The #1 Miami Real Estate Website

Emerald at Brickell 2 Bedroom Tower Suite Short-Sale – $499,000

March 14, 2008 by Lucas Lechuga

Emerald at Brickell tower suite foreclosure


This 2 bedroom/2 bath tower suite short-sale at Emerald at Brickell slipped through my radar since the middle of February because the listing agent failed to include the correct zip code with the listing. This short-sale condo is listed at $499,000, or about $395 per square foot. It has direct views of Biscayne Bay and Key Biscayne.

The next best priced tower suite condo at Emerald at Brickell is listed at $699,00. It is slightly bigger but is still listed at over $140 per square foot more. If the correct zip code (and correct spelling of the development) had been included, I suspect that this condo would have been under contract by now. It fell off my radar and I'm guessing that it fell off the radar of many other Realtors and buyers.

Emerald at Brickell rooftop pool

143
Leave a Reply

143 Comment threads
0 Thread replies
0 Followers
 
Most reacted comment
Hottest comment thread
44 Comment authors
newest oldest most voted
ctvlateta

No way. I would hold for under $200/sf. Their maintenance cost its too high. Besides the worst its still yet to come.

jcrimes

lucas
how do you figure that this is a good price?

LUCAS: Let’s make a competition… First Person to drop a comment on your next post gets a FREE lunch with you….

Wild Bill

Property: 218 SE 14 ST TS105
Sale Information:
Sale Date: 1/2007
Sale Amount: $950,000

Assessment Information:Year: 2007
Market Value: $455,800
Assessed Value: $455,800
Total Exemptions: $0
Taxable Value: $455,800
2007 Taxes $ 10326.19

Can anybody look up orginal sale price on MLS?
One 2/2 in 2006 went for 495,000, 1bed went for high 300,000. Cannot understand humongous difference in prices from one year. 2008 Unit 1208 a 1/1 826 sq. ft. sold for $700,000. Yet 2306 1/1 is listed at $299,000.

Lawsuit Charley

Way over priced………………..especially compared to other short sales in this particular building.

Lawsuit Charley,

What other short-sales are you referencing? This is the best priced 2 bedroom in the building and it’s a tower suite with a direct view of the bay. The even numbered units in the building don’t have a direct view of the bay. The one bedroom units that are listed have a horrible view.

Mr. Flamingo,

Deal! But if the next person to leave a comment resides in another state or country then you have to pay for their airfare. Deal?

Wild Bill,

The MLS doesn’t show the original sales price when it is sold through the developer. You’ll find that on the county website. It’ll take at least 2 hours to find that info though.

perez

Original purchaser paid $536,600 on Sept. 2006. He found a cash buyer and sold it Feb. 2007 for $950,000. That’s ~185% return per annum on a 2007 sale. Now the unit is for sale for 47% less a year later.

Now that’s what I call timing! Let’s hear from that guy!

Buyer Tom

Could fraud have been involved here?

BFG

perez – If it was a “cash buyer”, then it wouldn’t be a short sale.

There are 2 mortgages on this:

OR 25374-1371 – $760,000
OR 25374-1398 – $190,000

TOTAL: $950,000

Yes – it looks like fraud to me. 2007 was already a crappy year for real estate sales. There is no way something would legitimately sell for more in 2007 than in 2006.

Buyer Tom

No wonder car sales are down. With all this fraud, a bet a LOT of money went to buy big expensive vehicles. Now that’s stopped.

Mr Waverly

Fraud written all over this puppy.. Cash? give me a break.. Do the math people, this is a clear example of fraud. Fraud on the way up and I am now wondering about fraud on the way down. Waverly #704 had been listed for sale just above $500K.. All of a sudden the property was quit claimed to Resurrection Equities. Now the Management is telling me the unit was sold as a short sale just below $350K. The unit was never offered on the open market at that price and the Lender would never allow this crap. The unit is… Read more »

Richard

Remember the old days when you had to have a down payment and show where it came from. Guess “Underwriting” has been on vacation for a few years.

BFG

The owner of this unit looks like they were involved in a bunch of properties. They would buy a unit, finance it 100%, and then later quit-claim it (using a self-made quitclaim deed) to someone else. What’s the idea behind the quitclaim deed? I’ve seen this in other mortgage fraud cases, but I didn’t understand it. What does that do for the owner of the property? I know it likely isn’t legal to deed property to someone else without paying off the mortgages (unless you’re adding or subtracting a name, like a marriage or divorce). Anyone have any insight on… Read more »

perez

BFG, thanks for correcting my mistake, it was not a cash deal. The owners last name was spelled differently on the mortgages than on the deed, and I didn’t find the mortgages.

This doesn’t appear to be a case of an unsophisticated buyer overpaying. This owner has about 5 other properties, and has been buying and selling for many years in the area.

This may be a good case study. Could someone check the MLS and see what the asking price was prior to the Feb. 2007 sale for $950,000?

