Licensed Florida brokerage · BK3271853
Anyone can sell you a property in Miami. Casalina exists for everything around it: how a foreign family should own here so the US tax system doesn't take what's yours, which building is safe to buy, who runs it after you fly home, and the home, the schools, the life. One firm, accountable for all of it, in your language.
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Before you wire a single dollar
Five ways well-advised families keep their wealth here, and everyone else finds out too late. Every number below comes from US law, not from us. This is the conversation the brochures skip.
An American can pass $15 million to heirs free of US estate tax. A foreign owner gets an exemption of $60,000, then 40% above it. A $3M home held in your own name can expose your family to roughly $1.1M in US tax, and the IRS must clear the estate before your heirs can freely sell. Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela have no estate treaty with the US; for most buyers, planning is the only protection there is.
Ownership is designed with cross-border counsel before the contract (trusts, holding structures, life insurance where it fits), so the worst day of your family's life is not also a tax event.
Half of Miami will tell you to "just buy through an LLC." A Florida LLC owned in your own name does almost nothing for US estate tax, and the law on it is unsettled; it feels safe precisely until the day it matters. The right structure depends on your country, your heirs, your exit, and your other assets. It is a decision for specialists, made once, at the beginning.
We put the question to specialist cross-border counsel before you buy, and the structure is chosen by your exit and your heirs, not by habit.
When a foreign owner sells, US law requires 15% of the gross sale price (not the gain) to be withheld at closing. On a $2M sale, that's $300,000 held back, often for a year, even when the actual tax due is a fraction of it. There is a certificate procedure that can reduce it before closing, if someone starts it in time, with your tax numbers already in place.
The exit is designed at the entrance: tax IDs obtained early, the withholding-certificate route prepared with specialist CPAs, so your money doesn't spend a year in Washington.
By default, the US taxes a foreign landlord at 30% of gross rent, before the mortgage, the insurance, the association fees, the management. One election, filed correctly with an annual US return, switches you to tax on net income instead. Miss the paperwork, and the deductions are gone. Most managers never mention it; it isn't their problem.
The election, the tax ID and the annual filings are coordinated with your CPA as part of the Annual File; every year, without you asking.
Since the Surfside collapse, Florida law forces older condo towers through structural inspections and mandatory reserve funding. In under-funded buildings, that has meant special assessments from $30,000 to over $200,000 per unit, falling values, and towers that lenders will no longer finance. The glossy listing does not mention the engineering report. We read it before you fall in love.
Every building over 15 years old gets its inspection reports, reserves and board minutes read before you offer, and we walk away from more towers than we recommend.
Also in every Casalina file: property taxes re-assessed at purchase, so you budget on the real number, not the seller's bill · insurance quoted before the offer, in a market where it decides deals · screening under Florida's foreign-buyer statute (SB 264) done on day one, quietly · and a wire protocol with call-back verification on every transfer, because closing fraud is a billion-dollar industry. None of this is exotic. It is simply the file, kept properly.
In ten seconds
In Miami, the structure is sold by lawyers, the property by brokers, the loan by fintechs, the care by managers, and none of them answer for the others. We hold the entire file, and everyone we bring in reports to it.
How you own decides what your family keeps. Estate-tax exposure mapped, entities and trusts designed with cross-border counsel, FIRPTA planned at entry, privacy protected within the law, before the first offer is written.
See how it's done →The family residence, found and negotiated on and off market, with the neighbourhoods, the schools and the daily life understood before you choose. Financing for foreign buyers arranged at the same table.
See the practice →Income property bought on net numbers, not brochure numbers: taxes, insurance, association and management priced in before you commit, then leased, collected and reported under our licence.
See how it's built →Where every other firm disappears, we begin. The yearly tax elections and filings coordinated, the insurance re-quoted, the building watched, the house cared for, the tenants managed; one statement, in your language.
See what's included →Most families arrive holding six phone numbers. Casalina is one.
Who we serve
Different reasons for Miami, the same need underneath: someone accountable on the ground, who speaks your language and answers for the whole.
"We're moving; the children start school in September, and we don't know the city."
The home and the schools decided together, the move managed to the school calendar, and the first ninety days walked beside you, driving licences, health cover, staff, the local bench of advisers.
"We want dollars working in Miami, but we live eight hours away and we've heard the horror stories."
A portfolio built on net yield, bought remotely with verified wire protocols, leased and managed under our licence, with the tax elections that keep 30% of your gross rent out of Washington, reported monthly, in your language.
