November 2009 RSS Feed

Found 18 blog entries for November 2009.

Each day another article appears predicting gloom in 2010 to the real estate market in South Florida. One recent article ended with "distressed properties will drive the market". Finally someone almost pointed out why the numbers will look like gloom for the market. Let's look at the issue, the price point that feeds the story of gloom and doom. If you want to see real numbers add a few zero's but this is to prove my point. If 10 properties sell in January 2010, and 9 of them are trashed out foreclosures needing massive renovations, then distressed properties have driven the market. If those properties sell for $30,000 each for a total of $270,000 and the one lone sale occurs in great condition, beautiful view, and in a superior location for $400,000. The…
2,001 Views, 0 Comments

In was another beautiful day in paradise. The sun was shining and I am looking forward to dinner with friends at the 954, the beautiful new steak house at the W Hotel tomorrow evening. Oh. sorry, I started to talk about fun in South Florida and now I remember, I titled this article "Gloom and Doom in South Florida", and there was this morning when I read the Sun Sentinel ( note to self : I need to stop doing that ). In it was an article about South Florida and the pending disaster, you can read it at "Gloom and Doom in South Florida - Not Really !", please note I have changed the name on the link to match my blog post. If you prefer I can cut through the whole article for you and give you a sense of what they are saying in the last two lines. Buyers are…
2,055 Views, 0 Comments

As talk continues to start of the bottom of the real estate market we on the ground are sounding a giant "oh really". Buyers are watching the market daily waiting for a sign, asking their realtors to show them 100's of properties, and contacting their realtor with amazement as they notice the one they liked has just sold. These buyers are starting to realize that finding the perfect property for them at a great price is what counts. Finding that same property in a distressed sitaution with no other buyers around is extremely unlikely. Buyers are starting to realize that these other buyers looking at the same property they are, are causing multiple offers to reappear. You are not alone, many people are looking for the value in todays South Florida market.…
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Certainly like all other realtors we love closings, as simply they mean many things. Buyers and Seller get to move on with their lives, and we as realtors get to celebrate another successful transaction and a payday. But as of late, some have become more meaningful. The closing of a short sale is a true victory. When the short sale is a more difficult one with two loans, two unresponsive banks, and that occassional negotiator who thinks $225,000 is more than $250,000 because she has more files on her desk than she can or wishes to concentrate on, and you have already decided to allow her to call you by your wrong name; well closing these types of deals are total joy. At Eric Miller and Associates we have listened to many large real estate companies tell…
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When you start thinking about a waterfront home in the Fort Lauderdale area it is important to be aware that all waterfront is not the same and we are going to ask many questions to make sure you find the right property. When you see a photo on the internet of a lake front home for $200,000 chances are this is a lake, with access to no major waterways, hence we may ask you if the water is about a view or about a boat. Other things we may wish to talk about, ocean access, fixed bridges, beam, depth, width of a canal, timing to the intracoastal, distance to the inlet. As a starting point, you can count on the larger boat you can house in your backyard the more expensive the property will be. It is rare to find a no fixed bridge, waterfront home under the…
2,310 Views, 0 Comments

Over the last few weeks we have watched an amazing thing happen in South Florida as more and more buyers are flocking to the area to buy the property they always wanted at a price they can now afford. Unfortunately many of them are still armed with media hype and few facts so often we see offer after offer is being rejected. Many leave with the attitude they will just wait, but many more are saying we are close enough to the bottom and I'm going to buy the property I want before it is gone. Over the last 30 days 38 condos in the beach area have gone into pending sale status. They range from a low floor 2 Bedroom at The Berkley South ( Asking price 169,000 ) to a penthouse unit at L'Hermitage (Asking price $3,000,000). Even more important is that of the…
1,737 Views, 0 Comments

Talk all over the media about real estate at the bottom, as if a line has been drawn in the sand and all areas of our country are the same. I find this amazing. If they were all capable of making perfect timing decisions they all would have bought Microsoft stock 30 years ago, and been long retired, very wealthy. Lets just all accept that marking the bottom of this market is impossible, but properties are being sold for less than would cost to build, simply this is a trend that can't, and won't continue. The best inventory has been selling away for months, the crap is sitting, and sooner or later the best properties at these amazing prices, will simply be gone. If your thinking of buying let me be the first to say welcome to Fort Lauderdale, and with good…
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I am sorry to report that the law of supply and demand sincerely applies to waterfront property in the Fort Lauderdale area. Are there bargains to be had in waterfront homes, absolutely...however, there are buyers lined up for Fort Lauderdale waterfront homes that are priced properly in this real estate market. It is a great time to buy waterfront property in Fort Lauderdale but don't expect to find these homes sitting as distressed properties without numerous buyers ready to take the plunge. If you are interested in a waterfront home we are here to help you find the best deals.

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Absolutely, this is a shout out to the entire news media who can't seem to make up their minds as to  what is going on in the Fort Lauderdale market. COME ON DOWN! I'd love to give you the tour and let you present some facts. The Miami Herald reported Broward County heading back before Dade, for those of you who may be unclear, Fort Lauderdale is in Broward, Miami is in Dade, and they are both in this place the media calls "South Florida", but, by the way so is Key West. We talk to hundreds of people every month l, who are ready to buy in Fort Lauderdale but are simply waiting for the signal we have reached bottom. The only sure signal I know of the the bottom is the beginning of the move back up and then it's too late for the the buyers who think they…

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Ok I'm bad, I have not posted in months, shame on me what kind of blogger am I ? Simply one with a new committment, to write shorter, briefer, more often posts. Posts that quickly serve to inform Anderson Cooper (sorry to pick on you but you are one of my favorites), the rest of the media, and of course my readers the reality of the real estate market in Fort Lauderdale. Lets start with one fact for tonight, the ocean front is not flooded with Fort Lauderdale foreclosures. The Fort Lauderdale highrise condos that sit east of the intracoastal are not being boarded up, vacancys are not piling up and the fact is that buyers are lining up. Simply they are waiting for the sign that we have reached bottom. That sign for many will be the shrinking of inventory…

1,543 Views, 0 Comments