Buyer Tom

I would speculate that someone using a quit claim deed does so in order to transfer the property without paying off the mortgage. Either both the seller and buyer are involved in fraud or just the seller with a really dumb buyer. I think this type of thing was mentioned recently in the Chicago Tribune. Needless to say, it can make the foreclosure process a bit more complicated with competing ownership interests, combine that with what company really holds the mortgage note and it could be a long drawn out affair. I am for putting these types of fraudsters in… Read more »

Buyer Tom

I recently looks at leasing a brand new $1.8M condo on the beach (listing price). I looked up the owner (who apparently live in South America). He was not the original owner of this brand new condo. X bought the condo and has a $1M mortgage. X quit-claimed his interest to Y but the mortgage remains (and the mortgagee (lender) may be unaware of the transaction) and Y would like to lease to me. I don’t think I am going to lease. I can lease it for $4K/month yet I am told it costs Y $14K per month. There could… Read more »

perez

Here’s what’s happened with the lender.

http://ml-implode.com/imploded/lender_HomefieldFinancial_2007-04-12.html

But I haven’t found the actual forclosure action, is it not in foreclosure?

Generalmagic

Buyer Tom,

Check public records to see if they are paying their mortgage and are current with their HOA dues. If not, the unit could go to foreclosure, and people will be knocking on your door.

Sideliner

BUYER TOM…..I can smell drug money in that condo from here.

Buyer Tom

Hey – Where can I look that information up on? Link? Thanks.

I was looking at this one (unfurnished) where I’d have to buy furniture for the 2,500 s.f.+ unit but can lease at 1/3 the cash cost. Or a professionally decorated and furnished brand new 1,600 s.f.+ unit turnkey at 1/2 the cash cost. I’m supposed to sign a lease on the smaller one soon….but would really like the larger one, but I guess I don’t really need that much space and the later is turnkey with brand new dishes, linens, etc.

Buyer Tom

Sideliner – I didn’t get that impression from the realtor. There is a $1M mortgage note still and they had moved in their own furniture with wedding photos (the large unit) and were a bit distressed about not being able to get more than say $4K a month for it. But who knows?

Buyer Tom

My concern really is default. But who knows I could be naive.

Mike K

Off Topic: Allow me to share an email I just recieved from Mercedes Benz of Coral Gables… Dear Valued Customer, Due to a recent opportunity to purchase a select number of lease returns, Mercedes-Benz of Coral Gables is currently offering unprecedented specials on these Certified Preowned Mercedes-Benz automobiles (most of which have low mileage and are in perfect condition). Additionally, in conjunction with Mercedes-Benz Financial, we are able to offer qualifying clients an interest rate as low as 1.9% on selected models (an all time low rate) as well as a Certified Preowned Warranty up to 100,000 miles. This is… Read more »

Mr. Waverly

Range Rover sent me an offer like this.

carbonblackcab

Mike K: Premium car sales are hurting and they are offering super deals right now. The 100K warrentny they are offering … well on my M3 convertible, it cost me $6K (warrenty + maintenance) to get that. The fact that they are offering super deals WITH warrenty and 1.9% financing is awesome. Too bad I am not in the market for a new car. On a related note, I have friends in SOCAL who are waiting for hot deals on high end Mercs, bimmers and porsche. There are a lot of people who bought these cars using home equity and… Read more »

A thought for all you of (fellow) conspiracy theorists. If I were a broker who wanted some time to have a no co-broker sale (and have no MLS commission share to pay) I’d misspell the condo name and scew up the zip code, too. This is all supposition, of course, and I’m making no allegations. But such a broker could tell the seller, truthfully, that the condo was listed on MLS for a month, and there was little or no interest. His/her Uncle Louie could then make a truly lowball offer. Again, I know nothing more than what I just… Read more »

The Ace

With 25,000 Miami Condos coming on line over the next two years, I don’t know about you lot but the smart money is holding out for $125.00 per foot.

Buyer Tom

According to a cnn.money.com article, “Wholesale Access has estimated that all these changes (in the mortgage market) mean 30% to 40% of borrowers who could have qualified for a CONVENTIONAL mortgage a year ago can no longer do so.” (emphasis added)

I don’t know about you, but that makes it very clear that many more people will go into foreclosure…..many many many more…. since people won’t be able to sell or refinance.

Mortgage Fraud

For all you guys with some free time, you can run circles around the Mortage Fraud Task Force. perez is already doing some good work… The following site will give you the current unit owner if you have an address you suspect: Once you know the current owner you can look up how it was financed, previous owners, etc. here [I don’t know why it is currently down]: Then you just play connect the dots. It’s amazing how quickly the patterns reveal themselves. In general, the most expensive flips in any given building are going to involve the same names.… Read more »

Mortgage Fraud

…but you can’t put anyone in jail. D’oh!