"Our advisers at home are excellent, but nobody there can execute in Florida, and we won't sign what we don't understand."
We work under your family office and counsel, execute the US side (structure, purchase, banking, care), and report back to them in their language and yours. Your structure stays theirs; the ground becomes ours.
02 · The core practice
Fifteen years under a Florida broker's licence, with a mortgage background underneath. We sell no developer's inventory and carry no listings quota; we sit on your side of the table, and only yours.
Much of what is sold to foreigners in Miami is what a developer needs sold. We start from what your family needs owned.
International buyers lose money here in predictable ways: they see only what is publicly listed or pre-construction marketed to their country, they arrive without structure and lose the property to a faster buyer, and nobody prices the taxes, insurance and association costs until after the wire. We are built against all of it.
You are represented by the broker, not passed to an agent. The same person who takes your first call negotiates your contract, sits at your closing, and answers the phone two years later.
Casalina acts for families entering South Florida from abroad and from other US states, with a Florida-licensed broker at the destination from the first conversation.
No obligation. The first conversation is about what you need, not about signing.
01 · 03 · 04. Around the purchase
We are not a law or accounting firm, and you should be suspicious of any broker pretending to be one. What we are is the party accountable for the whole: we frame the questions, bring specialist cross-border counsel and CPAs to your table, and make certain the answers are executed and maintained, year after year.
In one line: how you hold the property decides what you keep, what you expose, and what your heirs inherit.
This is where foreign buyers are hurt most, usually years later, at sale or succession, when it is expensive to fix. We map your exposure before the first offer: the $60,000 estate-tax problem, the FIRPTA exit, the rental-income elections, your country's treaty position, Florida's foreign-buyer statute. Then the structure is designed with specialist counsel (coordinated with your advisers at home), and we execute the US side.
In one line: property here should pay for the life here, after every cost, not before.
Most foreign investors are sold gross numbers: the rent, never the insurance, the association, the re-assessed taxes, the management, the withholding. We build the other way, target net income first, then the properties that deliver it, each one stress-tested on the numbers a Florida owner actually pays, and every unit leased and managed under our licence after closing.
In one line: the first ninety days, walked beside you.
The purchase is the easy part. The life around it (schools that say yes, a driver's licence, health cover, staff, the utilities in the right name) is what decides whether the family is happy here. We stay in the file until it's done.
In one line: every firm in Miami disappears after closing. This is the service that begins there.
A foreign owner's obligations don't end at the deed; they start: the annual tax return that preserves your deductions, the elections that stop gross withholding, the insurance market that must be re-shopped yearly, the condo board whose decisions cost you money, the house itself. We keep all of it as one living file, reviewed on a calendar, reported in your language.
Florida, 2026
Palm Beach County home sales have risen for seven consecutive months. Sales above $5 million are up 77.3 percent year over year. West Palm Beach recorded the largest increase in luxury pending sales of any major US metro and ranks first in the country for all-cash purchases. International buyers accounted for 49 percent of new-construction sales across South Florida in the 18 months to July 2025.
Sources: MIAMI REALTORS® market statistics, March 2026 · Redfin, March 2026 · Figures reviewed quarterly
How it works
Four steps, in the order that protects you; most of it done before you ever board a plane.
Thirty minutes, in your language. Your goals, your country, your heirs, your timeline. You leave with a written plan, your exposure mapped, and the fees, not a contract.
Ownership designed with cross-border counsel, entity formed, tax IDs applied for, banking opened, financing pre-arranged, schools shortlisted. All remotely, before the trip.
The home first, the income properties behind it. Buildings read before offers, wires verified by call-back, closed in person or by power of attorney from abroad.
Tenants, taxes, insurance, the building, the house, reviewed on a calendar, reported in your language. And when it's time to sell, the exit was planned years ago.
Families usually assemble this from six advisers who never speak to each other, and discover at the worst moment that the lawyer assumed the accountant knew, and the accountant assumed the broker asked. One file, one party accountable, is the entire point of Casalina.
Before you commit to anything
A private document we send to families considering South Florida. Not a brochure; the real numbers, the order to do things in, and the mistakes we watch foreign buyers repeat. Most of it is the conversation we would have with you anyway.
Sent by email within the hour. No marketing sequence afterwards, one document and a note from Faisal.
Your details stay with Casalina. Never sold, never shared.
Casalina · Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker BK3271853 · a practice of ICV Global Services LLC
Credentials
Recent representations, and what sits behind the licence.
