Mortgage Broker in Florida
In Florida the loan rarely turns on your rate, it turns on insurance and the condo questionnaire, two line items that can quietly erase your buying power before you reach the closing table. As a licensed Florida broker, Home Loans Inc shops your file across 50+ wholesale lenders on one application, prices the wind, hurricane, and flood premium into your qualification up front, and works entirely online so you never drive to a branch.
Insurance, not the rate, decides most Florida loans
The single biggest reality in Florida financing right now is the cost of insuring the home. Florida homeowners insurance averaged roughly $8,300 a year in 2025, near three times the national average, and on the coast a large share of that bill is wind and hurricane reinsurance that scales with how close the property sits to salt water. Lenders require wind coverage statewide, not just on the beach, because storm damage is an actuarial certainty here. Every dollar of that premium lands inside your PITI, and PITI is what your debt-to-income ratio is measured against, so a high insurance quote shrinks the loan amount you qualify for before you have negotiated a thing.
That is why a Florida purchase has to start with the insurance number, not end with it. We pull the wind, hurricane, and where applicable flood premium for the specific homes you are shopping and fold them into your pre-approval, so the figure you walk in with actually holds when the binder comes back. Two houses on the same street, one inland of a flood zone and one in it, can carry very different total payments and therefore very different buying power.
Because we are a licensed Florida broker rather than a single bank, your file is shopped across 50+ wholesale lenders on one application. That matters more in Florida than almost anywhere: lenders layer their own credit and property overlays on top of agency rules, and the same borrower on the same condo or coastal home can be approved by one investor and declined by another on identical numbers. We work fully online and remote-friendly, so a buyer in Miami, a relocating family in Orlando, and a service member at NAS Jacksonville all get the same process without setting foot in a branch.
How Florida insurance and flood zones change what you qualify for
Wind and hurricane coverage is the line item that surprises out-of-state buyers most, and flood is a separate policy on top of it. If a home sits in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, flood insurance is mandatory on the loan, and large stretches of coastal and low-lying Florida fall inside those zones. Both premiums get added straight into your monthly payment and into the DTI math, so they directly set your ceiling.
Wind and hurricane coverage
Required statewide by lenders because the collateral is exposed to storms. On coastal properties this is often the largest single piece of the insurance bill, and it can dwarf the difference between two interest rates. We quote it before you offer.
Flood is a separate policy
A FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area triggers mandatory flood insurance on the mortgage. We pull the flood determination early and price the NFIP or private premium into your pre-approval, so a low-lying home does not blow up your DTI mid-contract.
We solve for total PITI
Principal, interest, taxes, and both insurance premiums are what you actually qualify against. We build the full payment for each home you are serious about, not just principal and interest, so the pre-approval is real.
We shop your file across 50+ lenders on one application.
Condo financing in Florida: warrantability, SB 4-D, and special assessments
Financing a Florida condo is its own discipline now. After the 2021 Surfside collapse, the state passed SB 4-D, which requires buildings three stories or taller to complete a milestone structural inspection (at 30 years, or 25 near the coast) and a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, with the SIRS deadline that landed at the end of 2025. Associations can no longer let owners vote to waive reserve funding for the major structural components, which has pushed many buildings into large reserve catch-ups and special assessments.
For a buyer, all of this shows up as the lender condo questionnaire. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tightened condo project eligibility post-Surfside, so a building with deferred maintenance, underfunded reserves, or an unresolved structural finding can be flagged non-warrantable, which limits buyers to cash or to specialty non-warrantable financing. Special assessments must be disclosed in the estoppel and questionnaire, and a pending one can change your debt ratios and your cash to close.
We vet the building before you fall for the unit
We chase the condo questionnaire, reserves, milestone and SIRS status, and any open litigation early, so you learn a project is non-warrantable before you are emotionally and financially committed.
Non-warrantable condo financing
When a building cannot meet agency rules, we have lenders that specialize in non-warrantable condos. There is a path on many of these buildings, it just is not the conventional one, and we know which investors say yes.
Special assessments, priced in
A pending or active special assessment hits both your DTI and your cash to close. We surface it from the estoppel up front and structure the file around it instead of getting surprised at underwriting.
Coastal and high-rise specifics
South Florida and Gulf-coast high-rises carry the heaviest SB 4-D and insurance exposure. We map the building's reserve and inspection status against each investor's overlay so the approval actually closes.
Florida closing costs, taxes, and the homestead question
Florida has no state income tax, which is a genuine draw, but the state recovers revenue at the closing table and on the tax roll, and both affect your loan. Knowing them up front keeps your cash to close and your escrow from springing surprises.
Documentary stamp tax on the note
Florida charges a documentary stamp tax of about $0.35 per $100 on the promissory note, paid by the borrower on a new mortgage. It is a real line on your closing disclosure, so we account for it in your cash to close from the start.
Intangible tax on the mortgage
A one-time nonrecurring intangible tax of about $0.002 (0.2%) of the loan amount applies to the mortgage on Florida real property, on top of the note doc stamps. Small percentage, real dollars on a large loan.
Title insurance state
Florida is a title-insurance state with promulgated rates, and who pays the owner's policy varies by county and contract. We coordinate with your title company so the figures on the estimate match the closing disclosure.
Homestead exemption
Your Florida primary residence can qualify for the homestead exemption, lowering taxable value. Filing matters because the exemption and the assessment cap drive the property-tax piece of your escrow.