BTW… all of you eggheads on here should be reading this blog:

http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/

Cyrus

again, unless you are a family that wants to LIVE in these properties or can afford to keep it as a 2nd home w/o having to rent them out – the best time to start buying any of these units is when you see 3 consecutive months of declining inventory due to sales, not properties being taken off the market. this is a very simple concept … but gets muddled up when you mix in human emotions and sales tactics on the masses. there is such a lockdown right now in the credit markets that the only way you can… Read more »

Cyrus

….one more thing to think about: if the markets are placing a tremendous risk premium on AAA rated municipal bonds, what shot does illiquid real estate have (again, from an ‘investors’ pt of view).

if a muni market can get locked up, you’d be nuts to buy any real estate…once liquidity returns to the liquid mkts…then maybe it’ll trickle into illiquid mkts…

perez

What was the asking price in early ’07 of this unit which was purchased from developer for $536,600 in ’06, then resold in ’07 for $950,000?

Since lender who loaned 100% has gone out of business, who has authority to approve a short sale?

If this is a fraud, why hasn’t a foreclosure action been initiated, I find it hard to believe that the buyer has been dutifully paying this big mortgage payment on this way overpriced unit.

jcrimes

lucas
i don’t think you can establish that this is a “deal” in any sense of the word. if anything, this past friday’s events are just more steps toward a major shakeout which will not trickle down to the south florida real estate market, but instead, will drown it.

BREAKING NEWS:

Bears Stearns gets acquired by JPMorgan Chase for $2 per share. Bear Stearns closed at $30 per share on Friday and was trading in the fifties Friday morning. This is a huge story.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/16/news/companies/jpmorgan_bear_stearns/index.htm?postversion=2008031619

Buyer Tom

Yep – Saw that, not a surprise except for the share price. It could have been worse, BS could have been a condo flipper that bought in 2006!

Buyer Tom

The bigger news is the Feds emergency rate cut. My concern has been that the Fed is a tad behind the curve. I would prefer that they be just ahead of it instead…

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fed-cuts-discount-rate/story.aspx?guid=%7B3D168510%2D4A22%2D4F0B%2D9E52%2DECE3672E3E9F%7D

Buyer Tom,

The share price was a HUGE surprise to me. It traded as high as $159 per share last year. To me, this means that Bear Stearns went bust. Their name and their client-base is worth at least $2 per share, in my mind.

Another story below. Unsurprisingly after the latest cut in the discount rate and the fire sale of BSC, the US Dollar tumbles:

http://dailybriefing.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/03/16/bear-sale-fed-moves-send-dollar-tumbling/

Buyer Tom

$2 is pretty surprising, but when you can’t meet your obligations….$2 is better than nothing. I’m glad I didn’t own any of it directly…. A lot of smart people can’t fix a bad balance sheet when there’s a run on the brokerage. This will cause real fear. We’re in for pretty nasty little recession that will clear out a lot of leveraged people and firms. No wonder gold has been going up and up….the real estate safe haven is gone and so is the strong dollar. I blame it all on the Realtors® (just kidding 🙂 ).

Buyer Tom

Well, our exports will go be going up………but do we make anything anymore? LOL

jcrimes

this isn’t really big news…bear was going down, it was just a matter of when. the price isn’t so much of a surprise when you consider bear is sitting on $30 billion of level 3 assets.

Buyer Tom

With more rate cuts to come and more Florida condo price reductions coming too, it will be a great time to buy in 2010! (yes, I know the Fed rates aren’t directly tied to long term mortgage rates….but the rate cuts are indicative of the global recession to come which will reduce commodity prices, etc. and with inflation down the rates will be lower for long term borrowing). Don’t try an catch that falling knife…….

jcrimes

BT
2010? try 2015. as for the fed doing more, i’m not sure what else they can do. lowering the discount rate and fed funds rate doesn’t do much when it’s no longer a liquidity issue but instead, a collateral issue. if people don’t have faith in the underlying collateral, then they won’t extend credit. i don’t really know how the fed can stabilize asset values when the market is insisting that they trend back to their fundamental values.

Mortgage Fraud

Crazy. 52 week high in excess of $150/share is one thing. But BSC had market cap of $6 BILLION on THURSDAY. This just turned into $236 million. Poof!

Buyer Tom

I’m glad I decided to rent…….

jcrimes – I agree, it could be 2015 by the time the real estate prices hit bottom…but I sure hope it doesn’t drag out that long….

A radio show this afternoon was talking about the price of gas. They were talking about why the price of gas has been going up. There hasn’t been a decrease in supply or an increase in demand so what’s going on? The answer is that the value of the US Dollar has been going down. It now costs US oil refineries more US Dollars to purchase the same amount of oil. Their increased cost gets passed onto consumers, hence the increase in prices at the pump. Everything will eventually balance out in the long run, however. There will be more… Read more »

jcrimes

it’s actually frustrating. i want to buy but (1) i want a good deal and (2) i don’t want to get burned. problem is that the timing of these criteria look to be several years off. amazingly, i own an investment property but still can’t buy a primary residence.

For Real Estate
Related Needs And Inquiries

please complete the form below

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.