Almost everything that goes wrong in a foreign purchase was knowable before the first payment, and was not asked about.
This page is a checklist for the moment before the first transfer. What the answers are for your specific building and contract is what the desk is for. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
Before the first transfer you have every option: another building, another timeline, a renegotiated term, or nothing at all. After it, your position is defined by a contract you have already signed.
That is not a warning about Miami. It is true of any purchase anywhere. It is worth stating because a buyer at distance, in a second language, moving a large sum to a jurisdiction they have not lived in, has more reason than most to slow down at exactly this point.
None of the questions below is difficult, and none is unreasonable to ask. What matters is asking them before rather than after.
Who represents you, and who do they represent if not you? A sales team in a developer’s gallery works for the developer. That is normal and not concealed, and it is worth being clear about.
Is your attorney independent of the seller, and did you choose them? A buyer purchasing from abroad benefits substantially from counsel who acts only for them.
Who is the escrow agent, and are they independent of the seller? Verify their existence and their licensing independently rather than through material the seller provided.
And are the people you are dealing with licensed in Florida to do what they are doing? Real estate activity here is licensed, and it is a reasonable question to ask directly.
Have you verified the wire instructions by voice, with a contact obtained independently rather than from the email carrying the instructions? This one question prevents the single largest category of loss in real estate transactions.
Who holds the deposit, in what kind of account, and under what statutory framework?
What may the developer do with the deposit before closing, and on what conditions?
What is the full deposit schedule, with amounts and trigger dates, through to closing?
And what are the total closing costs allocated to you in this contract, in writing, as an estimate you can rely on?
The rescission period, and whether it is still open.
The modification clause, which defines how much of what you were shown can change without recourse.
The area tolerance, and the remedy if the residence is delivered outside it.
The outside date for completion, and what happens if it passes.
Whether assignment or resale of the contract is permitted, since it is the principal route out that does not involve forfeiture.
Your attorney should walk you through all five specifically. If they have not, ask them to.
The condominium documents, read by counsel inside the rescission window.
The developer’s completed record, verified independently rather than taken from a brochure.
The projected association budget and what is included in the assessment.
What the association permits on leasing, if that matters to you.
And the floor plan analysis: what the residence actually gives you once column placement, ceiling drops and usable area are read properly.
Is the ownership structure decided, with counsel in both countries, before signature?
Are the tax consequences understood in both places, including on a future sale and on death?
Are the deposits payable from funds you are certain of, without depending on financing that is not yet arranged?
A buyer who can answer these three has removed most of what causes trouble later.
If every answer above had to be produced in writing tomorrow, could you produce them?
If yes, proceed with confidence. This is a well established market with a deep professional layer, and purchases here complete uneventfully every day.
If no, the gaps are the work, and none of them takes long. That is what the desk is for.
Every question on this page has an answer that exists in a document somebody already holds, and all of them are answerable before your first payment. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will work through the list with you for a specific building and contract, and tell you plainly where the answers are thin.
We hold no listings and we are not the developer. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will go through the current position on any building we cover, including the parts a sales gallery would rather skip. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.