offer to recording; for the papers kept afterwards, the ownership file for a Bal Harbour or Surfside condo. The desk reads the budget, the parking exhibit and the entity clause with the office before anyone signs.