How does a married couple take a Miami condo from offer to recording?

The deed is the same for a couple as for anyone; the names on it are the decision. In Florida a married couple that takes title together is presumed to hold it as tenants by the entirety, a form only spouses can use, in which each owns the whole, the survivor takes it without probate, and a creditor of one spouse alone generally cannot reach it. The alternatives are one spouse alone, joint tenants with right of survivorship, or tenants in common with stated shares. The choice is made before the contract, because the buyer named in the purchase agreement is the buyer the developer closes with, and changing it later is an assignment with a fee. One more Florida rule sits over all of it: a home that is the couple's homestead cannot be sold or mortgaged without both spouses joining, whichever name is on the deed.

The purchase agreement names the buyer, and that name is what the developer will close with. A couple decides three things before signing: whether both sign, whether one signs with the other joining at closing, and whether a trust or an entity signs instead. Each has a consequence. Both signing means both are liable for the deposits and both are needed to cancel within the 15 days. One signing keeps the other off the contract, which some couples do for liability or for a lender, but the developer's assignment clause then governs whether the other may be added later and at what cost. Read LLC, trust or personal name and can you assign a pre-construction contract, and settle the question with counsel before the reservation becomes a contract. Read when a Miami pre-construction reservation becomes binding for the moment the choice locks.

As mechanics, for counsel to apply:

Tenancy by the entirety. Available to spouses only. Each owns the undivided whole; neither may sell or encumber without the other; on one death the survivor owns it without probate; a judgment against one spouse alone generally does not attach. Florida presumes it when spouses take title together unless the deed says otherwise.

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship. Two or more owners, survivor takes; the deed must say so expressly. One owner's share can be reached by that owner's creditor and can be transferred, which breaks the survivorship.

Tenants in common. Each owns a stated share, which passes by will or by law rather than to the other owner. Used where the money came in unequal shares or where each spouse wants to leave a share to children of an earlier marriage.

One spouse alone. The deed names one person. The other spouse's homestead rights still apply if the home is the couple's homestead, and the lender and the title company will ask the other spouse to join a mortgage or a sale.

The deed is drafted by the closing agent on the developer's side from what the contract and the title order say, so the form of title is a line in the title order, not an afterthought at the table. Read the how-to-take-title question at Olara and co-owners and who signs at Waldorf Astoria for the way the question reads in two buildings.

A couple paying cash skips this step. A couple financing decides who applies. If only one spouse is on the loan, the lender underwrites that spouse's income and credit alone, and that spouse signs the note; Florida's homestead rule and the lender's own policy usually mean the other spouse signs the mortgage, or a joinder, so the lien is good against the home even though only one owes the debt. If both are on the loan, both incomes count and both owe. A foreign spouse or one without a United States credit history changes the lender's list. Read cash or mortgage for Miami pre-construction, buying without a US credit history and foreign national financing.

Florida's constitution protects a homestead from most creditors and restricts how it passes at death when the owner leaves a spouse or a minor child, and it bars the owner from selling or mortgaging the homestead without the spouse's joinder. For a couple buying a primary home that means two things to decide now: whether the home will be the homestead, which also opens the property tax exemption and the Save Our Homes cap, and whether the title form the couple chose sits well with those rules, which is a question a Florida lawyer answers in an hour and a closing table answers badly. For a second home the homestead rules do not apply, and the title choice is about survivorship, creditors and estate planning only. Read does buying a Miami condo make you a Florida resident and estate tax exposure for non-resident owners if one spouse is not a United States person.

At closing the couple signs the closing statement and, if financing, the note and the mortgage; the developer signs the deed naming the buyers in the form the title order set; the funds are wired; the deed and the mortgage are recorded with the county, which is what makes the couple the owners of record; and the title policy issues in the names on the deed. Three checks before the wire: that the names and the form of title on the draft deed match what the couple decided, that both spouses are on the title policy, and that the association's approval, where the documents require one, names both. Read documents before closing on a new Miami condo, what a Miami closing costs and what to ask before you wire.

For the same sequence with a trust on the contract, read from offer to recording when a trust buys pre-construction; for a cash buyer in Brickell, from offer to recording for a cash buyer in Brickell. The desk reads the buyer line of the contract and the title order with the couple before the deposit, and sends the title question to counsel with the facts already written down.