More than $2 billion
closed in Florida.

A real estate attorney guides a commercial deal across its full cycle: drafting and negotiating the purchase and sale agreement, running title and survey review, structuring acquisition and construction financing, forming the holding entity, handling leasing, and managing the closing. The group works across multifamily, office, retail, manufactured housing, senior housing, and mixed-use assets throughout Florida and has closed more than $2 billion in real estate transactions. This is general information about Florida law, not legal advice for a specific situation/matter.

The firm represents both. On the borrower side, the practice covers acquisition loans, construction financing, bridge loans, mezzanine financing, and permanent debt. On the lender side, the group handles acquisition, construction, and development loans for national institutional lenders and regional banks, including multi-state portfolio transactions, inter-creditor arrangements, and asset-based lending. Each engagement is disclosed and conflicts are cleared at intake.

If a buyer, seller, lender, or law firm is based outside Florida, local counsel is often retained to handle the parts of a closing that turn on Florida law and practice: title review and closing, Florida legal opinions, document recordation, state-specific regulatory compliance, and coordination of local administrative proceedings. Sachs Sax Caplan Kaskel & Schner, PLLC serves as Florida counsel to dozens of national and regional law firms whose clients have Florida real estate, corporate, or estate matters, coordinating directly with lead counsel on files and deadlines. This is general information about Florida law, not legal advice for a specific situation/matter.

The land use practice covers comprehensive plan amendments, zoning changes and variances, developments of regional impact, site plan approvals, platting, and advocacy before local planning boards, county commissions, and state agencies. The group has handled entitlements for multifamily, retail, mixed-use, hospitality, marina, and other commercial projects across South Florida municipalities. Steven Geller, Of Counsel, previously served in both the Florida Senate and Florida House of Representatives, bringing legislative and administrative experience to complex regulatory matters.

The corporate practice within the real estate group structures LLCs, limited partnerships, and joint ventures for acquisitions, development projects, and ongoing portfolio operations. Work includes drafting operating agreements, investor documentation, preferred equity arrangements, and governance frameworks.

Construction contract negotiation and related transactional work is handled by attorneys in the firm's construction law practice, including Edward S. Hammel (Board Certified in Condominium and Planned Development Law) and Michael Heitman (Board Certified in Construction Law). The real estate and construction groups coordinate on development projects where transactional and construction counsel are both needed.

Florida imposes documentary stamp taxes on deeds and promissory notes, and the applicable rate varies by transaction structure. The group advises buyers, sellers, and lenders on Florida documentary stamp planning as part of transaction structuring and closing. This is particularly relevant in transactions involving assumption of existing financing, installment sale structures, and multi-asset portfolio transfers.

A commercial closing in Florida begins with a title search and title commitment that disclose the seller's ownership and any liens, easements, or other exceptions. The buyer's attorney reviews survey matters, works to clear those exceptions, and coordinates with a title underwriter to issue a title insurance policy that protects the buyer or lender against covered title defects after closing. The group manages this process for acquisitions and financings throughout Florida and, where it serves as Florida local counsel to an out-of-state lead firm, issues Florida legal opinions and coordinates state-specific closing requirements with the lead firm's timeline. This is general information about Florida law, not legal advice for a specific situation/matter.

The Live Local Act (originally SB 102, 2023; amended by SB 328, 2024; and further amended in 2025 and 2026) is a state law that preempts local zoning rules for qualifying affordable housing developments. A multifamily or mixed-use project qualifies when at least 40 percent of its residential units are restricted to households at or below 120 percent of area median income for a minimum of 30 years. Once those thresholds are met, the local government must approve the project administratively - bypassing public hearings and rezoning votes - and cannot impose density, height, or floor area ratio restrictions below the statutory minimums. The 2024 SB 328 amendments removed the industrial-land preemption, added a floor-area-ratio preemption at 150 percent of the highest permitted FAR in the jurisdiction, and exempted airport-impacted areas. The 2026 HB 1389 amendments added government-owned and qualifying religious-institution parcels as eligible sites and prohibited municipalities from using setback or stepback rules to nullify the height preemption. The preemptions are currently in effect with a statutory sunset of October 2033. This is general information about Florida law, not legal advice for a specific transaction.

It depends on the buyer's country of affiliation and the property's location. Florida Chapter 692, enacted via SB 264 (effective July 1, 2023), restricts and in some cases prohibits real property acquisitions by foreign principals from seven designated countries of concern: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela (Maduro regime), and Syria. Nationals of any of those countries are barred from acquiring agricultural land or property within 10 miles of a military installation or critical infrastructure. Persons affiliated with China face the broadest prohibition and generally may not purchase any Florida real property. A narrow exception exists for natural persons with a current U.S. non-tourist visa who wish to buy a single residential parcel of two acres or less, provided it is more than five miles from a military installation. Buyers who are not foreign principals from a country of concern are not restricted. All Florida closings now require a buyer affidavit under FREC Rule 61J2-10.200 confirming compliance. Existing owners who acquired before July 1, 2023, were required to register with the state by early 2024; late registration carries civil penalties. As of mid-2026, the law is fully enforceable following the Eleventh Circuit's November 2025 ruling in Shen v. Simpson, which upheld the statute on rational-basis review. This is general information about Florida law, not legal advice for a specific transaction.

Effective January 1, 2024, Section 695.26, Florida Statutes (amended by HB 1419, 2023), requires that every witness to a deed or other conveyancing instrument print or type their post-office address directly beneath their signature on the face of the document. County clerks must reject for recording any instrument that is missing a witness's post-office address. An email address does not satisfy the requirement; a physical or mailing address is required. The rule applies to warranty deeds, quitclaim deeds, easements, notices of commencement, claims of lien, and other instruments that convey or affect title. Mortgages do not require witnesses under Florida law, but if witness lines are included and signed, the addresses must appear or the clerk will reject the document. There is a savings clause: if a non-compliant instrument is accepted and recorded, the recording and the constructive notice it imparts remain legally valid. This is general information about Florida law, not legal advice for a specific transaction.

As of mid-2026, no - for most Florida real estate LLCs. Two major federal reporting regimes were effectively halted for domestic entities. First, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirement was suspended for all U.S.-formed entities by a Treasury Department interim final rule issued March 2, 2025. Domestic LLCs and corporations are now permanently exempt; the CTA applies only to foreign reporting companies (entities formed under foreign law that registered to do business in a U.S. state). Second, the FinCEN Anti-Money Laundering Regulations for Residential Real Estate Transfers - which would have required reporting of cash residential purchases by entities or trusts - took effect December 1, 2025, but were vacated nationwide by a federal court order in March 2026 (Flowers Title Companies, LLC v. Bessent). Reporting persons are not required to file and face no liability for not filing while that order remains in effect. Florida LLCs formed domestically under Florida law are not subject to either requirement as of mid-2026. This is general information about Florida law, not legal advice for a specific transaction.