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Special Approval Designation List for Miami-Dade Condo Developments

January 8, 2010 by Lucas Lechuga
Below, you will find a list of condo developments in Miami-Dade County that have already received the special approval designation by Fannie Mae.  The following are some of the larger and more widely recognized buildings.  Lenders will now be able to originate and deliver mortgage loans to Fannie Mae in these condo developments.

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Joe

There are some condos on this list that seem far from “stable,” as Fannie Mae terms them. Aren’t there 50 or more distressed sales at Blue right now?

Chris

From the previous article about Fannie Mae relaxing current guidelines, am I correct to assume this list is going to be expanded? Or is this the final list (for now)?

Wild Bill

If it helps the developers get units sold, I’m all for it. Lobbyists did an excellent job. Everybody involved should get a bonus. Including me. Last thing I want to see is a builder listed on the stock exchange have problems selling inventory. Makes for a really depressing depression.

Chris,

The list will be expanded. These initial 51 condo developments were released along with the announcement made yesterday. I’ll keep an eye on the list and provide updates as new buildings are added.

scrivener

Oh goodie. Another government bail out at taxpayer expense.

scriv

Joe

Oh, come on now, scrivener — Fannie and Freddie only lost $500,000,000,000 of taxpayer money on the most recent housing bust. You don’t have confidence in their ability to do due diligence?

scrivener

Nice one Joe!

And no. I have no confidence in their ability to do due diligence with the requisite diligence that is due.

Happy Friday!

scriv

gables

Having The Club on this list really makes me wonder how few requirements are needed for admission. The Club?! Foreclosure and short sale central! Seems to me there are many more qualified buildings out there that should be saved.

Again, who is going to qualify if unemployment is at all time high ? a big messsss!!!!

Joe Blow

I DON’T want to sound like any JOE BLOW….but what does this really mean? Is there going to be a CONDO BOOM? are HOA’s going to go lower?Is this the be all end all?

Richard

The old location location rule must hold in a recession if an oldie at Seacoast 5151 facing the street with those wood pulls on cabinets sells for $610,000 and an even older classic at the Roney closes for $675,000 with a HOA of $1,100 mo.

Money Laundering Through Condo Sales

Anyone know if government is working on investigating the funny money going through condo sales. A friend of mine used to live in a high end building in Miami. Half thee people 75 percent of the people did not work. 100 percent were from another country and many were wanted back home on “varios charges”. Must feel good to live next to a seezy money launderer driving a flashy Ferrari….

Wild Bill

Cocaine Cowboys have been replaced by Real Estate Cowboys.

Gixxer 1000

If you look at all condos around the world that are in close proximity to a tourist area (ex. beach) the majority of the owners are either foreign and/or use the condo as a vacation home. I’m also curious about how you know when, why, or how these people were working and moving back an forth between their condo and various countries.

gables

If you don’t think a not insignificant number of units are owned and operated through illegal financial means, then you definitely have not lived in the Miami condo scene. Not the majority, mind you, but the number is not insignificant either. Enough to have an effect on miami condo prices since the units are used as comps for legal transactions.

lima

Any one knows if there is a class action going on againts Related by the few condo owners that closed in Icon Brickell ?

Joe

I know for a fact that a couple of the best condos in SoBe are owned by people who have been deported from the U.S. If someone actually wanted to spend the time going through the property records, I’m sure stories would abound.

And let’s face it: Whatever the money-laundering rate is in SoBe, it’s probably 10 times higher in Miami and Hialeah and surrounding areas. I’ve met no shortage of Cubans and Colombians and other Latin Americans who tell you they “arrived six months ago” and then walk out of the restaurant and into a shiny new Mercedes.

scrivener
scrivener

(YAWN!)

(rolls over and goes back to sleep)

scriv

jcrimes

my two cents…

1. real estate is generally a poor way to launder money. cash intensive businesses are the general rule of thumb if you want to launder.

2. mortgage fraud is not money laundering.

3. buying real estate with dirty funds is a horrible idea. buying real estate with laundered funds is not a bad idea (see south beach).

Wild Bill

Icon Brickell will be turned into a rental. They need to rent the building out before they can offer settlements to the few purchasers. The rents won’t cover the high costs to maintain the building. They need to find another sucker to buy the entire building and operate it as a rental. It will then be sold again before the next sucker gets stuck with the ten year maintenance and repair bills. The cycle will go on and on.

