By Jeff Levine, CEO, Levine Coaching Company. Published September 13, 2026.

In South Florida right now, a single family home sits 40 days and a condo sits 81. Houses are at 4.2 months of supply. Condos are at 9.6. Same market, same buyers, same rates. The difference is that nobody knows what the condo is going to cost to own next year, and buyers have stopped guessing.

That gap is not going to close on its own. It closes one listing at a time, when the agent does the work up front instead of finding out at day 40 that the building has a $6 million repair bill and no reserves.

Here is what to ask before you sign the listing agreement.

The numbers first, because they are worse than most agents think

Across the South Florida MSA in July 2026, the condo and townhouse median was $325,000, up 1.6 percent year over year, on 9.6 months of supply and 81 median days on market. Single family was $665,000, up 4.3 percent, on 4.2 months and 40 days.

Break that out by county and it gets sharper.

• Broward: $255,000 median, down 3.8 percent, 10.0 months of supply, 86 days on market, closed sales down 2.8 percent.
• Miami Dade: $400,000 median, down 1.5 percent, 12.0 months of supply, 86 days.
• Palm Beach: $312,500 median, up 4.0 percent, 6.7 months of supply, 69 days, closed sales up 19 percent.

Palm Beach is the outlier and it is worth understanding why. Roughly two thirds of condo sales in that county close in cash, one of the highest rates in the country. Cash does not care about a lender's opinion of the building. Every other segment does.

So when an owner tells you the market is bad, that is not quite right. The house market is fine. The condo market has a financing and disclosure problem, and the two are the same problem.

What the law actually requires now

Agents keep repeating a version of this that is three legislative sessions out of date. Here is where it actually stands.

Milestone inspections. Florida Statute 553.899. Any condominium or cooperative building three habitable stories or more must complete a Phase 1 milestone inspection by December 31 of the year the building turns 30, measured from the certificate of occupancy, and every 10 years after that. Local agencies can require it at 25 years where conditions justify it, which in practice means proximity to salt water. If Phase 1 finds substantial structural deterioration, Phase 2 is required, and repairs have to commence within 365 days of the Phase 2 report.

Structural Integrity Reserve Studies. Florida Statute 718.112(2)(g). Same three story threshold. The SIRS has to cover eight components: roof, load bearing walls and primary structural members, fireproofing and fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and exterior painting, windows and exterior doors, and any other item over $25,000 whose failure would affect structural integrity. It repeats at least every 10 years. Cost runs roughly $5,000 to $8,000 for a small building and north of $15,000 for a high rise.

The deadlines that moved. HB 913, signed in 2025, pushed the initial SIRS deadline from December 31, 2024 to December 31, 2025, with an extension to December 31, 2026 for associations whose milestone inspection is also due and who complete both together. It also raised the mandatory reserve threshold for other items from $10,000 to $25,000.

The part agents miss. HB 913 gave boards real flexibility, and that flexibility is now the single most important thing you need to ask about. An association that has received a milestone inspection report can pause or reduce its SIRS reserve contributions for up to two consecutive budgets, with majority member approval, for budgets adopted through December 31, 2028. Associations that completed a milestone inspection can also delay the SIRS itself for up to two budget years. And reserves can now be funded through a special assessment, a line of credit, or a loan, each with a majority vote.

Read that again from a buyer's side. A building can be fully compliant today and still be sitting on a deferred obligation that lands on the next owner. "We are in compliance" and "there is no assessment coming" are two completely different statements, and most sellers do not know the difference.

The financing problem nobody told the seller about

As of the March 2025 dataset, 1,438 Florida buildings were on Fannie Mae's ineligible list. That is 28 percent of the 5,175 nationwide. Roughly 696 of them are in Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, and the tri county count more than doubled in the two years before that pull.

A building lands there for reserves below threshold, a master policy deductible over $50,000 per unit, deferred maintenance flagged in an inspection, insurance gaps, or litigation affecting the project's finances. It does not make the unit unsellable. It makes it sellable to cash, FHA, VA and portfolio lenders only, which is a smaller pool at a lower price.

Three dates are coming that will move more buildings onto that list. Fannie Mae's Lender Letter LL-2026-03, issued March 18, 2026, set them:

• July 1, 2026: the $50,000 per unit maximum deductible cap took effect.
• August 3, 2026: the Limited Review process was retired.
• January 4, 2027: the reserve minimum rises from 10 percent to 15 percent of annual budgeted assessment income.

