Fetti Financial Services
We Do Money…
Fetti Financial Services
We Do Money…
Lender & broker · Fetti Financial Services LLC · NMLS #2267023
A bridge loan buys you time in Florida — to close before your sale funds, to take a property that will not survive a lender’s condition list today, or to hold a deal while permanent financing catches up. Florida makes timing unusually valuable: the buying season is short, the insurance and condo rules can stall a conventional approval for weeks, and cash offers dominate the good inventory. Here is how bridge financing actually works here, and what it costs.
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A bridge loan is short-term, asset-based capital — usually six to twenty-four months, interest-only, secured by the property and underwritten primarily on the equity and the exit rather than on income documentation. It is not a cheaper mortgage. You are buying speed and certainty, and paying for them.
That trade is worth making when the alternative is losing the deal. It is a poor trade when there is no defined exit, because a bridge with no takeout is just an expensive clock.
Florida transacts on a calendar. Snowbird and seasonal buyers arrive from late autumn, the market runs hard through spring, and the summer and hurricane months are slower and softer. A seller who misses the season often waits for the next one.
That compresses timing in both directions. Buying before your existing property sells is frequently the only way to secure inventory in season, and selling into the season rather than after it can be worth far more than a few months of bridge interest. Do that arithmetic explicitly — carry cost against the price difference of selling in February versus August.
A large share of Florida deals that die do not die on credit — they die on insurability. An aged roof, an open claim, a four-point inspection that surfaces polybutylene plumbing or aluminium wiring, or a carrier simply declining the risk will stop a conventional or agency approval outright.
Bridge lenders underwrite the asset and the exit, so a property can be acquired on bridge financing, the roof replaced or the condition cured, insurance bound properly, and the loan refinanced into permanent financing on a clean file. That sequence — buy, cure, refinance — is the classic legitimate use of bridge money in Florida.
Carry builder’s risk or a vacant-property policy while the work is underway. A standard landlord policy generally will not cover a vacant home under renovation, and a gap there is an uninsured hurricane exposure.
Florida’s milestone inspection and reserve-study requirements have created a genuine financing gap. A building awaiting its inspection, or one that has just levied a large special assessment, can be temporarily unfinanceable by agency standards even though the individual unit is sound and the price reflects the problem.
Bridge financing is often the only way to transact in that window. The exit is the association completing its inspection and funding its reserves, after which the building becomes warrantable again and the unit refinances normally. Underwrite the timeline honestly — associations move slowly, and your bridge term needs to outlast the board.
The classic residential bridge: you have substantial equity in a property you intend to sell, and the one you want will not wait. A bridge secured against the departing property, or across both, releases that equity as a down payment now and is repaid from the sale.
Two disciplines keep this safe. Price the departing property to actually sell inside your bridge term rather than to test the market, and make sure the term has room for a Florida closing that slips — insurance binding, association estoppel letters and permit records all routinely add a week or two here.
Bridge and fix-and-flip capital overlap heavily: purchase plus rehab, interest-only, exit by sale or refinance. What catches out-of-state investors is Florida permitting. County and municipal review timelines vary enormously, coastal and historic jurisdictions add layers, and work done without a permit surfaces later as an unpermitted-improvement problem that an appraiser or a title company will flag.
Build the permit calendar into the loan term rather than the optimistic construction schedule. A twelve-month bridge on a six-month renovation is prudent here, not wasteful, and hurricane season can idle a site for weeks regardless of your plan.
Bridge pricing sits well above permanent financing and is usually quoted as a rate plus points, interest-only, with leverage set against value or against total cost on a rehab deal. Expect a meaningful origination fee and expect the exit to matter more to the lender than your personal income does.
Florida adds its own transaction cost on top: documentary stamp tax of $0.35 per $100 of the amount financed, plus 0.2% intangible tax on the mortgage — and those are charged again when you refinance out of the bridge into permanent financing. Budget for paying them twice. It is a real argument for getting the bridge term right the first time rather than extending.
Every bridge is approved on how it gets repaid. In Florida the three credible exits are a sale, a refinance into a DSCR loan once the property is stabilised and insurable, or a refinance into conventional financing once a condition is cured or an association is compliant again.
We underwrite the takeout at the same time as the bridge, so the exit is not a hope. If the plan is a DSCR refinance, the ratio has to work on the reset tax basis and a real insurance premium — not on today’s numbers. A bridge that exits into a ratio that will not clear is a problem you have scheduled rather than solved.
If the exit is a commercial takeout — five or more units, or a mixed-use or retail building — it is underwritten on coverage against the lease income rather than on a residential ratio. See commercial real estate loans in Florida.
The property address and current condition, including roof age and any open insurance claims. Your purchase price or current value and payoff. The scope and budget if there is work. The exit — sale, DSCR refinance or conventional — with a realistic date. For a condo, the association’s inspection and assessment status. Your entity, and how much you intend to put in.
With that we can size the loan, price it, and tell you plainly whether the exit holds up. If it does not, we will say so before you are paying interest to find out.
When you need to act before liquidity arrives — buying before you sell, or securing a deal while permanent financing finalizes. We'll confirm it's the cheapest path for your situation.
Usually a few months up to a year or two, interest-only, with the expectation you'll sell or refinance to exit.
Often within days to a couple weeks, since it's equity-driven and short-term.
Frequently within a week or two, because approval is driven by the asset, your equity and the exit rather than by income documentation. The usual delays here are not underwriting — they are binding insurance and getting an association estoppel letter back.
Often yes. A building awaiting its milestone inspection or working through a special assessment can be temporarily unfinanceable by agency standards while the unit itself is sound. Bridge financing transacts in that window; the exit is a refinance once the association is compliant. Make sure the term outlasts the board’s timeline.
That is one of the most common Florida bridge scenarios. Acquire on bridge financing, replace the roof, bind proper coverage, then refinance into permanent financing on a clean file. Carry builder’s risk or vacant-property coverage during the work — a landlord policy generally will not cover a vacant home under renovation.
Above permanent financing, quoted as a rate plus points and paid interest-only. Florida also charges documentary stamp tax of $0.35 per $100 financed and 0.2% intangible tax on the mortgage — and charges them again when you refinance out. Budget for both events.
Talk to us early rather than at the maturity date. Extensions exist and usually cost points. The better answer is structural: set the term against Florida’s permitting and association timelines rather than an optimistic schedule, and price a departing property to sell inside the term rather than to test the market.
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