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 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.
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.
Your Florida insurance premium is part of your monthly mortgage payment and part of whether you qualify. A wind mitigation inspection documents what your house already has, and on many homes it is the only thing that moves the number.
Same income, same credit, different approval amount. Association fees come out of the same monthly budget your mortgage lives in, so a higher fee means a lower price. Here is how they stack in Florida and why ours run high.
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