Save Our Homes and the reset
The Save Our Homes cap limits a homesteaded property's assessed-value increase to 3% (or CPI) a year, but the cap is removed the January after a sale. A new buyer's taxes can jump well above what the prior owner paid, so we escrow against the reassessed value, not the old bill.
Portability for movers
If you already homestead a Florida home, portability can move up to $500,000 of your Save Our Homes benefit to your next Florida home, softening the property-tax hit on a move within the state. We factor it into your escrow estimate.
Florida metros and their lending realities
Florida is not one market, it is several, and each one shapes the loan a different way. After years originating across the state, here is how the major regions actually break down for a mortgage file, not a relocation brochure.
Miami and South Florida
The highest concentration of jumbo, condo, and foreign-national files in the state. Many homes push past the $806,500 conforming line into jumbo territory, and high-rise condos carry the heaviest SB 4-D and insurance exposure. We handle warrantability and jumbo here daily.
Orlando and Central Florida
A relocation and first-time-buyer engine. Steady new construction means cleaner appraisals, but insurance and HOA costs still set the payment. A strong region for conventional and FHA buyers moving in from out of state.
Tampa Bay
From St. Petersburg to Clearwater, a mix of older coastal stock and new inland builds. Flood zone and wind exposure vary block to block, so we price insurance per property rather than per ZIP.
Jacksonville and military Northeast
Home to NAS Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport, a major VA market. We line up VA eligibility, the COE, and zero-down math for active-duty and veteran buyers on PCS timelines across the First Coast.
Southwest Florida
Naples, Fort Myers, and Cape Coral draw second-home and investment buyers. Coastal flood and wind premiums are steep here, and we structure second-home and DSCR investment files around them.
Panhandle and Pensacola
NAS Pensacola and the surrounding Gulf coast make this another military VA stronghold. We run VA purchases and refinances for service members and veterans, with the wind premium priced in from day one.
The full loan menu for Florida buyers and owners
Whatever the file needs, we shop it across our lender network rather than steering you to one bank's shelf. Common Florida fits below.
Conventional loans
The workhorse for buyers with solid credit, including primary, second-home, and Florida investment purchases up to the conforming limit.
Conventional loans →FHA loans
Lower down payment and more flexible credit, a strong fit for many Orlando and Tampa first-time buyers.
FHA loans →VA loans
Zero down and no monthly mortgage insurance for eligible veterans and service members at NAS Jacksonville, Mayport, Pensacola, and across the state.
VA loans →Jumbo loans
Financing above the $806,500 conforming line, the default in much of Miami, the Keys, and coastal Southwest Florida.
Jumbo loans →First-time buyer
We map down-payment options and structure the full insurance-inclusive payment so a first purchase in Florida pencils.
First-time buyer →Investment and DSCR
DSCR and investor financing for Florida rentals and second homes, qualified on the property's cash flow rather than your pay stubs.
Investment loans →Buying a condo? Condo financing runs through the warrantability process above. Already own in Florida and want to lower a payment or pull equity? Start with our refinance guide.
Why a Florida broker beats a single bank here
A bank gives me the best deal because it is big.
A bank can only sell its own products on its own overlays. A broker shops your file across 50+ wholesale lenders on one application, which is decisive in Florida where insurance and condo overlays vary sharply from one investor to the next.
If one lender declines my coastal home or condo, I am stuck.
Not with a broker. The same Florida condo or coastal property declined by one investor on overlays can be approved by another. We move the file instead of starting over, including non-warrantable condo lenders the banks do not have.
I have to do this in person at a branch.
No. We are licensed in Florida and run the entire process online, from application through closing, so buyers across every metro get the same service remotely.
Talk to a licensed Florida mortgage broker
Home Loans Inc: Jason Sharon, Mortgage Broker
Licensed in Florida · online and remote-friendly statewide · FL Mortgage Broker License #MBR 3412
How a Florida loan actually runs with us
1. Insurance-first pre-approval
We shop your file across wholesale lenders and build a pre-approval that already includes the wind, hurricane, and flood premium for the areas you are shopping, so the number holds.
No surprises later2. Vet the property or building
For a condo we chase warrantability, reserves, and SB 4-D status. For a coastal home we confirm the flood zone and quote insurance before you write the offer.
Offer with confidence3. Match the file to the right investor
We place your loan with the lender whose overlays fit your property and credit, the core advantage of a broker over a single bank in Florida.
One application, many lenders4. Underwriting to closing, online
We manage the appraisal, insurance binders, and title coordination and drive the file to closing, all remotely.
We run the fileWhy Florida buyers choose Home Loans Inc
Jason Sharon founded Home Loans Inc in 2018 after serving as a nuclear engineer in the U.S. Navy, a veteran-owned background that shows up as precision on every loan file. He holds NMLS #1281448 (company NMLS #1728740) and has spent 8+ years originating loans, and Home Loans Inc is licensed to lend in Florida. Clients have left 430+ reviews at a 5.0 rating, and we are BBB A+ accredited. In a market where insurance and condo overlays decide deals, you will work with a broker who shops 50+ lenders for you, not a call center reading one bank's script.
Rated 5.0 by Lowcountry families.
Jason knows his stuff! We highly recommend him for your mortgage needs! He responds timely, provides information you didn't know you needed, puts the client needs first, and makes common sense adjustments throughout the entire process.
Jason and his team did an amazing job for me. They communicated often and made the entire mortgage process smooth and efficient. I can genuinely say that they are honest, trustworthy and strive to provide the best service possible to their clients.
Jason has been awesome since the beginning. He has been communicative, professional, KNOWLEDGEABLE, and honest. I am very happy with all my services so far, and I recommend UWM!