Top 5 Distressed Condo Sales Closed in July 2009

I hope we keep these posting’s …all about REALESTATE …..NOT politics sex and other nonsense such as recipe’s…if you want recipe’s …watch the BAREFOOT CONTESSA!!!

It looks like some ASSHOL* is posting under MANY different ALIAS’S on here again.I am sure you are aware of these IDIOT’S LUCAS.Don’t worry about a low life time waster that couldn’t afford a cardboard box.WE ARE ALL WITH YOU LUCAS…..KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. There are people that appreciate your hard work and effort on here. Thank you

Do be honest, I’m not impressed as not one of these deals is below $125.00 per sq ft which is the bench mark to avoid a falling knife.

Lucas,

Empirically, have you noticed if it’s getting easier to push through short sales? About 6 months ago, I thought the prevailing wisdom was they are a total waste of time but it seems like more and more short sales are going through now. Also, is there any way to tell if these successful short sales have been mostly bank pre-approved short sales?

some of those deals are not bad. unless the HOA goes into a freefall, several units are probably justified at the prices around $150 sf. Not expecting many deals nearing $100 sf, unless we have an additional collapse in the economy.

JL,

Overall, my answer is yes but it still depends on the bank that you’re dealing with. I’ve found that Bank of America still takes forever to respond but most of the others haven’t taken so long anymore. JPMorgan Chase recently responded within 3 weeks which was pretty surprising.

I do think for foreclosures, this is still a high $/sqft. These are reasonable prices in general for a condo compared to a couple years ago. I would expect that a foreclosure (most require some amount of work) to be <$150/sqft. I have been saying for over a year that average $/sqft (house/condo) in Miami for resale should be ~175/sqft and foreclosures 15-25% less than that.

This is definitely good data, thanks Lucas

Elvis should stick to bag check out at Publix for where does he come up with the bench mark of $150 when we are already way below that. Peter Shift set the bench mark at $125 per sq ft three years ago and we are now at or below that. Invest in a property at $150 and you will be already below water at closing. I hope you snow birds (boring Canadians) and sun birds (South American peasants) brought your snorkels and lots of extra air tanks because you are going to need them. We savvy Americans Psycho’s know when… Read more »

How come only Brickell is on sale? That too 2nd tier buildings in Brickell. In all the deals posts that Lucas posted, I have not seen a single flat with direct water view in Brickell, Park West or Pace Park on these deals.

Wild Bill,
Thanks for clarification. Now it all makes sense. They are still paying the taxes on land value which is approx half million per year. So I guess they will start paying taxes on individual flats once the TCO is issued.

Shwin, Thanks for the update on 900. Are you planning to sign up for the rent to buy scheme? If you do, will they credit your rent for the past few months towards the downpayment? I 100% agree with you on tort reform. Some times I just want to run away from this country, not because I am afraid that I will cause an accident or do some such thing but living has become almost impossible as you have to fucking insure every action of yours in this country and it is becoming cost prohibitive. No other country in the… Read more »

Kramer,
That is too much ($600) bill per month. Do they keep their entire house at 65 degrees and their pool at 87 degrees 24/7? I don’t understand how the FPL bill can be so high?

is it my name that gets my post removed?

anyway, my point was, miami needs better security to attaract investors, it has sun and beach and guns. one component is the problem….. NY is safe as can be in manhattan, Miami does that for main areas and it would be much better. just 2 streets of South beach it starts getting dangerous…. no police… gang bangers….

ps, dont know about internal state of USA, but Obama stopped USA being the enemy of the entire world and is trying to undo a mess W spent 8 years making after Clinton gave him a booming economy….

Sounds like the Mondrian might be in trouble…loan came due August 1 and they are having to rework the debt instead of repaying it off.

AJ
my legal career was never in the realm of ambulance chasing. was a corporate m&a type.

however, the ill that tort reform is supposed to cure is way overblown. as i said before, blame the state court system for failing to keep up with the times.

The Mondrian should be in trouble.

Hotel: Not many people come to Miami and want to stay on West Avenue and rely on cabs for the beach/restaurants/clubs. Its too far from the action at that price point.

Residences: Sure, sell me a 500sf studio in a building constructed in the late 70’s that was formerly known as Mirador Apts and Forte Towers prior to that. In the famous words of the Stupidest Woman on Earth (Sarah Palin), the Mondrian is “lipstick on a pig”.

Drew
Mondarian was banking on the idea that folks with boats would stay there b/c of the marina. Frankly, I find the business model laughable.

