Miami Condo Rankings Page Goes Live

For quite some time, I’ve been wanting to launch this new addition to my site. I think part of me was a bit timid about publishing the Miami Condo Rankings page because I knew that there would be a lot of criticism about my rankings.  It’s important for everyone to realize that this is only my subjective opinion.  I felt it necessary, however, to publish these rankings to provide nonlocal Miami buyers with a way to sift through the various condo developments here in Miami in order to narrow down their choices.  Besides, I’ve received a number of emails from people suggesting that I provide them with this sort of information.  The link to the Miami Condo Rankings page will remain towards the top of this page underneath the header.

When creating the Miami Condo Rankings, I tried to be as unbiased as possible.  The rankings are based on my experience of viewing the various condo buildings and condo units throughout Miami in order to arrive at the stated figures.  Everyone is going to have a different point of view, however.  My Miami Condo Rankings aren’t set in stone.  I will be revising them over time and adding new condo developments as I get the chance to view them.  For example, the risk adjustment category will be adjusted periodically once I feel that the risk for buying in a particular condo building has changed.

I’m a firm believer in democracy and rarely delete comments.  I appreciate everyone’s input on various topics and, although I may not agree with certain opinions, I do believe that visitors to my site should be able to read a variety of opinions.  Therefore, you will all have the ability to submit your personal rankings for any or all condo buildings.  This came as a suggestion from my website developer and I loved the idea.  I want everyone to view not only my feelings about the various condo developments in Miami, but also the opinions of the general public as well.  I just ask that everyone try to be as unbiased with their scores as I have been.  It doesn’t do anyone any good if you give your condo building all tens for each category, or if you give another condo development all zeroes just to make your own condo building look good.  You can also submit your thoughts about the various condo developments in the comments section towards the bottom of the Miami Condo Rankings page so everyone can learn about other aspects that aren’t transparent in the five included categories.  There are a plethora of other factors that, in reality, also play a role in someone’s decision to choose one condo development over others such as parking, floor plans, balcony space, etc.  I tried to keep it as simple as possible, however, and highlight the most important contributing factors.  The Miami Condo Rankings page is to act as more of a guide to nonlocal buyers.  Nothing is cut-and-dry when buying real estate.

Below, you find some determining factors that I took into account when deciding on the score for each category for the Miami Condo Rankings:

Location

• It’s important to note that the scores for the location category were determined based only on Miami.  I did not take Miami Beach into account.  Obviously, because of the proximity of the beach, restaurants, and nightlife, Miami Beach buildings would have received higher scores.  I may include Miami Beach condo buildings at a later date and adjust the scores for the location category of each condo development throughout Miami.  I know that a lot of people who frequent this site are very attached to their neighborhoods and may feel that their neighborhood deserves a higher score.  Please feel free to contribute your comments so others can view what you have to say.   Proximity to restaurants, grocery stores, shops, nightlife and the overall quality of the neighborhood played a determining factor when creating the location scores.

Views

• I based my scoring for this category on the average views offered in the condo building.  Most condo developments provide the best views to the 3 bedroom units (or 2 bedroom units if 3 bedrooms aren’t offered).  Obviously, if you’re in the market for a 3 bedroom and the condo development that you might have your eyes on only has a score of 6 then you’ll need to make the adjustment for yourself.  Again, the score for views is based on the average views of all of the condo units in the building.

Quality

• Of the 5 categories included in the Miami Condo Rankings, this was the most difficult to determine.  This category was the reason why it took so long for me to publish these condo rankings.  There were so many factors to take into account when calculating these figures.  First most, I took the quality of the building into account along with the amenities offered.  Second, I wanted to factor in the average quality of the units.  This was difficult because some of these Miami condo buildings have been around for over 20 years and some of the condo units have been completely upgraded.  As a result, age of the building played a role in determining the scores.  Some people love the stability, larger floor plans (in most cases) and historical significance of older condo buildings.  Meanwhile, I think most people, at least the buyers I have encountered, love the freshness of a brand new building.  If you’re the type of buyer who appreciates the positive aspects that an older building affords, then you’ll definitely want to adjust my score upwards for this category as well.

