Yes. Nothing in Florida Statute 553.899 makes the sale of a condo unit wait for a finished milestone inspection, and the seller disclosure law asks for the inspection summary only if one exists. What an unfinished inspection can change is how your buyer pays for the unit and what you disclose, not your right to sell.

Verified against Florida Statutes 553.899 and 718.503 and the Fannie Mae Selling Guide section on ineligible projects. Florida changes these rules often, and lender rules change on their own schedule.

What Documents Does a Florida Condo Seller Have to Provide?

Florida Statute 718.503(2)(a) lists the documents a condo seller must give a buyer, and two of them were written for exactly this situation.

Item five is the inspector-prepared summary of the milestone inspection report, if applicable. Item six is the association's most recent structural integrity reserve study, or a statement that the association has not completed one.

Those two phrases mean the law expects some buildings won't have a finished report yet. You give the buyer what exists and say plainly what doesn't. Nothing in the list stops the sale.

Lourdes Sliwa is a real estate agent in Satellite Beach, Florida helping condo sellers put the association paperwork together before the listing goes live.

Can a Buyer Still Get a Loan on a Condo With an Inspection in Progress?

People ask me whether a buyer can still get a loan while the inspection is going on. The answer depends on the lender's rules more than on Florida law.

For a conventional loan sold to Fannie Mae, a condo project is ineligible if it needs critical repairs, meaning repairs that affect safety, soundness, structural integrity or whether the building can be lived in. That includes serious problems that could lead to a system failure within a year, mold or water getting in, advanced deterioration, a building that failed a required state, county or local inspection, and any unfunded repairs costing more than $10,000 per unit that should be done within the next 12 months.

An inspection that's still in progress isn't on that list by itself. What makes a building ineligible is a finished report showing critical repairs that haven't been addressed. In Fannie Mae's words, if the inspection report indicates there are unaddressed critical repairs, the project is ineligible until the required repairs have been completed.

So while the engineer is still working, the inspection alone doesn't make the building ineligible. That can change once the report is finished, in either direction.

What Are the Milestone Inspection Deadlines?

A milestone inspection applies to a building three habitable stories or more that's under condo or co-op ownership, in whole or in part. The first one is due by December 31 of the year the building turns 30, and every 10 years after that. Knowing where your building is in the process tells you how much time you have.

• Phase One is due within 180 days after the owners receive written notice from the local building department.

• If Phase One finds substantial structural deterioration, a Phase Two progress report is due within 180 days of the Phase One report.

• Repairs have to begin within 365 days after the association receives the Phase Two report.

• The association has to send the summary to every owner within 45 days of receiving the report.

A Phase Two means the visual inspection raised a question that needs testing. The engineer who signs the report is the one who answers it.

What Should You Do While the Inspection Is in Progress?

Share the status in writing. You won't know the outcome yet, but you can share which phase the inspection is in, which engineer is doing it, and when the report is expected.

Get the rest of the paperwork ready. The other documents don't depend on the inspection. The buyer's 7-day cancellation window, which doesn't count weekends or legal holidays, doesn't start until the buyer has all of them.

Think about the buyer pool before you set the price. If conventional financing gets harder, cash buyers and lenders who keep their own loans may still be able to buy. That affects both the price and how the unit is marketed.

Ask the board one question. Is anything in the minutes, or already voted on, that would count as an unfunded repair over $10,000 per unit in the next twelve months? It's better to know before a buyer's lender asks.

For the full list of documents a condo seller needs, What Documents Do I Need to Sell My Condo in Florida? walks through each one.

Don't miss any details in your contratct, Who Pays a Special Assessment at Closing in Florida? will tell you some things you need to keep in mind.

Selling a Condo With an Inspection in Progress?

Lourdes Sliwa is a real estate agent in Satellite Beach, Florida helping condo owners price and sell with the buyers who can actually buy in their building.

• If you're selling, request a home value report based on condo sales, not a blended ZIP code estimate.

• Book a call before you list, and we can go through the association paperwork and the buyer pool together.

• If this sale is a step toward your next home on the beachside, set up a saved search.

Call or text 321-425-8552, or start at lourdessliwa.com.

No pressure, just a straight answer on where your building stands and who can still buy in it.

Lourdes Sliwa is a REALTOR with Avanti Way Realty and a Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist serving Satellite Beach, Indian Harbour Beach, Indialantic and Melbourne Beach. She has lived on the Space Coast for more than 27 years, 23 of them in Tortoise Island, and has sold 317 homes since 2008, about 250 of them in the 32937 beachside ZIP. Call or text 321-425-8552.