Regardless, once the hipness factor fades (the Friday happy hour is still ridiculously awesome and the Sunday pool party is supposed to be the new “it” place), the place will become second rate. However, I don’t think the property will fold. The current owner of the property is ridiculously wealthy (unlike some other developers) and will carry it for some time until he gets a palatable exit strategy.

JCrimes,

Any news on NoBe?

ahh, yes..”the marina model”: kind of like the now apparently defunct Watson Island developers who planned the mega yacht deepwater marina whereby Miami would rival Monaco for yachting enthusiasts. Instead on Watson Island we just have the Miami Children’s Museum, whatever the hell is in there.

lara i haven’t heard anything. the lack of sales in peer buildings (bath club and mosaic) has to make the bank’s stomach reel. this particular market segment – intro luxury is getting crushed (once you factor in SIB, hollywood and hallandale). it also has to be equally painful the bank to know that there is still significant construction expenditures that must take place inside the structure before you get the CO. the end strategy is to partner up with a developer. only problem is that there are really no developers down here who are ready to take this project on… Read more »

For the record, I made a little joke about Sarah Palin in post #20 that was mysteriously edited out of the comment. Lucas, you’re setting a dangerous precedence by selectively editing parts of postings. If that’s your game, then you’re better off redacting the entire post rather than cutting/pasting so that the posted comment may not be what the original writer intended to communicate. I don’t know what is more ridiculous: you arbitrarily editing comments with no notation in the comment that you’ve done so, or the fact that you found a joke against Sarah Palin so offensive to warrant… Read more »

Drew,

That’s a flatout lie. I don’t even remember reading a comment about Sarah Palin. I’ve only deleted comments with profanity directed towards others on this blog. For the record, I’m not a fan of Palin but keep making up lies Drew. It would have been so much easier for me to delete your comment than to have to pull off the side of the road and waste 5 minutes of my day. For that I thank you Drew.

Well then who did it????? One of your site adminstrators???? Why would I lie about something like that? Either you’re lying to me or someone with access to your site is editing comments without your knowledge.

AJ
i wouldn’t be so harsh on tort lawyers. they fill a role, just like white collar lawyers do at white shoe firms. and frankly, tort lawyers, when they hit big, hit bigger than any other lawyer including the masters of the universe at wachtell, simpson or sullivan.

JCrimes,

Thank you for your response. I guess we’ll watch what’s going to happen.

Lucas, apologies.
A flurry of comments and multi-tasking at work led to my mistake. If you want feel free to remove my post #22 to avoid confusion. Sorry bout that

Drew,

Apology accepted.

Drew, Your Sarah Palins comment #17 is still on board. I just read it. Unless you wrote another Sarah Palin comment in another post. jcrimes, I knew all along that you are not a tort lawyer. But I am glad you confirmed it too. My friend who is from Harvard and Georgetown and a corporate lawyer himself always used to say “only the dregs become tort lawyers after they cannot be good at any other kind of law. These scum are the ones that come to general public’s mind when they think of lawyers and it gives a bad name… Read more »

This is a welcome news. They reduced the investment threshold from $1 mil to 500K which most rich people have in other countries. Basically America is selling green cards for half a million dollars. But if Miami is benefiting from that , I am all for it.

Lucas, I have a real estate 101 question: If a unit is advertised for sale as a short sale, is the asking price negotiable or one fixed by the bank?

jcrimes, more often than not, tort lawyers take any case that comes to them even if they know that the case has no merit or when the litigant is blatantly scamming and lying. I object to such unconscionable behavior especially as I am at the receiving end of such scam. All that these lawyers are thinking about is their 33% cut of the proceedings. They just don’t care if they are harassing innocent people. I think they will not win this case against our establishment. But the amount of harassment and headaches this case is causing is not to be… Read more »

Anyone know anything positive or negative about Oceanview/Ocean reserve in SIB?
Looks like they just raised HOA fees.

