Financing a Miami Condo Without a US Credit File — and the Estate Exposure That Comes With Owning One

Two things decide how a purchase from outside the United States actually goes, and neither appears in a listing. The first is whether a lender will write the loan without an American credit history. The second is what happens to the property when the owner dies, which for a non-resident starts at a threshold of sixty thousand dollars — a figure set decades ago and never adjusted.

Updated August 27, 2026Published June 16, 2026

You do not need an American credit history. You do need a lender who says so in writing.

The common assumption is that a foreign buyer must pay cash. That is not true, and it costs people money — either in liquidity they did not need to tie up, or in a financed offer that collapses late because nobody checked the lender's terms early enough.

Several Canadian banks with US subsidiaries will underwrite against a Canadian credit file rather than requiring an American one you have no way of building in advance. US portfolio lenders take the file too, at a price. What varies enormously is the deposit and the rate, and neither is reliably published.

What the public sources indicate, and what you should confirm rather than plan on:

• Deposit. Minimums are generally not published. Loans assessed on the property's rental income rather than your personal income — DSCR loans — typically ask 20 to 30 percent, and 25 to 40 percent where the file is thinner.
• Rate. A non-resident premium of roughly 0.25 to 0.75 points above standard US rates is the range that appears in public sources for American lenders.

Do not budget from a published range. Ask a named lender for a rate on a specific date, in writing. The range above tells you the shape of the problem, not your number. The French guide to non-resident financing goes through this in more detail.

The condominium has to qualify, not just you

This is where financed offers on Miami condominiums fail, and they fail late. A lender is not only underwriting you; it is underwriting the building. Warrantability turns on things you cannot see from a listing — the proportion of units held by any single owner, the share of the building that is investor-owned rather than owner-occupied, the association's reserve position, whether there is pending litigation, and how much of the annual budget goes to reserves.

A building can be perfectly sound and still fail a particular lender's condominium questionnaire. The consequence lands on you, usually after the inspection period has closed and your deposit is no longer refundable.

The practical move is to establish early — before the offer, not after — whether the building has recently supported financed sales, and to have the lender review the association's documents rather than assuming they will clear. The same documents matter for reasons that have nothing to do with lending: see what the reserve rules did to fees and what the board minutes will tell you.

The $60,000 threshold

US estate tax does not follow the residence of the deceased. It follows the location of the asset. A Miami condominium sits inside the US estate tax base when its owner dies, whether that owner lived in Montréal, Toronto or London, and whether or not they ever spent more than a few weeks a year in the United States.

For a US citizen or resident, the exemption is in the millions. For a non-resident it starts at $60,000 of US-situs assets. That figure was set decades ago and has not been adjusted since.

The number that frightens people is rarely the number they pay. Where a treaty applies — the Canada–US treaty being the relevant one for most of the buyers I work with — a pro-rated credit generally brings the actual liability down substantially, and in practice to zero for the large majority of Québécois owners of a Florida condominium. But the filing obligation begins at $60,000, the relief has to be claimed, and the claim depends on facts about the whole estate rather than about the condominium alone.

The full mechanics, including how the pro-rated credit is calculated, are in the French guide to US estate exposure.

Where the structure decision actually belongs

People reach for an LLC or a trust at this point, and often for the wrong reason. Privacy is no longer one: FinCEN's residential real estate rule requires the closing professional to report beneficial ownership on non-financed transfers to a legal entity or trust. And a Florida LLC carries a recurring cost with a hard deadline — $138.75 for the annual report filed between 1 January and 1 May, with a $400 late fee after that.

Whether to hold in an entity is a tax and liability question for a cross-border accountant, settled before an offer rather than unwound after a closing. What this page can tell you is which questions to put to them, and that the answer changes the purchase rather than following it.

The order that avoids the expensive mistakes

1. Settle the holding structure with a cross-border accountant before making an offer.
2. Start the bank account. It is the slowest step and does not depend on finding a property.
3. Get a written rate and deposit requirement from a named lender, and have them look at the building.
4. Read the association's documents inside the cancellation window — it is short, and it is the only leverage the statute gives you.

More on the purchase itself in buying in Miami as a foreigner, and on the tax identification number you will need in buying without a US Social Security number.

Stefania Riverin, Licensed Real Estate Sales Associate, FL SL3620067, brokered by NB Elite Realty. General information about how these transactions work, not legal, tax or lending advice. Rates, deposits and thresholds change; confirm every figure with the lender or adviser who will actually be responsible for it.