Notes from Tony Fitzgerald's desk on how Florida mortgages actually work — the escrow resets, the homestead deadlines, and the details nobody mentions at the closing table. Written for Sarasota, Bradenton, and the Gulf Coast.
A denial is one company running your file through one rulebook on one day. Here are the five reasons it usually happens, why a second look changes the answer more often than people expect, and what to ask first.
A closing statement is four different things stacked in one column: lender charges, third party services, government items set by Florida statute, and prepaids that are your own money collected early. Here is how to tell them apart.
Title insurance is the closing cost almost nobody asks about. Unlike your homeowners policy it covers the past rather than the future, protecting you from liens, missed heirs and boundary problems recorded before you saw the house.
Family helping with a down payment is normal and completely allowed. What delays closings is the paper trail, not the generosity. Here is what a gift letter has to state, and the four mistakes that cost people their closing date.
Tony Fitzgerald · NMLS #1284924 · 1st Response Mortgage · powered by Mpire Financial Group LLC · NMLS #2108504 · Florida License #MLD2467 · Mortgage Broker · Sarasota, FL · (941) 941-5150