Waterfront

• This was the easiest of the 5 categories to determine scores for each condo development even though it wasn’t as simple as one might think.  If a condo development is located directly on the waterfront then I gave it a score of 10.  If it isn’t waterfront but resides across from a city park or other unobstructed piece of land with no other future use then I gave it a 7.5.  If it is a riverfront condo development then I gave it a 5 and if it was completely landlocked then it got a score of 2.5.  I did make an exception for Four Seasons Residences, however.  The condo units at Four Seasons Residences begin on the 40th floor.  Even though it is a landlocked building, I gave it a 7.5 because it offers gorgeous views and I don’t think any nearby buildings will impede on these views any time soon.

Risk Adjustment

• There’s definitely risk associated with buying a condo in Miami.  The risk varies from condo building to condo building, however.  I calculated my risk score for older buildings based on how many foreclosures and short-sales there currently are in the condo building.  The score was determined for newer buildings based mainly on how well the condo development is presently doing with their closings.  The risk adjustment score will periodically be adjusted to reflect any changes in risk.  I’m hoping that these scores will eventually be close to a score of 10 within 3-5 years.  We shall see.  It is important to note that risk isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  With risk comes reward (in some cases). Jade at Brickell Bay currently has a risk adjustment score of 4.  It’s a gorgeous building but there are a ton of foreclosures, hence the score.  With recent closed sales near $400 per square foot, I think prices have fallen in line with what the market is dictating.  Regardless, the building does have a lot of foreclosures so there is risk.

I also added a few other columns to the Miami Condo Rankings page.  You will find Year Built, Developer and Architect included on the page.  These columns weren’t used to create a final ranking but they are important to note.  I hope the Miami Condo Rankings page helps nonlocal and local Miami condo buyers in their search for a Miami condo.

New Condo Deals Page Goes Live

The new “Condo Deals” section is now live on our Miami Real Estate Social Wall.  I had been pretty bad about keeping the condo deals page updated.  This should no longer be a problem.  The backend improvements now allow me to publish new listings in much less time.  I plan to update the condo deals page at least 2-3 times per week.  Enjoy!

Miami Condo Investments Joins the EWM office in Brickell

I am pleased to officially announce that I have decided to join the EWM office in Brickell. The office is centrally located in the recently developed Mary Brickell Village which has great shops and restaurants and has become the focal point of Brickell. It was a logical choice for me since I conduct most of my business in Brickell.

EWM has been in existence since 1964 and has become one of the top real estate brokerages in South Florida. EWM is owned by HomeServices which is wholey owned by world-renowned Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and is also affiliated with Christie’s Great Estates.

EWM is a pro-blogging real estate brokerage. It even has their own widely read real estate blog which has great information pertaining to neighborhoods stretching from the southern tip of Florida to West Palm Beach.

You might be saying to yourself “Congrats Lucas, but how is this move going to benefit me as a reader?”. There’s just one word that comes to mind – statistics. I know that you love statistics, as do I. EWM has the best software that can break down the market like no other can. The software dates back 5 years while the MLS data only goes back 2 years. You can get a taste of the software here at the Facts & Trends link. This is just a taste, however. The full software, which I have access to, allows me to break the data down by city, zip code, development name, single family vs. condo, waterfront vs. non-waterfront, price, square foot and date. I was in heaven when I accessed this software. I’m a big statistical buff, as many of you already know, so having this type of data at my fingertips is sensational! I can now tell someone the average price per square foot that XYZ development was selling for back in 2002. How great is that?!

I’m also now able to provide IDX pages for individual developments. I plan to incorporate all Brickell, Brickell Key, Downtown Miami and the Arts District developments onto my blog. You’ll be able to click on a condo development name to view available units as well as recent sales. This should be implemented within the next month.

You may or may not have noticed that I neglected to publish a December index for Brickell, Brickell Key and South Beach. I have no intentions to do so. The holiday season is upon us. For the rest of December I plan to pretend that the real estate and stock markets are functioning superbly. What a joyous fictitious month it will be!

After the New Year, the Brickell and Brickell Key condo indices will return. The South Beach condo index, however, will not. I plan to focus this blog on condos in Brickell, Brickell Key, Downtown Miami and the Arts District. I know South Beach well but don’t plan to focus my efforts there.

Let’s just say that he’ll take everything east of Biscayne Bay and I’ll take everything west of it. A fare trade in my eyes.

