Florida Bridge Loans: The Steps and What to Prepare
Florida bridge loans are short-term loans secured by commercial property that carry you through a purchase, renovation or lease-up until a sale or permanent refinance pays them off, and getting one follows the usual lender steps plus a few Florida checks to finish before you pay for reports.
If you plan any renovation, check recording order first. When a notice of commencement for the work is recorded before your bridge mortgage, Florida law can put construction liens ahead of that mortgage, and the fix comes with conditions and a 30-day clock. That's a bad thing to find in closing week.
Key points
- Keep your contractor from starting work or recording a notice of commencement until your lender or attorney has settled the recording order.
- Before you pay for reports, check the LLC's status on Sunbiz and, in Miami-Dade, the building's recertification status.
- Get insurance quotes in week one, because a storm watch or warning can stop new coverage from being bound.
What are the steps to get a Florida bridge loan?
The goal is a funded loan before your hard date (a purchase closing or a loan maturity), subject to the lender's underwriting and closing conditions. Work backward from that date.
- Check the borrowing entity on Sunbiz, the Florida Division of Corporations site. Confirm it's active and that its exact name matches your contract. The state may administratively dissolve an LLC that hasn't delivered its annual report by the third Friday in September.
- Check the building's records for any notice of commencement in the county's official records and any local recertification case.
- Call your insurance agent. Get quotes on the coverage your lender is likely to require, including wind and flood, and ask how fast the carrier can bind.
- Send a one-page summary: property type, loan amount and uses, occupancy, business plan, exit, guarantors and your hard date.
- Deliver the package: operating statements, rent roll, leases, the purchase contract or a payoff statement, renovation budget, entity documents and guarantor financials.
- Compare term sheets, then sign one. Read the deposit, exclusivity and cost terms first, and find out who bears the Florida mortgage taxes.
- Open title, and let the lender order its reports: appraisal, environmental and property condition.
- Close in the agreed order. Clear the conditions, bind insurance and record the mortgage. The notice of commencement goes on record when your attorney says it can.
For what happens inside each stage in any state, see the stage-by-stage bridge loan timeline.
How long does each stage take?
Each stage runs on someone else's clock, so ask each party for its turnaround in writing on day one.
Hypothetical example, illustrative weeks only, not a forecast or a promise of closing speed:
| Stage | Whose clock | Assumed week |
|---|---|---|
| Entity, building and insurance checks, one-page summary | Yours, insurance agent | 1 |
| Package delivered, term sheet signed | Underwriter | 2 to 3 |
| Appraisal, environmental and condition reports | Appraiser, report vendors | 4 to 7 |
| Title commitment, exceptions cleared | Title agent, attorney | 4 to 7 |
| Conditions cleared, insurance bound, closing | Underwriter, insurance agent, payoff desk on a refinance | 8 |
In this example, reports don't start until the term sheet is signed, so a late term sheet pushes everything behind it.
What is a notice of commencement, and why does it matter for your bridge loan?
A notice of commencement is a form an owner records, and posts at the site, before starting most improvements to Florida real property. Under section 713.07 of the 2026 Florida Statutes, contractor, subcontractor and supplier liens take priority from the day it's recorded, so a lien filed later can rank ahead of a mortgage recorded after that notice.
The reverse helps you. A mortgage recorded before the liens attach keeps priority over them, and so do its proceeds, regardless of when they're disbursed. That matters if your renovation is funded in draws. The notice form in section 713.13 carries its own warning: "IF YOU INTEND TO OBTAIN FINANCING, CONSULT WITH YOUR LENDER OR AN ATTORNEY BEFORE COMMENCING WORK OR RECORDING YOUR NOTICE OF COMMENCEMENT."
- If you're buying, tell your contractor in writing not to start work or record anything until your attorney clears it.
- If work is under way or a notice is already on record, tell the lender at screening. Under section 713.132, an owner may record a notice of termination after all lienors have been paid in full or pro rata, and it must be served on certain lienors first. It generally takes effect 30 days after recording, or on a later date stated in the notice. A 2019 article from the law firm Starfield & Smith describes recording the termination, the mortgage and a new notice at closing, with work resuming only after the new notice is posted. Your attorney and title agent decide what fits your deal.
Hypothetical example: your loan matures in 10 weeks and a notice of commencement is already on record. A termination recorded in week 7 wouldn't take effect until after maturity, so raise it in week 1 and ask which route your lender and title insurer will accept.
What should you check on the building before you pay for reports?
In Miami-Dade, the county's recertification page says buildings become subject to the process at 30 years inland and 25 years on the coast, then every 10 years, with exceptions that include single-family homes, duplexes and very small buildings. Owners get notices and have 90 days to submit the report, and missing the deadline sends the property to the Unsafe Structures Section.
Elsewhere, ask the county or city building department whether a similar program applies. Get the status in writing and put any required repairs in your renovation budget before a lender's report raises them.
How do storms and insurance change the schedule?
Per the National Hurricane Center, the Atlantic season runs from June 1 to November 30. If your lender requires coverage you can't bind on the day you need it, that condition stays open.
A Citizens Property Insurance Corporation bulletin of September 27, 2025 says its agents "may not bind applications for new coverage or policy changes for increased coverage" once a tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning is issued for any part of Florida. Citizens keeps such bulletins online for historical purposes only, so ask your agent which rules apply today and whether the carrier quoting you has a similar one. Then bind as soon as the lender approves the policy terms.
What Florida taxes and papers come up at closing?
Two taxes come due when the mortgage is recorded. Rates are from the 2026 Florida Statutes, checked November 2, 2026, and the Department of Revenue says there's no cap on the documentary stamp tax.
| Tax | Rate | Hypothetical: $15,000,000 loan |
|---|---|---|
| Documentary stamp tax | 35 cents per $100, or portion thereof, of the amount secured | $52,500 |
| Nonrecurring intangible tax | 2 mills, on the amount secured by Florida real property | $30,000 |
| Total | $82,500 |
Hypothetical example: the last column assumes a new, fully taxable loan secured only by Florida real estate worth at least the loan amount, with no exemption. A permanent loan at the exit can owe both again, so see what a second Florida closing adds.
Section 692.204 also says a buyer must provide an affidavit at the time of purchase, signed under penalty of perjury, on whether the buyer falls within that section, which covers certain people and entities tied to the People's Republic of China. Ask your closing attorney for it early.
Where does a broker fit, and what does it cost?
Northern Ridge Capital is a debt broker, not a lender. It works on loans of $5M to $30M, packages your deal, takes it to lenders whose programs fit and is paid a 1% origination fee. The lender decides approval, rate and closing date.
If you're weighing Florida bridge loans for a $5M to $30M deal with a date that can't move, talk to a debt broker through the page on how Northern Ridge Capital arranges Florida bridge loans. Bring your one-page summary, and use the call to find out which of these Florida items still need work before you pay for reports.
FAQ
Who pays Florida documentary stamp tax on a bridge loan?
Your term sheet and loan documents say who bears it. The Department of Revenue says all parties to the document are liable for the tax, regardless of who agrees to pay it.
What rate will a Florida bridge loan carry?
Only a lender's quote can tell you. A floating-rate term sheet names the benchmark, the spread, the reset dates and any floor. Overnight SOFR was 3.94% on October 29, 2026, the latest print from the New York Fed when checked November 2, 2026. That's one day's reading of one index, not your loan's rate.
Is this the same as Florida's Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan?
No. Announcing an activation of that program in April 2023, the Governor's office described its loans as "short-term, zero-interest, personal loans using State of Florida funds." The Florida bridge loans in this guide are private financing secured by commercial property.