Follow the sunshine – NMP

After moving there himself, he began promoting his mortgage business to New Yorkers looking for a change while he frequently traveled back north. “They were all complaining about the same things – the traffic and the snow,” he noted. “So I started promoting lower taxes, better weather and more affordable housing to them. It helped that some of my friends are in real estate in New York. So if they find people who want to sell or buy here, they pass on my information.”

According to the U.S. Census, Florida has experienced an influx of new residents for much of the last century. The state's population has grown almost twice as fast as the country as a whole, rising from just over 500,000 people in 1900 to 22.6 million in 2023. But just two and a half years after the country grew at its fastest rate due to population decline In December 2022, the Florida housing market will now cool down.

Following the June 2021 building collapse in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 people, Fannie and Freddie tightened licensing standards for condo and co-op owners in Florida, resulting in HOAs prioritizing deferred maintenance and keeping their building reserves in order bring. For many communities on both coasts, climate change now poses costly risks to real estate financing.

With Florida's honeymoon marred by skyrocketing home insurance and HOA fees, Cohn was inspired to pivot his business model.

Not what it once was

“Buyers here in Florida say, OK, I can’t afford a house, let me look at a condo,” he said. “But when you factor in condo fees, it’s $1,500 to $1,600 a month just to live in these buildings.”

More than a fifth of home buyers have canceled their sales contracts this June in the Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville metro areas. That was the highest rate in the country, according to Redfin data.

Miami-Dade County, where 38.9% of homes are at high risk of flooding, saw a net outflow of 47,597 people in 2023 – more than almost any other county in the country.

The average annual home insurance rate nationwide is expected to rise 6% to $2,522 this year, according to Insurify. In Florida, this rate is currently higher than any other state, averaging $10,996 per year.

For Cohn, who now also has the license to hail from Georgia, Maryland, Carolina and Virginia, the topic hits close to home, pun intended.

“My HOA fee started at about $300 a month. Now it’s almost $800, and they predict it will be $1,000 a month next year,” he said. “Besides the fact that real estate prices are three times what they were before the pandemic, it’s an insane fee just to be in Delray Beach.”

Cohn, a real estate investor with properties in North Carolina, is considering crossing state lines himself and moving into a new home.

“I'm definitely thinking about it seriously. In fact, as soon as one of my tenants moves out of one of my properties, I will probably move in,” he told NMP.

He found a way to double his business in 2023 by helping the same borrowers he once moved from NY to Florida into new homes in North Carolina and surrounding areas.

“I just want to be diversified because right now in Florida it's very hard – especially in my area – for someone just starting out to buy an $800,000 home,” Cohn explained. “So I wanted to be in other markets where there was better affordability and still be able to help those first-time buyers.”

Its loan volume in 2023 was $29.93 million, with 113 loans – three-quarters of which were purchase transactions, according to Modex data.

“I started out primarily as someone who was looking at refinances and came to the conclusion that it wasn't a really good business focus,” Cohn says. “Around 2013 and 2014, I transitioned more into the shopping business.”

The real estate partner

Another way to stay successful is to be present with real estate agents, whether on social media, on the phone, or at events.

“I am tireless in reaching out to them and showing them how we differentiate ourselves from other lenders and gain market share. We typically receive our first recommendation within two to three weeks.”