BreakThru Realty

The Potential Check: Know What a Home Can Become Before You Buy It

Before you commit, find out what the house can become

BreakThru Realty helps buyers find a home in the right location that needs work, then coordinates the architects, designers and licensed contractors who turn it into the home they wanted. The Potential Check is the step that makes that safe: a look at one specific home by the people who would design and build the project, done while your contract still lets you renegotiate or walk away.

BreakThru Realty · Founder and Broker of Record: Tyson E. Sam, Florida License 3565210

Request a Potential Check

Why It Happens Inside the Inspection Period

The standard Florida “AS IS” contract gives a buyer an inspection period, 15 days unless the contract states a different number, during which the buyer can cancel for any reason. A home inspection tells you what is wrong with the house today. It does not tell you whether your plan for the house can be built or what it will cost. The Potential Check answers those two questions inside the same window, so the decision to go forward is made with both answers in hand.

What Gets Checked

Each check is fitted to the home and the plan, but the questions are the ones that decide South Florida projects. They are asked by licensed professionals who would do the work, not estimated from photographs.

  • A licensed general contractor walks the home against your wish list and flags what the plan involves
  • An architect or designer reads the layout, the lot, setbacks, lot coverage and height limits
  • The flood zone and the base flood elevation, and whether the plan could trigger the FEMA 50% rule
  • The permit history: open permits, expired permits and work done without one
  • Roof, windows and doors against current wind requirements, which drive insurance as well as cost
  • Association or condominium rules on renovations, contractors, hours and approvals
  • Septic or sewer, trees and easements where an addition, a pool or a new home is planned

What You Receive

You come out of the check with a short, plain summary: the scope that is realistic for this house, the obstacles and who decides each one, the professionals the project would need, a cost range drawn from the contractors’ own written bids, and a rough order of events from closing to move-in. If the home is not the right one, the summary tells you why, and that sharpens the rest of the search.

How It Changes the Offer

A Potential Check is also negotiating information. A roof that must be replaced to insure the house, an addition that the setbacks rule out, or unpermitted work the city will want corrected are reasons to ask for a lower price or a credit, supported by a licensed contractor’s findings rather than a feeling. And when the check comes back clean, you can move forward without the doubt that makes buyers hesitate and lose good houses.

What It Is Not

The Potential Check is not a home inspection, an appraisal, a survey, an engineering report or a permit approval, and it does not replace any of them. Only the city or county can approve a permit, and only a floodplain administrator can rule on flood requirements. BreakThru Realty is a licensed Florida real estate brokerage. Design and construction are performed by licensed, insured professionals you choose, under your own agreements with them.

Request a Potential Check

A few questions about where and how you want to live. An agent reads every answer and follows up personally. Nothing here asks about credit, income or debts.

Prefer to talk? (786) 914-1017 · sales@breakthrurealty.com

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Potential Check?
It is a feasibility review of one specific home before you are committed to buying it. A licensed contractor and a design professional look at the house and your plan together, and the flood zone, permits and association rules are checked, so you know what the home can become and roughly what it would take.
When should I request one?
As soon as you have a home you would buy if the plan works. The check is designed to fit inside the inspection period of your contract, so the earlier it is scheduled after the offer is accepted, the more time you have to act on what it finds.
Is a Potential Check the same as a home inspection?
No. A home inspection reports the condition of the house as it stands. The Potential Check looks at what you want to change and whether it can be built, permitted and afforded. Buyers planning a project should have both.
Where do the cost figures come from?
From the licensed contractors who walk the home. BreakThru Realty does not price construction work; the range you see is the contractors’ own, and a firm price comes from the written bid you accept once the design is set.
Can I get a Potential Check on a home listed by another brokerage?
Yes. The check is about the property and your plan, whoever the listing brokerage is. It needs access to the home, which is arranged through the showing and inspection terms of your contract.

BreakThru Realty is a licensed Florida real estate brokerage. Design and construction are performed by licensed, insured professionals you choose, under your own agreements with them.

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