Real Estate Feast

Archive for December, 2008

Foreclosure now a complete and utter steal–down to $48 a square foot!

The foreclosure property that was listed at $89,900 has been dropped by the bank down to $74,900.  You can read more about this fine 3-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhome in Cedar Woods in Homestead here.

You can contact me at bishopric.r@ewm.com or 305-401-8058.

What South Florida real estate could learn from Carmel, California.

Carmel, CA is a beautiful city consumed with keeping it that way.  Unlike in Miami, when someone wants to build a home or alter an existing one, the approval process is exacting, lengthy, detailed, aimed at making sure the neighbors are not adversely impacted and the trees and environment are protected.  In Miami we just bulldoze what’s there and build basically whatever we want. The trees and the neighbors get priority here.  One of the first steps in construction of any sort is to erect a physical representation of the space the new structure will occupy.  This means putting up a framework in exactly the same space so that anyone can see what it will look like and, most importantly, the neighbors can tell what the new edifice will do to their view.  Here is a picture of the framework representing a new house being built down the street.  It will stay up until the public hearing on the construction. 

When you do construction, preservation of the trees is paramount.  You have to build around them if at all possible.  Many times, construction can’t take place because of trees.  Here’s an example of how construction was done to avoid injuring a tree.  Notice how the roof line was adjusted to go around the limb of the tree.

Miami has one of the lowest percentages of tree cover for any large metropolitan area.  Maybe we could learn something from California.

If you’d like any information about South Florida real estate or would like to talk about tree cover, you can reach me at bishopric.r@ewm.com or 305-401-8058.

Giant seagull attacks at Lover’s Point, Pacific Grove, CA

The South Florida Real Estate Feast is on vacation for the holidays in Carmel, California.  Yesterday we drove up to Pacific Grove on Monterey Bay just to see the sights.  The natural beauty in this part of California is breathtaking.  The air clean, the water blue and beautiful, the rocks in the Pacific awesome. Found ourselves walking around Lover’s Point at one of the many many public parks on the water.  (Boy, could South Florida learn a few things from California about public spaces!)  We saw these young lovers wrapped up in themselves and oblivious to everything else around them, including this really big seagull intent on snatching their lunch in the plastic bag.  The seagull would inch closer and closer eyeing the bag first with one eye and then the other, but it could never quite bring itself to grab the goodies and go.  At least while we were watching.  Too funny.  Oh, and one of this gull’s confederates took revenge for my paparazzi activity with a well-placed aerial bombardment on my jacket, which went right into the washing machine when we got back to our place.

I’ll be back in Miami this week and if you’d like any information about easy-living South Miami/High Pines or Coral Gables real estate, you can reach me at bishopric.r@ewm.com or 305-401-8058.

South Beach restaurants desperate for your business

So I took a 25 pound turkey downtown to Camillus house today to do my good deed and help feed Miami’s homeless population (if Don King can give away 100,000 turkeys every year, I can give away one.)  Camillus House is a wonderful organization that has been helping feed and care for homeless people in Miami for years.  And, since I was almost half way to Miami Beach at that point and it was a beautiful day in South Florida and the real estate business is what you might charitably describe as slow, I decided to pay a visit to South Beach.  I parked on Washington Avenue and walked over to Ocean Drive, the road closest to the beach where all the sidewalk restaurants are.  With the exception of the venerable News Cafe, every single one of the others had “1/2 off menu prices”, “50% off” or some such variation of sign out front.  This along with good looking girls hawking the places and waving menus at largely disinterested passers by.  I sat an an outside table at Prime Time, the cafe in front of the Waterford Towers hotel.  I watched the cute young thing at the neighboring Caffe Milano really try hard to get anyone to sit down for about 45 minutes as I ate lunch.  She must have smiled broadly at 100 people and the only person that stopped to talk to her was asking directions to another restaurant.  I finished half of my very bad reuben sandwich with a side of coleslaw and asked her how long she had been doing that job.  She said about a week and she was going back to waitressing.  She’d rather wait tables than be ignored.  Tough job. 

If you’d like to find out more about South Florida real estate or homes in easy-living South Miami/High Pines, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

How a South Florida real estate agent makes money

People always say to me “Wow, you make a lot of money with that six percent commission, right?  I mean, six percent of $600,000 is like $36,000.”   Six percent of the sale price on a $600,000 house is indeed $36,000.  Would that I put that in my pocket, but, alas, this is not how real estate works.  The way it works is this:

First, the commission is usually split equally between the listing agent and the selling agent.  So the agent who brings a buyer to my listing and sells it gets three percent and I get three percent.  “But still, that’s $18,000,” you say.  Yessir, that’s $18,000 but my brokerage takes $8,100 of that, leaving me with $9,900.  OK, you say “But that isn’t too bad, I mean almost ten grand for sticking a sign out front and waiting for the phone to ring.”

But of course, it’s much more than that.  Here’s what I’ve spent so far on my latest listing in South Miami/High Pines:

Staging decor, silk plants, candles, etc.                $344
Mulch and plants                                                       22
Had the house professionally cleaned                     200
Professional photography, virtual tour, links           274
“Just Listed” 4 color jumbo postcards                      130
Ad for EWM flyer                                                       100
Food and drink for brokers’ open                               57
Total to date                                                         $1027

Next month I’ll have the house cleaned again and send out more postcards and do more ads.  And none of that counts my time spent answering the phone and holding open houses and providing reports to the seller and blogging about the listing. So you can see that what looks like big, easy money usually ends up being not so big and not so easy.

