Buying a Home in Florida
Buying a home is not difficult — but it is a process. With the right guidance, the right timing, and a clear plan, almost anyone can become a homeowner.
The 3 Keys to a Mortgage
Jorge regularly receives calls from people who want to buy a home and their lease expires in two months. Sometimes their credit score is not high enough. Sometimes they don’t have enough savings for a down payment. Two months is simply not enough time to solve those problems. The earlier you start the conversation, the more options you have.
Another very common mistake is making decisions based on what a family member or friend experienced, or something they read online — without realizing that every person and every scenario is completely different. What worked for your neighbor may not apply to your situation at all.
And the most costly mistake of all is walking away from the possibility of homeownership because it seems too difficult or too much paperwork. It’s not. There is really only one big key to qualifying for a mortgage:
The #1 Key to Getting a Mortgage
Your Income
In South Florida, if the total household income is below $70,000, it will be very difficult to find a property to buy — not because you won’t qualify for the loan, but because of the high prices of homes in the area. Income is the foundation everything else is built on.
A low credit score means you cannot buy today — it does not mean you can never buy. But you need to give yourself enough time so Jorge can help you improve it.
Anyone telling you they can increase your credit score in 15 days or one month is lying to you. That may be what you want to hear, but it is not legally possible — unless your score is low only because your credit cards are maxed out, you have no late payments or collection accounts, and you have cash available right now to pay those balances down.
💡 Little secret #1 about credit for mortgages
For mortgages, it is not just about your score number — it is about your credit history. A person with a 620 score, one good tradeline, and eight collection accounts will very likely be declined, even with that 620. The history is not clean enough. The solution is to reestablish credit — and that takes time.
💡 Little secret #2 about credit scores
Those scores you see on free apps — or even services you pay $30–$40/month for — are not the same numbers lenders see. Lenders use a completely different scoring model, a tri-merge hard pull that costs over $100, with different formulas. The credit history is the same, but the numbers are different. Don’t assume a 640 on your app means a lender will see 640. They very likely will not.
Almost everyone — including many realtors — thinks you only need money for the down payment. That is not accurate. To close on a home you need money for all of the following:
In South Florida, where taxes and insurance are significantly higher than the rest of the state, and assuming an FHA loan with 3.5% down and no points, you should budget approximately 9% of the home’s value to cover everything. On a $400,000 home, that is around $36,000 total.
In Maine, where Jorge is also licensed and does significant business, the total is typically lower — around 6.5% of the purchase price.
Down payment assistance programs provide up to 5% of the home’s value as a second mortgage. On that same $400,000 home, that is $20,000 — which brings your out-of-pocket need from $36,000 down to approximately $16,000.
If you have $7,000 saved, Jorge still has options through his realtor network and other tools to help bridge that remaining gap. The key point is: you do not need to wait until you have saved everything before you start the process.
Think about this: if you wait 12 months to save more money, that same home may have increased in value by $20,000 — and now you need even more to close than you did a year ago. That is exactly how people spend years paying rent instead of building equity in their own home.
Income is the only key you truly cannot work around. Everything else — credit, down payment, closing costs — Jorge can help you with.
Questions Jorge Gets Every Day