That January date is the one to put in your calendar. Buildings that are eligible today on a 10 percent reserve line get measured against 15 percent in January. If you are listing in an older building this fall, you want to know now whether the budget clears the new bar, because the answer changes who can buy it in ninety days.

The pre listing checklist

Do this before you take the listing, not after you have a contract. Every item is something a buyer's lender or attorney will ask for eventually, and every one of them is cheaper to find out about now.

1. Certificate of occupancy date. Not "the building is from the eighties." The year. It determines whether the milestone clock has run.
2. Milestone inspection status. Phase 1 complete? Date? Did it trigger Phase 2? If Phase 2 exists, when was it received and has the 365 day repair clock started?
3. The SIRS itself. Completed, or delayed under the HB 913 option? If delayed, when does it come due?
4. Reserve funding status. Fully funded per the SIRS, partially funded, paused, or funded by loan or line of credit? A building paying for reserves with a loan has a debt service line in every future budget.
5. Any pause vote on the books. If members voted to pause or reduce contributions, get the date and the term. That pause expires and the number goes up when it does.
6. Special assessments. Levied, pending, or discussed. Read the last twelve months of board minutes yourself. Do not take a summary.
7. Master policy declarations page. Specifically the per unit deductible. Over $50,000 is now a financing problem on its own.
8. Litigation. Any active suit involving the association, and what it is about.
9. Fannie Mae status. Check the building before you price it. It is a free lookup and it tells you the size of your buyer pool.
10. The 718.503 package. Under Florida Statute 718.503(2)(a) the seller has to provide, at the seller's expense, the declaration, articles, bylaws, rules, the annual financial statement and budget, the inspector's summary of the milestone report if one applies, the most recent SIRS or a statement that none exists, the turnover inspection report for inspections after July 1, 2023, and the FAQ document. If those are not delivered on time, the contract is voidable at the buyer's option and they walk with no penalty.

On the contract side, the 2025 Condominium Rider added paragraph 6(b), which lets the parties request twelve months of board and membership meeting materials, insurance declaration pages, completed inspection and reserve study reports, and up to three additional documents the buyer selects. It is optional and negotiable, unlike the statutory list. Use it.

How this changes the listing appointment

Most agents walk into a condo listing appointment with comps. That is not the conversation anymore.

The conversation is: here is what your building's reserve and inspection status does to your buyer pool, and here is what that does to your price. A fully funded building with a clean milestone and a deductible under the cap sells to everybody. A building carrying a paused reserve vote, a pending assessment and a $75,000 deductible sells to cash, and cash pays cash prices.

That is a pricing conversation, and it is the reason I lead with the Pricing Strategy Advisor designation on these. You are not pricing a unit. You are pricing a unit plus a disclosed liability, and the second half is the part the seller has never had explained to them.

The sellers who take this well are the ones you show it to in writing, in the appointment, before you talk about number. The ones who take it badly were going to fire you at day 60 anyway when the third buyer's lender declined the building.

What to do this week

Pull your active condo listings. For each one, answer items 1 through 9 above. If you cannot answer all nine on a listing you already have, you do not have a marketing problem on that listing, you have an information problem, and no price reduction fixes it.

Then call the three condo owners in your database who have mentioned selling. Not to pitch them. To tell them what is coming in January and ask whether they know their building's reserve position. That call is the most useful thing an agent in this market can do with twenty minutes.

Frequently asked questions

Let's talk

If you are an agent working condos in South Florida and this checklist is longer than what you are currently doing, that gap is where your next six months of income is. That is the kind of thing I work on with agents one on one. Here is what that costs and how it works.

Jeff Levine is a Broker Associate and Team Leader of Lux Places Group at RE/MAX Services in Boca Raton, Florida, and the Founder and CEO of Levine Coaching Company. He has twenty nine years in real estate, more than ten thousand transactions and over three billion dollars in closed volume. He is the 2026 Vice President and 2027 President Elect of Florida Realtors, a Past President of Broward, Palm Beaches & St. Lucie Realtors, a licensed Florida real estate instructor, and holds the CIPS, ABR, CRS, SRES and PSA designations.

Sources: Florida Statutes 553.899, 718.112(2)(g) and 718.503(2)(a); HB 913 (2025); Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-03; South Florida MLS market data, July 2026. This is general information for real estate professionals and is not legal advice. Association documents and compliance status should be confirmed for each specific building.

Published by Levine Coaching Company.