There’s Never Been a Better Time to Throw a Party

Three years ago, it seemed like every week that there would be a party thrown to commemorate the launch of sales for a new pre-construction condominium project. The parties were grand – open bar, all-you-can-eat buffets, firework shows, flamingos walking around, synchronized swimmers, half-naked cocktail servers, the finest wines, talking parrots – you name it and it was there.

Nowadays, it seems like hardly any developers want to throw a party and I personally think that this is the best time to throw a party. Three years ago, parties were thrown because it was expected (even though people would have signed contracts regardless if there was a party or not). These people signed contracts based on developer reputation, architectural renderings, and merely because the market was hot! It’s no secret that the market has cooled considerably since that time.

Why not stand behind your development and launch a party to show the public that you’re delivering a great product? Get potential buyers inside the building and let them reminisce about the party and how great your building is to other potential buyers. In my eyes, it sends a strong message to the consumer that you feel that you are delivering a great development to the public and that you are confident that they will feel the same way.

Even the best condo developments will have at least a 15% default rate in this market. Once this becomes a reality, why not hold a weekly open house to showcase your building and available units to the general public? I’ll even personally do it for you if you don’t have anyone on staff to do it.

The Related Group of Florida is the only developer that I know of that is throwing grand-opening parties for their developments. As I said before, this shows me that they stand behind their product. In fact, their latest development, Apogee South Beach, is having a grand-opening party on December 19. Unfortunately, I won’t be in town to catch the party, but the fact that they are having one shows me that they are confident that they will be delivering a spectacular product.

The First of Many Big Bulk Purchases to Occur

I realize that I’m late to disclose the following information but I thought I’d write a post about it anyways.

There are many of you out there that read about this major transaction on Monday, as I did, in the Wall Street Journal or the many other online and print publications that were released that day. However, I’m sure there are some of you that are unaware of what transpired Monday morning.

Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), a major Miami-based homebuilder in the United States, revealed Monday morning that they sold a substantial portfolio of properties at a large discount. These properties were previously valued by Lennar at $1.3 billion dollars as of September 30, 2007.

The portfolio, consisting of “about 11,000 homesites in 32 communities nationally, consisting of raw land and both partially and fully developed homesites in California, Colorado, Florid, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada and New Jersey,” was sold to a joint venture which consisted of an 80 percent stake by major Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley for $525 Million, or about 40 cents on the dollar. Lennar Corp. will own the other 20 percent stake and receive fees for managing the properties.

I think we’ll see more and more of these bulk deals occur in 2008. A major hedge fund analyst that I spoke with on Monday told me that Lennar has traditionally been the first to acknowledge and act on given circumstances. It’ll be interesting to see, in 2008, which other developers make the same acknowledgment. It’ll be even more interesting to see which major bank is the first to dispose of properties in a major headline sale.

Miami Condo Foreclosures – Search Engine Results

I’m an avid reader of anything to do with search engine optimization (SEO). The algorithms involved in producing search engine result pages (SERPs) fascinates me. I haven’t hired any outside companies to do any of the SEO work for my site. My blog has done the work for me. I began my blog a little over three months ago and the results that it has produced with the search engines in that short time span is amazing.

If you type in “Miami Condo Foreclosures” into Yahoo my sites appear as the first, second, fourth and eighth results on the first page.

The results on Google aren’t as great but they still drive a lot of traffic to my blog. You will find my site by clicking on the fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth links on the first page of Google when typing in “Miami Condo Foreclosures“.

Surprisingly, the search results for “South Beach Condo Foreclosures” on Google is much better. I know that there is a lot of weight placed on key words used in the URL and “South Beach” doesn’t appear in my URL. So, I was shocked that “South Beach Condo Foreclosures” would have my site ranked higher than “Miami Condo Foreclosures” since keywords such as “Miami” and “Condo” appear in my URL. This is probably due to the fact that the keyword “Miami” has more competition than the search term “South Beach”. You will be led to my site by clicking on the first, second, fourth and fifth links that appear on the first Google result page after typing in “South Beach Condo Foreclosures”.

After this post, I’m sure that my site will hold even more relevance to the search terms cited above so you’ll probably find that my site appears even higher in the rankings than what I’ve noted.