Joe

jcrimes — You might be right if you were talking about some town in Middle America where everyone knows everything, or even in a larger, more “American” city than Miami, but I can assure you huge amounts of dirty money are tied up in Miami r.e, from the highest-end SoBe condos to little one-bedroom houses in Hialeah. Look at all of the money brought to So. Fla. by corrupt pols from Latin America, Russia, and the like. Look at the hundreds of millions of dollars earned by drug dealers and human traffickers in Miami over the past 20-30 years. There… Read more »

Samson

Remember Somerset Maugham’s great line? “Sunny places attract shady people”.

scrivener

Samson – – BRILLIANT!!!!!! But jcrimes, my friend, I have to take issue with you on all three points. 1. Real estate is a not necessarily a bad way to launder money – – conceptually speaking of course — particularly if the real estate is acquired through a properly structured business entity like a partnership or an s-corporation. Cash in, capital accounts, cash out, capital accounts. Very nice. (Academically speaking of course!) Granted the launderer has to watch the basis of the assets acquired – – and not investing in ANYTHING in South Florida would be advisable. While a cash… Read more »

Renter Tom

scrivener – With respect to point number 3….why would the seller care? The seller doesn’t care where the money comes from (if in cash there may be reporting requirements) and have never heard of a “fraud in inducement” claim if the transaction goes through. Interesting idea but don’t know if it really is applicable. My two cents. Now if another buyer comes along and finds out that the bulk seller is conspiring to have false high comps knowingly (or should have known) using dirty money then that is another story…

Gixxer 1000

It’s amazing how people try to comment with authority about things they know nothing about. jcrimes is correct. To launder money you would need a cash intensive business and real estate would be a horrible option. The purpose of laundering money is to try and conceal the source of the dirty money so that it can be freely spent anytime as clean money. Buying a condo does NOT do this. Most people with dirty money set up straw buyers to purchase real estate for the purpose to use the property, NOT launder money. Ex. I have $1,000,000 in dirty money… Read more »

scrivener

Renter Tom: Great point. Honestly I am not sure of a precise fact pattern – – criminal law is not my wheel house. But then again…..I’ll see your two cents and raise you a nickle. (But no more!) What IF, for example, the property were seized by law enforcement, who also sought to disgorge the the sale proceeds from the seller? – – it could happen under the right circumstances. I imagine that the seller in such a case, facing “total loss” v. “less than total loss”, would seek to argue that title never transferred/vested to the criminal buyer because… Read more »

Drew

For those that still find Park West to be a lovely neighborhood:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/01/12/2010-01-12_tape_shows_playboy_model_leaving_miami_club_hours_before_shes_found_dead.html

Maybe some Marquis or Marina Blue residents were able to catch a glimpse of the perpetrator from their balconies at7am when the gal left Club Space. That nightclub, the bouncers, the crackheads outside and that entire neighborhood is fu*king disgusting. A tourist goes to a club to have a good time and ends up dead in a dumpster. Welcome to Miami.

scrivener

Drew:

I agree.

Even with a haz-mat suit, Kevlar vest and full riot gear. I wouldn’t go near that neighborhood. Too sketchy.

scriv

DJ

Leaving Club Space at 7 am…

Cocaine is a helluva drug.

Condoswindler

Are you implying that there were drugs involved with this incident…

Keep your powder dry on any $500K+ property. We’re #1 by a lonnnnnng margin

http://www.pr-inside.com/fitch-u-s-prime-jumbo-rmbs-delinquencies-r1663859.htm

Renter Tom

jl – The Prime Jumbo defaults are indicative of both the unemployment levels and strategic defaults. Florida with 16% of Prime Jumbos in default is HUGE. If you have no equity in the game and are under water to boot, they are walking away. These were investments that went bad…… The high end has not recovered.

Joe

Gixxer 1000 — I agree with you in spirit, as evidenced by my comments above, but you seem to forget this is Miami we’re talking about. By So. Fla. law enforcement’s own admission, less than 5% of Medicare fraud and less than 5% of mortgage fraud in Miami has been prosecuted. I’m not convinced that people are afraid of getting caught committing any sort of financial crime in Miami.

