In Today’s Miami Herald: Feds Sue 17 Major Lenders!
“Total price tag for the securities bought by Fannie and Freddie affected by the lawsuits: $196 billion.”
Shame on you Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs. (my words)
Checkout my beautiful Surfside, Florida waterfront listing:8818 Hawthorne Avenue, Surfside, Florida 33154
Looking for a turn-key, move-in-ready waterfront home on Miami Beach? Well, look no further! This house REALLY has it all- Professional-grade kitchen & appliances. New roof, hurricane impact windows, Trane XL19i High Efficiency A/C, On-Demand gas water heater with electronic thermostat, whole-house back-up generator. . . NEW boat dock and lift, patio area with hot tub for 8 under vine-covered pergolas. . . A Must See!
Professionally landscaped lawn with lush tropical foliage and beautiful oversized Palm in driveway ‘centerpiece’. Pavered driveway extends to back of property to pavered back patio area.
This Miami Beach luxury home features beautiful saturnia marble flooring throughout.
In today’s Internet-iPhone-iPad-Smartphone World, the MOST important aspect of any marketing campaign for South Florida Real Estate in a soft market is: PHOTOGRAPHY.
Take, for example, my new listing in Dania, Florida – Check out the OLD front of the house photo from a previous listing:
Compare this to the NEW photo taken by a Professional Real Estate Photographer:
Now check out the OLD photo of the Family/Great Room:
Now check out the NEW Living Room/Great Room Photos:
Imagine yourself as the Buyer or Buyer’s Realtor perusing the MLS, Realtor.com, Zillow, or any other Real Estate Website. . . Which photos draw you in? Attract your attention? And make you want to show or see the property?
As a Seller in our current South Florida Real Estate Market, it is important to hire a Realtor with the know-how and marketing skills to get your house sold! If you are interested in Selling your Home in Miami-Dade or Broward County, professional representation is just a phone call or email away!
Here at the fabulous W Hotel on South Beach listening to a great panel of local real estate experts including David Edelstein, owner and developer of the W South Beach (to whom my broker and father sold the original land at the former Holiday Inn location), Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures, Melissa Rubin of Platinum Properties, Steven Hayworth of Gibralter Private Bank & Trust, and Theresa King Kinney from our wonderful Miami board of Realtors. Lots of great ideas and info. Jorge Estevez from CBS is the MC.
The Real Estate Wave
I love metaphores. One of the easiest ways to explain how the Real Estate Market works here in South Florida is the Real Estate ‘Wave’. How it works is as follows:
When the market starts going ‘up’ in value, it starts from the coastal regions and neighborhoods closest to the ‘sand’ . In Broward County, examples of these areas — Hollywood Lakes, Hollywood Beach, Hallandale Beach, Fort Lauderdale Beach, Rio Vista, Victoria Park, Bayview and North Bal Harbor. In Miami-Dade County, this would be Miami Beach, South Beach, Bal Harbour, Surfside, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Miami Shores, El Portal, Belle Meade, Morningside, and Bay Point.
South Florida Real Estate Values Appreciate From East to West
I like to use the visual example of the beach – as property values appreciate, they do so from the ‘beach’ – the Real Estate ’wave’ (if you will) starts from the beach and the coastal areas closest to the beach – Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale Beach, Hollywood Beach, and Sunny Isles Beach. As the wave goes from East to West, so to, home values go up. This is almost exactly how it happened during the Real Estate Boom years from the end of 2003 to the middle of 2007/2008. Starting in 2003, we saw real estate and home values appreciate FIRST in the coastal areas of South Florida.
Then, the wave continued westward – into West Miami – Doral, Miami Lakes, and West Broward – Pembroke Pines, Plantation, Davie, and Weston.
When South Florida real estate values started to decline, sometime in the middle of 2006, the decline was first felt and realized in the Western Regions of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. Therefore, property values in the Western Regions of South Florida stay ‘up’ the shortest amount of time, while property values along the Fort Lauderdale Beach, Miami Beach, and the immediate coastal communities stay ‘up’ the longest amount of time.
It wasn’t until very recently – the past 12-18 months – that the Eastern Areas of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties began to see a decline in home and property values significant enough to cause a stir among real estate buyers and sellers.
Why is this so important you wonder?
The importance of this phenomenon is: TIMING. The Real Estate Market, like all ‘Markets’ is CYCLICAL. In a perfect world, you sell when the market is high and buy when the market is low. Boy, wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were only that simple? In the REAL WORLD, things happen – families expand, move, change jobs, lose jobs, investments need to be sold, bought, etc. BUT if you are able to somewhat ‘time’ your Real Estate purchases and you want to buy while the market is down, NOW is the time to invest in Real Estate in South Florida.