Selected transactions · 2026
“We bought the house, two rentals, and the company behind them without leaving Bogotá. The first time we saw the house in person, our furniture was already in it.”Client · relocated family
“Nobody told us about FIRPTA when we bought in 2019. Casalina restructured everything before we sold; that conversation paid for itself many times over.”Client · investor, two properties
Questions
Answered plainly here, so the call can be about you.
Yes, and no. There is no restriction on foreign ownership of Florida residential property, no visa requirement, and no US Social Security number needed to buy. A US tax ID (ITIN) becomes important later (for rental income and for the sale), and we obtain it as part of the setup. What changes for a foreign buyer is the financing, the tax treatment, and how title is best held: which is exactly why the structure work happens before the offer.
This is the question that matters most, and almost nobody asks it in time. A foreign owner's US estate-tax exemption is $60,000 (an American's is $15 million), and the rate above it is 40%. The estate must also clear the IRS before heirs can freely deal with the property. Most Latin American countries have no US estate treaty, so structure (designed with cross-border counsel before you buy) is the only real protection. It is the first conversation we have, not the last.
Usually not, and this is the most common (and most confidently repeated) piece of bad advice in Miami. A Florida LLC held in your own name provides some liability separation, but it does not by itself solve the estate-tax problem, and the law on it is unsettled. Depending on your country, your heirs and your exit, the right answer may involve trusts, holding structures, insurance, financing, or a combination. We put the question to specialists before you sign anything.
FIRPTA is the US law that requires a percentage of the gross sale price (typically 15%) to be withheld when a foreign person sells US property. Planned before you buy, the impact is managed: withholding certificates, exemptions and correct structures all exist. Discovered at closing, it locks up hundreds of thousands of dollars, often for a year. We plan the exit on day one, with specialist CPAs, so the sale is designed before the purchase.
By default the US withholds 30% of a foreign landlord's gross rent, before any expense. A properly filed election switches you to tax on net income at normal rates, which for most leveraged properties is dramatically less. It requires a US tax ID, the right form with your property manager, and an annual US return, miss the filings and the deductions are forfeited. Coordinating this every year is part of our Annual File, with licensed CPAs preparing the returns.
Substantially, yes, within the law. Florida deeds are public records, but title can be held through entities and trusts so your family name does not appear in searchable records. US federal disclosure rules for property and companies have shifted repeatedly in recent years and parts remain in litigation, so we design privacy with counsel on the rules as they stand, and we never promise secrecy. Privacy and secrecy are different products; we only sell the first.
No, and anyone who implies otherwise is selling you something. Property ownership by itself confers no US immigration status. There are real investment routes (the E-2 treaty-investor visa through an active business, the EB-5 investor programme from $800,000), and passive rental ownership does not qualify for them. We introduce vetted immigration counsel early, so the property plan and the visa plan are designed together rather than discovered to be incompatible.
For most nationalities, none. Florida law does restrict purchases by persons domiciled in a short list of countries (China most broadly; Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Syria and North Korea near military and infrastructure sites), and every buyer of any nationality signs a statutory affidavit at closing. The rules are in force and carry serious penalties, so we screen quietly on day one; residents and citizens of the US are generally unaffected regardless of origin.
Almost all of it, and yes, if it's run properly. The entity, banking, search, negotiation and closing can be completed remotely: we view and film properties on your behalf, and closings are done by power of attorney with remote notarisation. The genuine risk in remote buying is wire fraud, which is a billion-dollar criminal industry aimed at closings, so every transfer in our files follows a verified-instruction protocol with call-back confirmation, and wiring instructions never change by email.
Usually yes, with 30–40% down, no US credit history required, at rates above resident loans. Only a handful of South Florida lenders do this well, and financing is also a planning tool: it reduces the US-taxable estate and improves net yield mathematics. With a mortgage background behind the licence, we arrange it alongside the search rather than sending you away to solve it.
Yes. It is often the real deadline in a family's move. We map the international and private school options against the neighbourhoods you're considering, arrange the visits, and manage the application timeline alongside the purchase. Admission decisions belong to the schools; preparation and introductions are ours.
Three ways, all disclosed in writing before work begins. Real estate is commission, stated at engagement. Structure and relocation work are fixed coordination fees with third-party costs passed through at cost. The Annual File is a yearly retainer with a stated rate on managed rents and vendor spend. There is no undisclosed margin on any invoice; that is the point of the single statement.
Enquiries
Three short steps, enough to prepare properly before we speak. Read by Faisal Rafiq directly, answered in your language.
You'll hear from Faisal directly, within one business day.
If it's urgent, WhatsApp reaches us fastest; the link is on the right.