Reality of Fraud

Mortgage bankers in Miami don’t care where the money comes from that is the reality. 99 percent say it is not their job to enforce money laundering from abroad, particuarly when they are making a buck. Your looking at very high numbers of Russians, latins laundering money through large one off transactions. There has always been an unwritten rule among latins, don’t ask, don’t tell. If they go back to the go go years of real estate my guess is upwards of 50 percent of the deals in higher end buildings and bulk middle market deals are laundered proceeds on… Read more »

Joe

Post #36 is exactly right. I think some people in this thread have been wrongly assuming we’ve been talking only about money of U.S. origin here, which is wrong. If some guy steals $1 million from the Bolivian water authority, or from Pemex in Mexico, or from some agency in Venezuela, and plops it down on a condo in Miami, who’s asking questions? I’ll tell you who: No one. Not the r.e. agents, not the seller, not the condo board, not the Miami Dade l.e. … no one. In theory, there might be reporting requirements, but can anyone here name… Read more »

Gixxer 1000

Joe – You guys have convoluted a lot of different issues. First off mortgage fraud and money laundering are two different issues. “I think some people in this thread have been wrongly assuming we’ve been talking only about money of U.S. origin here, which is wrong.” No, the information in post #27 was assuming the money originated in overseas accounts. Do you guys not realize their is a difference between using real estate to “launder” money and buying real estate with already “laundered” money???? Why would anyone in the US care if some Russians or Latins stole money, then laundered… Read more »

Joe

Gixxer 1000 — Do you really believe the average corrupt Latin government official, or human trafficker in Miami, is using your “Money Laundering By Numbers” approach? No way. I’ve heard of people showing up for closings with suitcases full of cash. Do you consider that money to have been “laundered already”?

My point is that next to no one fears getting in trouble for financial improprieties in Miami, so it’s easy to launder or stash money in ways that wouldn’t be available, or make sense, in a more “American” city like Boston or Dallas or wherever.

Gixxer 1000

Joe – I’ll throw out the actual factual information and just take your anecdotal evidence as fact. Even still it has no real bearing on prices. Drug dealers purchasing condos is not going to have any significant effect on prices. Mortgage fraud does because it involves price manipulation. And this isn’t done by Russians or Latins but good ‘ole greedy Americans. If I sell a couple of kilos and then drop the proceeds on a condo all I’ve done is purchased and additional condo at market value. If I get arrested and go to jail the condo will go back… Read more »

Renter Tom

Gixxer 1000 – Drug dealers buying condos and others stashing money (dirty or clean) affects condo prices at the margin, maybe by not a lot, but it does add to demand that would not have probably existed before. But to not split hairs, it probably doesn’t affect price by much. HOWEVER, I have to strongly disagree with your statement “Mortgage fraud does because it involves price manipulation. And this isn’t done by Russians or Latins but good ‘ole greedy Americans.” …. au contraire…..foreigners have a ton more incentive to engage in mortgage fraud…they jump in the U.S., take the hundreds… Read more »

Renter Tom

Welcome to Miami….(sad really):

“STS drivers accused of faking trips
More than a dozen Special Transportation Service workers were arrested on charges of billing taxpayers for phantom trips for the elderly and disabled.”

Gixxer 1000

Renter Tom – I’m not going to disagree with all your points. But again they are besides the point. This discussion was about money laundering and its effects on condo sales. See post #13, 16 and 17. It was basically inferred that foreigners were laundering money and in the process disrupting condo prices. My point about Americans committing mortgage fraud was not to say that no foreigners are doing it but instead to point out that Americans were as well so that their is no point in singling them out. They should have dropped the xenophobia and just said that… Read more »

Joe

Gixxer 1000 — Except for exactly one sentence in gables’ post #16 above, this thread has *not* been a discussion about the adverse effects of money laundering on Miami condo prices. We’ve simply been discussing the huge amounts of dirty money present in the So. Fla. r.e market/scene. As for whether money is being “laundered” or “stashed,” that’s most semantics in Miami. As we’ve discussed already, no one fears getting nabbed for a financial crime in Miami, so the usual methods and logic don’t apply like they might if this was NYC or Boston or Dallas we were talking about.… Read more »

gables

“Mortgage fraud does because it involves price manipulation. And this isn’t done by Russians or Latins but good ‘ole greedy Americans.” Recent article was in the news about a large condo complex, near tampa i believe, which sold out during the RE collapse. turned out to be a bunch of mortgage fraud perpetrated through a systematic use of RE agents and brokers in conjunction with some real and fictitious straw buyers. Centered around people from either Brazil or Colombia-forget the details. Mortgage fraud may be best perpetrated by those who have no real incentive to stay in this country-no real… Read more »

Gixxer 1000

gables

Please see my post #43. I’m not denying that foreigners are not involved in mortgage fraud. We probably could both post articles about foreigners and Americans commiting mortgage fraud. This however has nothing to do with money laundering or simply purchasing (at retail) a condo with illegal money.

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