Most buyers looking at a Miami condo built before the nineties are doing arithmetic in their head while they walk through it. Two sums, and nobody gives them a straight answer to either.
The listing price is the one number you know for certain. It is also the least useful. A unit at $600,000 with a $90,000 assessment coming and a kitchen that needs gutting is a different purchase from one at $650,000 that needs nothing.
Santa Stella clients get both numbers at no charge, before they write an offer.
We hold a consulting agreement with Safco Construction, Inc. — a licensed Miami general contractor working on residential and commercial property in Miami-Dade since 2003. Safco walks the unit with you and quantifies what it will cost: the repairs, the remodel broken down line by line, bringing it up to code, and the permits — including any left open on the property. Where the building has a milestone inspection or a reserve study, they can also help you understand how serious the findings are and what that work costs. All of it as a contractor, not as a salesperson.
No other brokerage in Miami can put that in front of you.
The two documents that decide your purchase
The milestone inspection
Florida requires a structural inspection of condominium and cooperative buildings that are three habitable stories or more. The first one is due by 31 December of the year the building turns 30, measured from its certificate of occupancy, and every ten years after that. Local building officials can require it earlier — at 25 years — where conditions like proximity to salt water justify it, and in coastal Miami-Dade that discretion matters.
It must be performed by a licensed engineer or architect, and it runs in two phases:
- Phase One is a visual examination. If no substantial structural deterioration is found, it ends there.
- Phase Two only happens if Phase One finds substantial structural deterioration. It involves testing — sometimes destructive — to establish how far the problem goes.
A Phase Two report is the single most important document in your purchase. It means deterioration was found and quantified.
Under changes that took effect in 2025, county commissions must adopt ordinances requiring repairs to commence within 365 days of a Phase Two report. The work is not optional and it is not indefinitely deferrable.
The structural integrity reserve study
Separately, three-storey-and-up residential condominiums must have a structural integrity reserve study covering the roof, load-bearing structure, fireproofing and fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and exterior painting, windows and exterior doors, and any other item costing more than $25,000 to replace.
The study says what those components will cost and when. It is the building’s financial forecast.
Why this is suddenly everyone’s problem
For decades, Florida condo boards could vote each year to waive reserve funding. Many did, repeatedly, because it kept monthly dues low and owners liked it.
That option is gone for structural components. For budgets adopted from 1 January 2025 onward, owners can no longer waive or reduce funding of the items a reserve study covers.
Buildings that deferred for thirty years now have to fund. That is why assessments are landing all over Miami-Dade — not because the buildings suddenly deteriorated, but because the accounting finally caught up.
There is some flexibility. A 2025 law lets qualifying owner-controlled associations temporarily pause or reduce reserve contributions for no more than two consecutive annual budgets, by majority vote, to fund repairs after a milestone inspection — and lets associations fund reserves through a special assessment, a line of credit, or a loan rather than cash alone.
That last point matters more to you than any other sentence on this page. Two buildings facing identical repairs can hit owners very differently depending on whether the board assesses in a lump sum or borrows. Ask which.
What to ask for before you sign
Request these in writing, and read them before your inspection period ends:
- The milestone inspection report — Phase One, and Phase Two if one exists
- The structural integrity reserve study
- The last two years of board meeting minutes — assessments are argued about for months before they are voted
- The current reserve balances, by component
- Any engineering reports or repair proposals the board has received
- Any recorded special assessment, and whether it is payable in full at closing
If the association is slow or reluctant to produce these, treat that as information.
What the unit will cost to renovate
The building is half the arithmetic. The other half is what you are going to spend making the unit yours — and that number should be in your head before you decide what to offer, not after you close.
Safco walks the unit with you and prices the work. Kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, impact windows, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, or a full gut. Real contractor pricing on what it costs in Miami today.
Three things about condo renovation in Miami that catch buyers out, and none of them appear in a listing:
The association controls when you can work
Many buildings restrict renovation to certain months, certain hours, and certain days — some allow it only in the off-season. A three-month kitchen can become a nine-month kitchen because of a rule in the declaration nobody showed you.
Approval comes before permitting
Most associations require board or architectural-committee sign-off on plans before the city will see them. That is weeks, sometimes months, and some buildings simply refuse certain scopes.
Windows and anything touching the envelope are their own project
Impact window replacement in Miami-Dade means hurricane-zone product approval, permits, and usually association consent because you are altering the exterior. It is routinely the single most expensive line in a condo renovation and buyers consistently underestimate it.
Knowing this before you offer changes what you offer.
What the consultation covers, and what it doesn’t
Through our consulting agreement with Safco Construction, Inc., at no cost, as part of representation:
On the building
- What the report found, in plain language — not engineering shorthand
- What the repair scope involves — spall repair, post-tension, waterproofing, structural steel, and what each actually means on site
- What that work costs to perform, from real contractor pricing rather than a percentage guess
- Whether the reserve balance is anywhere near sufficient for what is coming
- What your likely exposure is as the owner of your specific unit
On the unit
- A walk-through with a licensed contractor and a renovation budget for the scope you have in mind
- What the association’s rules will do to your timeline and your scope
- Where the money actually goes — and which items buyers routinely underestimate
Two honest limits
A renovation figure given before you own the unit is a budget range, not a fixed bid. Nobody can open a wall in a unit that isn’t yours, and what is behind it can move the number. You get a real range with the assumptions stated, and a firm price once access allows it.
And this is not an engineering assessment. It does not tell you whether a building is structurally safe — that determination belongs to the licensed engineer or architect performing the milestone inspection, and no contractor should substitute for it. What Safco provides is the cost and scope of the work, which is the part nobody else will price for you.
Talk before you write an offer
The time to understand the building is before you are under contract, not during a fifteen-day inspection window.
(786) 325-1333 info@santastellarealestate.comThis page is general information about Florida requirements, not legal advice, and requirements change. Confirm specifics for any particular building with the association and your attorney.