Also, don’t forget that $600,000 sales don’t come along that often.  The median sale price for a single-family home in South Florida is about $235,000 now.  Admittedly, I wouldn’t spend as much money or time on a smaller listing but I still invest what is appropriate for the projected income.

Lastly, in this market, no matter how hard you try, some homes just don’t sell.  My track record has been pretty good, but in the last year I’ve had two that didn’t sell.

If you’d like to know more about South Florida real estate, homes in easy-living South Miami/High Pines or Coral Gables, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

South Florida foreclosure deal of the week–$54 sq. ft.

I have a foreclosure listing for a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 story, 1676 square foot townhome with a one-car garage and two parking spots for just $89,900.  That’s just $54 a square foot!  In June of 2006, the previous owner paid $235,000 for this property.  Everything works, the unit has been painted, the carpets cleaned.  All that is needed is a little tile repair in the master bath.  (Which, by the way, is huge and has both a tub and a shower.)  This listing is in Homestead, Florida.  Let me know if you’d like to see it.

If you’d like to know more about foreclosures in South Florida, or anything else to do with South Florida real estate, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

Kitchen renovation plods on

Day fifty of camping out on the back porch.

The cast of characters has expanded to include Jack the permit fixer, Hernan and Arial the Argentinean architects and Edward the engineer.  The Miami-Dade County building department insisted on a master permit to “tie” the plumbing, electrical, ventilation and gas permits together and this entailed getting a complete set of architecture and engineering drawings detailing the “scope of work”.  My personal suspicion is that since the decline of South Florida real estate had led to a virtual cessation of construction, there is a big incentive for the building department to create unnecessary inspection work for itself.  But that’s just my opinion and please don’t let the department know that I feel that way.  If they find out I dissed them, this could drag on until it gets hot again and then camping out on the back porch won’t be any fun at all. 

Yesterday chief kitchen designer and Wife Extraordinaire and I picked out our counter top material.  We decided on “Venecia”, a white quartz compound embedded with bits of colored stone from Compac.  Harder than granite and less prone to scratching and staining.  The cabinets are almost done and will be stored until we get back on track.

Wish us luck.

If you’d like to find out anything about South Florida real estate, or kitchen renovations, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

South Florida Real Estate Feast goes mobile!

The Feast has gone mobile with these fancy new magnetic signs for my car.  Even the Wife Extraordinaire thinks they aren’t quite as tacky as the plain old ones that said “Buy Sell Rent”.  New York Daughter might now deign to drive the car when she comes down for the holidays.  People ask me why I chose Real Estate Feast for the name of my blog.  Couple of reasons.  Nothing sells like sex and food and since I’m not very sexy, that left food.  Also, food is important to me and it’s a big deal down here in South Florida. 

If you’d like to know anything about South Florida real estate, or tacky magnetic signs, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

Buying a South Florida foreclosure? You probably don’t need condo association approval.

I’m not a lawyer, so please don’t take this as gospel.  But I did call my attorney friend, Michael Rehr, who specializes in condominium law, when I was having trouble with an association over approval for a buyer.  Down here in South Florida we often have a lot of bureaucratic difficulty with condo associations.  I’m in the middle of a cash deal on a foreclosure property in Homestead.  The association was demanding that the buyer provide a social security number for a background check.  But the buyer is not a U.S. citizen and doesn’t have one.  The association said sorry, no number no deal.  In frustration I called my attorney friend.  He said that almost all Declaration of Condominium documents have an exceptions clause in the Transfer of Property section that allows a first mortgagee who acquires title by foreclosure to proceed without approval from the association.  Here’s a quote from the condo docs in question:  “Exceptions.  The foregoing provisions of this Section shall not apply to a transfer or purchase by an Institutional First Mortgagee or other approved mortgagee which acquires its title as the result of owning a mortgage upon the Unit concerned, and this shall be so whether the title is acquired by deed from the mortgagor or its successor in title or through foreclosure proceedings….”

So we filled out the association questionnaire completely, sans social security number, and sent it along with a copy of the condo docs section regarding transfers and approvals to the property management company and the sellers title company.  We’re proceeding with closing.

It’s neat the things you learn in the real estate business.  If you’d like to learn more about foreclosure opportunities in South Florida you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

Kitchen hood ventillation fails initial inspection

It’s very important in South Florida real estate to have any construction work done with the proper permitting so that the property doesn’t have any problems when it comes time to sell it.  I’m having all my work on this kitchen re-do done with the proper permits.    But I’m bummed out, the kitchen ventilation failed its inspection. It turns out the guy I hired to do the ventilation for and the installation of the hood in the kitchen got the wrong kind of permit.  So the inspector came in and said that the inspection failed.   I don’t know what the contractor  was thinking, but I know that what I’m thinking cannot be shared amongst polite company.  And this fellow came highly recommended by someone I respect.  Oh, well.  Now the contractor is getting more plans done, will have to have them approved, will have to get the permit reopened and then will have to call for an inspection of the rough work (walls open) and then once the drywall is up and the hood installed, a final inspection.  This, of course, adds days and dollars to this project.  I had hoped to have the job done by Christmas, but at this rate I don’t know.  I’ll keep you posted on the progress. 

If you’d like to know anything about South Florida real estate, especially in South Miami/High Pines and Coral Gables, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.