In South Florida, the building gets underwritten before you do.

Warrantable vs. non-warrantable — why it decides your loan

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac only buy loans in condo projects that pass their eligibility rules. Pass, and the building is warrantable — you shop the whole conventional market at its best pricing. Fail on any point and the building is non-warrantable: conventional lenders step back and the file must be placed with portfolio or non-QM lenders who hold the risk themselves.

• Litigation review — what kind of suit, against whom, for how much
• Budget and reserves — associations must fund replacement reserves adequately
• Insurance — wind, flood and fidelity coverage that actually meets guidelines
• Owner-occupancy and investor concentration ratios
• Single-entity ownership caps and commercial-space limits

These rules tightened meaningfully after Surfside, and South Florida associations — with their assessments, insurance renewals and aging-building inspections — trip them more often than anywhere else in the country. This is local, current knowledge, and it's exactly the expertise James is known for among his realtor partners.

How James runs a condo file

Building first. Before you write the offer — or the moment you're under contract — James pulls the association questionnaire, budget and litigation picture and maps the building against current guidelines. Warrantable buildings go conventional at full market pricing. Non-warrantable buildings go straight to the right portfolio lender with the issue disclosed and priced, instead of dying in underwriting after you've paid for an appraisal and an inspection.

Financing a condo as an investor? The building review and the DSCR analysis run together. Buying at a jumbo price point on the water? The same building rules apply through the jumbo lending lens.

The condo questionnaire, decoded

Every condo file turns on a document most buyers never see: the association's completed lender questionnaire. It asks the questions that decide your financing — units owned by investors, units owned by any single entity, delinquency rates on dues, litigation, reserves funding, commercial space, insurance details. Associations charge for it and take days to return it, which is exactly why waiting until underwriting to order one burns your contract timeline.

James reads these the way an inspector reads a roof. A 22% investor ratio and litigation over a slip-and-fall reads completely differently than 60% investors and structural litigation — one is a clean conventional file, the other is a portfolio-lender conversation. Knowing the difference on day two instead of day twenty-five is most of the value.

Full review, limited review, and the down-payment lever

Conventional condo lending actually has tiers. A full project review applies the complete rulebook. But with a larger down payment — typically 10%+ on a primary home, more on second homes and investments — many buildings qualify for a limited review: a lighter check that skips some of the tests buildings commonly fail, like reserve-funding minutiae. Translation: the same unit in the same building can be un-financeable at 5% down and clean at 10–25% down. When a building is borderline, structuring the down payment around the review tier is often cheaper than non-QM pricing — the kind of move that only happens when your originator knows both rulebooks.

Special assessments and your payment

Post-Surfside Florida is the land of the special assessment — buildings funding structural repairs, reserve studies, and insurance jumps with per-unit levies that can run from a few thousand dollars to six figures on the coast. Three things to know: an active assessment usually shows up in your qualifying payment (it moves the condo payment math above); underwriters ask what the assessment is for — cosmetic lobby work and structural remediation are different risk stories; and a seller credit for the remaining assessment balance is a negotiable item your agent should be raising. James flags all three while reviewing the questionnaire, before they're surprises.

The pre-offer checklist

• Address and unit — James runs the building against agency eligibility lists and his own file history
• Monthly dues and any active or announced special assessments (ask the listing agent directly)
• What the building's litigation is about, if any — "there's a lawsuit" is not an answer
• Your down payment range — it may decide which review tier, and therefore which market, you shop in
• Owner-occupied, second home, or rental — occupancy changes every threshold above

Five minutes with that list and James can usually tell you which lane the building lives in — conventional, limited review, portfolio, or walk away — before you've spent a dollar on inspections.