Red flags when buying an existing home in Florida: a buyer's inspection guide.

Start outside. Hairline cracks in stucco are common as Florida homes settle on sandy soil and usually aren't a concern on their own. Stair-step cracks in block walls, or cracks that keep widening, are a different story and warrant a structural engineer, not just a repair estimate. For the roof, don't just look at it, find out when it was actually permitted. Checking the building department's permit record for the roof's install date is more reliable than trusting what you're told, and it directly affects whether the home is insurable.

The bigger issue is usually what you can't see from a walkthrough: unpermitted work. A screened porch, a covered lanai, an interior wall removed, all of these can sit invisibly for years until a future permit application, an insurance claim, or a sale forces the city to look. When that happens, the city treats the addition as if it doesn't exist and makes the current owner permit it from scratch, at current code, which can mean engineers, exploratory work, and tens of thousands of dollars, even for something that's been standing for twenty years.

Two things worth doing before you make an offer: request the permit history directly from the building department (or hire a permit expediter to pull it for you), and compare it against what's actually built. Check both the county property appraiser's records and the city's own records separately, they don't always agree, especially in incorporated areas. Also ask directly: has any remodeling been done, was it permitted, and is the home on city sewer or septic.

A real example from the book: a buyer closed on a home, then found the covered lanai across the back of the house had never been permitted, discovered only when they applied for a pool permit. The pool was stalled until the lanai issue was resolved, adding months and tens of thousands of dollars to a project that started as a simple backyard upgrade. Chapter 6 and its full interview with a permitting expert cover more stories like it.

Older homes, especially those with galvanized steel or cast iron plumbing, are more prone to corrosion and eventual pipe failure. Check under sinks and around fixtures for water stains, warped flooring, or a musty smell, all of which can indicate a leak that's been going on longer than anyone's mentioned. Ask the age of the water heater too: they typically last a decade or more when maintained, but a neglected one can fail in three to five years.

If the home has a septic system, ask for maintenance documentation, and check the yard for odor or a patch of unusually lush grass over the drain field, a sign the system may be failing and feeding the lawn instead of processing correctly.

On mold specifically: look for discoloration and musty odors, and check bathrooms, kitchens, and attic spaces directly. If you're concerned, get it tested by a licensed mold professional rather than relying on a general inspection.

The book includes a full list of trustworthy, government-backed resources on mold and health if you want to research further, along with more detail on plumbing materials and what their age actually tells you.

Worth understanding the distinction: a floodplain is a natural area that floods; a flood zone is an area FEMA has formally mapped for regulatory purposes. The two aren't the same, and FEMA's maps can be outdated by decades in some areas. A home showing as outside a mapped flood zone is not the same thing as a home that can't flood, a significant share of flood claims nationally come from properties outside mapped zones entirely.

If a home is in a flood zone, ask about its elevation relative to the base flood elevation, and ask whether the home has an existing FEMA flood policy, since older policies sometimes carry lower grandfathered rates that can transfer to a new owner. Also ask about the "50% rule" before assuming a renovation budget: exceed 50% of the home's market value in repairs while in a flood zone, and the whole structure may need to be elevated. Our Punta Gorda flood zone guide walks through how the same numbers work on a new build.

The book covers this in more depth in Chapter 5, including a full interview with a 25-year FEMA floodplain management expert on how flood maps actually get made and where they fall short.

Worth being direct about this one: sinkhole activity in Florida is real, but it's heavily concentrated geographically, mainly Pasco, Hillsborough, Hernando, Marion, and Alachua counties, roughly the corridor between Tampa and Orlando, where the underlying limestone geology drives it. It's a genuine concern if you're buying in that part of the state, and a much smaller one along the Gulf Coast further south.

If you are buying in a higher-risk area, watch for the same signs across most sources: diagonal or stair-step cracks in block walls, doors or windows that suddenly stick, depressions or soft spots in the yard, and driveway or sidewalk cracks radiating outward. A standard home inspection can flag these symptoms but can't confirm sinkhole activity on its own, that requires a structural engineer and, if warranted, a geotechnical assessment.

One insurance detail worth knowing: Florida law requires insurers to offer "Catastrophic Ground Cover Collapse" coverage as a baseline, but full sinkhole loss coverage, a broader protection, has to be purchased separately. Florida sellers are also legally required to disclose known sinkhole activity, check the seller's disclosure form specifically for that statement rather than assuming it would come up otherwise.