For the buyer whose adviser has said to hold the home in a company, and whose banker has said the bank lends to people, who wants to know whether both can be true on the same closing.
This page explains. Whether the building suits you is a separate conversation. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
Yes, from some lenders, on different terms. The agency backed loans most Florida borrowers use are made to people, so a condo bought in an LLC is usually financed by a portfolio lender, a private bank or a lender that writes investor and foreign national loans, with the members signing a personal guarantee, a larger down payment and a rate above the owner occupied market. The lender underwrites the people behind the company as well as the company, so the paperwork is both sets. In pre-construction the loan is arranged near delivery, not at contract, so the deposits are cash from the LLC and the mortgage is a question for the closing year. The decision to hold in an LLC is made before the contract, with counsel, because the name on the purchase agreement, the name on the deed and the name on the loan have to agree, and we set out what has to line up below.
Three kinds. Portfolio lenders and private banks, which keep the loan on their own books and can lend to an entity on their own rules, usually to a client with a relationship and assets with them. Lenders who write non agency investor loans, including loans underwritten on the property's rental income rather than the borrower's, which accept an LLC as borrower by design. And foreign national lenders, who underwrite buyers without a US credit file and are used to entity borrowers. What they share is the personal guarantee: the company signs the note, and the members sign to answer for it, which is why the LLC changes who holds the deed, not who is liable for the debt. The agency guidelines the mainstream lenders follow generally require a natural person as borrower, and a buyer who wants that rate holds the home in their own name or asks counsel about a transfer afterwards, with its own risks. Read foreign national financing, buying without US credit history and what a US bank asks a foreign buyer.
Two files. For the company: the articles of organisation and the operating agreement, a certificate of good standing from the state where it was formed, the federal tax identification number, a resolution authorising the purchase and the loan and naming who signs, and, if it is a foreign or multi member company, the ownership chart down to the people. For the members: the same income, asset and identity documents a personal borrower provides, plus the source of the funds the company will use for the down payment, traced from the member to the company to escrow. A lender also asks whether the home will be occupied by a member, rented, or left empty, because the loan program and the rate depend on it, and an answer that changes later is a default under most notes. Read source of funds documentation, moving funds to a Florida escrow account and why international wires get held.
Near delivery. A new tower closes when the certificate of occupancy issues and the developer calls the closing, which on our file is summer 2027 at Cipriani Residences Miami, March 2027 at South Flagler House and the first quarter of 2027 at Cassia per its sales team, and no published date at most of the others; no lender commits a rate two years out. So the buyer's company pays the staged deposits in cash, and in the months before the closing notice the members apply, the lender orders the appraisal and sends the association its condominium questionnaire, and the loan funds at the table. Most developer purchase agreements carry no financing contingency, so a company that cannot get the loan when the notice arrives still has to close or forfeit its deposits. A buyer therefore asks a lender before reserving whether this building and this structure would qualify, and keeps the cash to close without the loan if it must. Read cash or mortgage for a Miami pre-construction condo, what happens to your mortgage if a Miami pre-construction closing is delayed and which dates in a Miami preconstruction contract can you not miss.
Four names and one address. The purchase agreement names the buyer, and a developer's contract usually needs the developer's consent to assign it to a company formed later, sometimes for a fee, so the company is formed and named before signing or the assignment clause is read first. The deed names the owner, and it is the company. The note and mortgage name the borrower, the company, and the guarantors, the members. The title insurance policy and the owner's hazard and flood policies name the insured, and an insurer writing to a company rather than a person asks its own questions. The property appraiser then reassesses the home at the sale price in the January after closing, and a company owned home cannot claim the homestead exemption or its cap, which the lender's escrow estimate for taxes should reflect from the first year. Read buying a Miami condo through an entity, LLC, trust or personal name, why property tax resets when you buy a Miami condo and how to read the closing statement on a new Miami condo.
Seven questions, split between counsel and the lender. For counsel: whether an LLC solves the problem the buyer has, liability, privacy or estate, or whether a trust or their own name does it better; which state to form it in; what the developer's assignment clause allows; and what the LLC does to homestead, to the estate tax exposure of a non-resident member and to the UK, Canadian or Latin American tax treatment of the member at home. For the lender: whether it lends to an entity on this building, at what down payment and rate, with what guarantee, and what in the condominium questionnaire would stop it. The answers decide the name on the contract, and that name is hard to change afterwards. Read how a foreign buyer's US LLC goes from offer to recording, estate tax exposure for non-resident owners and documents before closing on a new Miami condo. The desk introduces the lenders who lend to entities and reads the assignment clause with the buyer before the reservation.
Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current plans, pricing and availability as the developer releases them, discussed one to one.
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We hold no listings and we are not the developer. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will tell you what applies to your situation, what does not, and where we would not proceed. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.
Metrik Real Estate is a Miami real estate company built around one idea: the buyer gets their own team. Miami Dossier is its private buyer advisory for new construction.
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