Site Updates – Real Estate Videos Section Added

You may have noticed that the site has undergone some cosmetic changes in the past couple of days. I would like to make everyone aware of a few other changes that may not be so apparent. The most significant change that I have made is the addition of the “Real Estate Videos” link to the header of the homepage. As you might guess, the link directs you to a page which displays various real estate videos, with the most recently posted video displayed first.

These videos are searchable in a few different ways. The best way to search for a video is using the catalog pull-down menu along the right-hand side of the page. There you can search for property videos by zip code, neighborhood, and type of property (condo, single family, etc). The ability to search by number of bedrooms, price and more shall be added in the coming days. This type of search is made possible through the use of tags. I will utilize tags to make searching as efficient and effortless as possible. This may not be a big deal now, seeing that there are less than ten property videos, but it will prove beneficial down the road as more videos are added. I plan to add at least ten new videos within the next week.

You will also be able to differentiate amongst the following types of videos, which will have the following tags:

• Real Living Properties – These are property videos that are of listings associated with Real Living Properties (either my own or someone else in the office).
• Investment-Grade – These are property videos that I feel are good investments. These may be foreclosures, short-sales, distressed properties or just below-market-priced listings.
• Neighborhoods – I will occasionally add a neighborhood video to the site as well. The purpose of this is to primarily educate nonlocal investors.

You can also use the search box to find relevant posts as well. This type of search cannot read tags, however. It will provide better search results in the future once I have time to provide a more detailed summary of each property to ensure that all possible keywords that are relevant to that property are included within the actual posts.

I will also update posts associated with each listing to make people aware of any status change in the property. For example, if a property is pending sale I will make note of it in the post specific to that property. If the property has already closed, I will let everyone know and then most likely remove the posts after six months.

I am open to posting video listings of other Miami and Miami Beach-based real estate agents on this site. Once you have a video file and a property summary, drop me an email or give me a call and we’ll make it happen.

I have also included a “Property Search” link to the header of the homepage as well. It was there before but did not function like I wanted it to when clicked. It now works appropriately.

Additional changes shall follow in the coming months to allow for a more unique and efficient way to search for real estate. Enjoy!

Google Maps Street View is Simply Amazing!

If you haven’t taken a look at Google Maps in the last couple of days then head over there now and take a look at their new street-level view capability. It is simply amazing! It allows you to view a location from the perspective of a person walking down the street. It also allows you to interact with the photo by turning the view and moving forward or backward in the photo. Both Microsoft and Amazon released similar products earlier in the year, but the one released a few days ago by Google is on a totally different level.

When you get to Google Maps type in an address. For the photo above, I typed in “950 S Miami Ave, 33131”. It then shows you a map for that location. Click on the “Street View” box in the upper right hand corner of the map. You will then see an orange stick man appear on the map. Click on him and a photo, like the one above, will appear of the area. From there you can move forward or backwards in the map using the arrows within the photo or turn the view 90 degrees by using the two arrows in the upper left hand corner of the photo. It also allows you to turn left or right at intersections.

The images look to be about 4-6 months old judging by the photo above. The image at the top is of a new commercial development called Mary Brickell Village. It looks to have been taken around December or January. I navigated the street a bit and noticed that one of the restaurants is fenced off, as it was around that time.

The new street view functionality can play an important role in real estate. People can now “virtually” walk any neighborhood that they want without ever leaving home. Miami is a haven for second home buyers and investors. This type of mapping capability will prove beneficial to nonlocal buyers who can now familiarize themselves with various neighborhoods. I love technology! Just wait until the day when we are able to interact with video and navigate a virtual video map. Now that would truly be amazing!

Welcome to the Miami Condo Investments Blog!

The Miami Condo Investments blog aims to be the authoritative source for all news relating to Miami and Miami Beach real estate, with a specific focus on condominiums and lofts. We will provide investors with the best information relating to Miami and Miami Beach real estate investment opportunities.  Preconstruction, foreclosure, pre-foreclosure, and short sale opportunities will be especially highlighted throughout this blog.  We will also discuss various condominium developments in Miami and Miami Beach along with condos and lofts for sale that are good buying opportunities and/or are worth mentioning as well as comment on news articles that are relevant to the real estate industry and specifically to the condo markets in Miami and Miami Beach, Florida.  We look forward to providing you with the best insight into the condominium markets in Miami and Miami Beach, Florida.