When searching for financing in the Southwest Florida real estate market you may consider using your hometown bank and/or the institution that holds your bank and savings accounts. However, the Southwest Florida Real Estate market is unique. It has been increasingly difficult for Hometown banks to make a smooth transaction when requesting funds out of the area, regardless of your financial strength.

There are many reasons this process is difficult for an out of state bank or broker. Most out of state banks use out of state appraisers. This practice can cause many issues when trying to get the best interest rate and program. One being the high increase in property values we have experienced over the last few years. Our local appraisers understand our unique market and can not only explain the increase thoroughly through comparable sales but have the education and expertise in our market to speak from experience to underwriters.

At times we come across unique properties that have financing challenges. For example, some communities have CDD (Community Development District) taxes which can increase a persons overall monthly debt. This type of expense can be easily missed by someone who is not familiar with our community and this would increase a persons overall payment. Another issue could be a high investor concentration in a particular community, lenders do not see this as a positive feature for lending and this could cause issues if not addressed correctly. These lenders may also struggle with getting loans processed in a timely manner when faced with some of these challenges.