Miami Beach Waterfront Homes Blog

This past week, I had the privilege of working with one of the most skilled and capable real estate attorneys in the business. She delivered one of the smoothest closings that I have ever had, and all parties involved in the transaction were thrilled! To celebrate, we went out to lunch and my team and I were very honored and proud that she also told us that we were the best real estate brokers/salespeople she had ever worked with in her many years of practice.

I’m communicating this here not to stroke my ego, but to inform anyone reading this the importance of working with experienced, detail-oriented, flexible, informed, and skillful Realtors in this challenging real estate environment. In a seller’s market with many buyers and limited inventory, I believe that the Realtors handling of the negotiation and transaction process (from contract execution to closing) is not quite as critical. However, in this market, where we have a growing inventory of unsold property and a scarcity of buyers it is CRUCIAL to work with a real estate salesperson that will use all of their skills, knowledge, relationships, intelligence, professional contacts, and most importantly *experience* to guide a transaction to a successful closing.

In the case of the this week’s sale, I represented the buyer, and it should be noted that the sellers were representing the estate of a deceased (very wealthy) property owner and were very eager to stop the financial losses associated with owning an empty property for over two years. The sellers had to bring almost $250,000 to the closing table, which I am finding the scenario increasingly common among sellers who purchased after 2003.

My team and I are finding our time VERY limited these days, and our commitment is to providing the strongest and most innovative marketing resources and services for our sellers (and finding best deal for buyers). Therefore, we are increasingly having to choose what type of clients and who we work with (especially sellers). I urge anyone looking to buy or sell today, to carefully consider the overall strength, market knowledge, personality, experience, and marketing resources of the Realtor that they choose to work with. Additionally, also consider that in today’s market a top producing Realtor (at the top of his/her game) will also be evaluating a potential client’s ability to work with them.

One of the questions my team and I continually ask ourselves is:

“If I were a buyer/seller today, would I work with me?”

I believe that the housing market is at the beginning of a healthy balancing process, in other words, the capitalist system of supply and demand is in the process of adjusting to economic reality. This week, I took the opportunity to check in with clients that live in the greater Miami area and happen to be high earning (by most upper middle class standards) professionals i.e. doctors, attorneys, accountants, business owners, and high ranking Fortune 500 executives. The commonality is that all say that their living expenses have gone up disproportionately in comparison to their incomes (taxes, windstorm insurance, maintenance fees, homeowners insurance, etc.). The affordability of Greater Miami real estate must be closer in line to the income of area residents.

Buyers that are willing to purchase (and they ARE out there), are only willing to move forward *at the right price*, which today is fluctuating between closed sales prices of 2002 – 2004 which generally depending on the costs associated with ownership. For example, Aqua at Allison Island, which is a beautiful waterfront community located on Miami Beach, has experienced rather severe price declines over the past few months. I attribute this mainly to high maintenance fees of $.98/ S.F. (limited # units, large property), which brings the sales price adjustment closer to the 2002/2003 price range. Coincidentally, most luxury condominium buildings and many homes have similar maintenance fee structures (due to high insurance costs, operating expenses, necessary amenities demanded by residents, etc.) I believe that this will have the greatest price impact on downtown Miami properties such as Marquis, The Met 1 – 3, 900 Biscayne, Blue, 1800 Club, Paramount Bay, Midtown Miami, The Ivy located on the Miami River, and many others.

The good news is that premier location waterfront properties such as The Murano at Portofino, Continuum on South Beach, Canyon Ranch Miami Beach, Murano Grande, Setai, Icon South Beach, and Il Villaggio located in South Beach on the Ocean or Bayfront are maintaining their overall values (generally 2005 closed sales prices). Condo pending sales prices for these properties are ranging (for premier units) between $750/S.F. and $1,350/S.F. These are the properties with the highest proportion of foreign/transplant buyers from such destinations as New York, Boston, Washington DC, Europe and South America.