Aj, you’re right, all lawyers are scumbags. Now DJ’s on the other hand…

Hi lara re #34 I believe this is a 40 year old rental that catered to retirees originally and was then gussied up like the proverbial Sarah P related animal-lol and remarketed as condos. The maintenance could be high if the building INCLUDES ac electric and hot water in the HOA fee so you would need to receive a high rental to cover it. I have lived in buildings engineered that way and dampness /humidity was an ongoing problem in the unit. While prices might have fallen sharply you would have to find a great bargain to hope to make… Read more »

sorry AJ, but it generally doesn’t work that way. as a tort lawyer, you have to be very careful with the cases you take. the opposing side will fight, draw you out and force you to take a massive financial risk. thus, most tort lawyers will be pretty careful in what cases they decide to take. typical life span of a case from the date of filing suit to the end of appeal can be years…and in that time you’re not getting paid shit. yeah sure, you have the car accident guys that do the PIP bullshit, but that’s a… Read more »

a comment re: these sales

it seems that mid-tier stuff in brickell is moving toward the $150 sq/ft range. presumably that puts first tier stuff (excluding the bristol towers and santa marias of the world) below $275 sq/ft. if you think about it, prices have nearly dropped in half from peak brickell prices (sales closed and not asking).

Jamie,

Yes, the asking price of a short sale is negotiable. However, in most cases, the bank is completely unaware of the asking price when it is set. If the price looks too good to be true then it is highly unlikely that the bank will accept even a full price offer.

jcrimes, yes, it is tragic that the tortillas rake in big bucks. But so are so many dishonorable professions. As far as your statement “typical life span of a case from the date of filing suit to the end of appeal can be years…and in that time you’re not getting paid shit” maybe true. But in most cases like the one my establishment is fighting, The plaintiffs lawyers are throwing a case and hoping it would stick. What they are hoping is that we would avoid headaches and decide to settle. But we are not settling. This is when they… Read more »

AJ – Don’t you have liability insurance to take care of this customer injury case? If the insurance company wishes to settle and make the payment, let them — in fact depending on the insurance contract language you may be obligated to allow the insurance company to settle, for them it is a simply business decision about $$$. If you are a stubborn bastard then you will soon part with a lot of money in legal fees if you’re paying this yourself. If you don’t have business liability insurance (and of course millions of personal liability coverage too), then you… Read more »

Exactly RT, I don’t know what the hell AJ’s talking about. If he has insurance, they pay for the defense costs and settlement/judgment. I’d imagine if he has a general liablity policy he probably has $1 million limits. If he doesn’t have insurance, well then that’s his bad and it will teach him an expensive lesson about being properly insured.

If I ran a business with exposures such as serving alcohol, I’d have a lot more than $1M in my business liability policy or I’d have no capital in the business and be just a passive investor using a legit shell company as the partner or member. Otherwise, $5M-$10M would be more like it since one good alcohol car wreck and poof. But then again, I don’t think AJ requires his tenants to have a renters policy nor am I confident he has sufficient insurance for being a landlord either…..AND he brags about only having one mortgage on only one… Read more »

It seems that a lot more short sales are closing these days in Miami.That’s good news to see people avoiding foreclosure. I have some questions about this process and you all seem to know how things work down in Miami. -Is Florida a recourse state? If so, do banks usually pursue the deficiency of the seller when approving short sales? I’ve done a lot of searching and found that its less likely if its the seller’s primary residence and there is only 1 loan. Any truth to this? -Are short sales moving along any faster these days? -If you agree… Read more »

Dave, I might be able to give you a little info since I’m actually closing on a short sale one week from today. In my case, the bank is not pursuing a deficiency judgment against the seller. He lives in California, so this obviously isn’t a primary residence. He also has substantial assets from what I’ve been told, so I’m not sure why the bank is agreeing to it in the first place, but I’m not complaining. The seller had two loans on the property, both with Chase Bank. The second lender (even though through the same bank they were… Read more »

Yes. Thanks DJ that was a huge help.

Did the bank ask for a seller contribution, or how did that figure into things?

Yeah from what I understand, he owed too much on the second loan and the bank knew he had assets, so they asked for a contribution. They asked me to kick in some extra cash too and I was like fuck that.

haha good call. well good luck next week!

RT and DJ, You cannot operate with out liability insurance in the state of New York. Your thinking is exactly what the scumbag lawyers are hoping for. And in 90% of the cases they get what they want. They arm twist the owner into settling by coughing up money. You have no idea how the Restaurant/Tavern (the name for all bars and nightclub) insurance business happens in New York. Firstly there are just a handful of companies underwriting the bars/nightclubs. They are extremely nervous about these kind of situations. If I go to my insurance company, they will settle and… Read more »

AJ,

Find out where the lawyers live and hire some kids to drive by blaring Tiesto day and night.

PI lawyers are a hideous bunch. Definitely a pariah in the Legal Profession.

DJ: did the “second” bank ask for contribution as a condition to approve the short sale or because legally the owner has to pay back the loan (cross collateral with his other assets)?