Midtown 5 Opening January 1

Magellan Development is preparing to open their newest rental building, Midtown 5, in early January. In order to guarantee a quick lease-up, they are offering a host of perks to the first tenants of the development.

The first tenants of the building will receive 1 month of free rent, and those with good applications (qualifying income and high credit scores) will be able to move in with a $500 security deposit. Pets up to 60 pounds are welcome with a $500 pet fee, payable to the building. This is an amazing deal compared to the condo rentals that are being offered nearby! In order to rent a condo, tenants are required to pay first month rent, last month and security deposit to the owner, on top of a security deposit and associated move-in fees to the building! That amount often adds up to well over 4 times the agreed-upon monthly rental rate.

Midtown 5 has 400 apartments that range from 538 square foot studios up to 1,501 square foot three bedroom options. The prices vary based upon availability and change daily, so we are happy to provide more information to you on a case by case basis if you are interested.

The building will offer a heated lap pool, fitness center with crossfit station, children’s play area, meditation garden, bike storage area with wash and repair station, an off-leash dog park, indoor pet gameroom with grooming station, a rewards program for discounts at nearby shops and restaurants and full concierge services. The apartments will be outfitted with modern finishes including keyless entry, usb ports for easier device charging and smart thermostats.

As of now, the first two weeks of January are booked for move-ins, but lease starting dates are available from January 15 for lower-floor options all the way to March 1 for penthouse units.

Hyde Midtown Offers Free HOA For First Year & Flexible Deposit Structure

Going into the holidays, the developers of Hyde Midtown are looking for new ways to close out the last of their inventory. They are currently 78% sold with a nice selection of available apartments and the construction is on the 25th floor.

For a limited time, they are offering to cover the first year of HOA payments for new buyers.  The way they typically apply the promotion is to give a credit at closing in order to avoid confusion with the HOA after the association has been turned over to the homeowners.

Since the building is nearing top off, the developer is now able to offer a more flexible deposit structure. Rather than the typical 50% required before closing, they are now able to accept 30% if the buyer prefers.

Of the remaining 90 or so apartments, they have prices starting as follows:

• 1 bedrooms from $435,000
• 1 bedrooms plus den from $490,000
• 2 bedrooms from $538,000
• 2 bedrooms plus den from $643,000
• 3 bedrooms from $859,000
• Penthouses start at $735,000

Congress Unanimously Agrees To Make FHA Financing Easier For Condo Buyers

In a rare moment of solidarity, Congress unanimously agreed to pass the proposed changes to the FHA approval guidelines for condo purchases, opening the way for middle-income buyers to participate in the condo market once more.

Over recent years, the FHA has imposed nearly impossible guidelines for condo purchases that have left a large segment of buyers out of the market, particularly first time homebuyers. The problem has been that in order to secure an FHA loan for a property, the buyers must qualify (relatively easy), AND the building must qualify (almost impossible). The approval process was expensive and the costs were not refunded in the event that the project was rejected. The approvals had to be renewed every couple of years as well. Most condo associations opted to forego the application and just not have FHA as an option for purchasers in the building. With the new guidelines, the projects no longer need to go through the approval process. Buyers can now apply for a spot-approval on individual units and the owner-occupant vs investor ratios have been lowered. Bravo!

This is going to be a big help for actual residents of the Downtown Miami area who are ready to buy a condo, but maybe don’t have the 20%-35% down payment that is currently required to buy a property. You can read more about the new guidelines here.

FHA Proposes New Approval Process That Helps People Get Condo Loans

Condo shoppers rejoice! The FHA (Federal Housing Administration) is proposing changes to their condo approval process that could really benefit South Florida shoppers.

Up until now, if a person wanted to buy a condo in the Downtown Miami, Brickell, Midtown, or Miami Beach areas with an FHA loan, their choices would be to buy at Brickell on the River’s south tower, Brickell on the River’s south tower, or Brickell on the River’s south tower. That is not a typo, the only approved condo project in our area is Brickell on the River. The entire project isn’t even approved, just the south tower. 1800 Club was approved in 2012, but that expired in 2014 and wasn’t renewed. In my experience, whenever I have a buyer who is looking to use an FHA loan, I always tell them that they need to purchase a house, not a condo. Condo FHA loans are almost impossible.

The problem is that in order to offer FHA loans on the properties in the various condos, the entire building has to undergo an application process with FHA. This isn’t cost effective for developers because they have typically already sold their units prior to the building’s opening. Established condos would have to undergo the expense of the application, which is another expense for the condo association to pay. Those buildings that do go for the application typically get rejected because of the number of owner-occupants in the building. Let’s face it, a lot of the residents in our towers are vacation homes, rental units, or a combination of the two.

Well today is a new day. The FHA has realized that it is extremely difficult to use their loans in condos and are proposing to change their ways. They are proposing to lower the minimum owner-occupancy requirements to 25%-75% and allow single-unit spot approvals.

What this means is that instead of having to qualify the entire building, you could get an FHA loan on a single condo as long as their building information matches the requirements of FHA (which would now be far more lenient). Since FHA loans are designed for people who are responsible homebuyers but may not have a huge down payment or fully-established credit, these buyers have been left out of the Downtown Miami market, which is in need of new buyers now. Let’s hope and pray that this goes through! It would be amazing to see more homeowners in the downtown area!

If you would like to read the entire proposed rule, you can find it here.

Hyde Midtown Tears Down Their Sales Office

Hyde Midtown Sales Office by Hyde Midtown Instagram

It’s not what you think. After almost exactly one year of construction, the Hyde Midtown sales office has been torn down in order to make way for the building that is already 1/3 finished. The sales office is being relocated around the corner until completion.

The project is steaming along at a great pace, around 1 floor per week. They are 77% sold, but still have a good collection of apartments available in all different sizes. Prices start at $446/ft and penthouses start at $734,900. The penthouses of the 31 story tower will include rooftop patios with amazing views and a great price. Have a look here for more photos.

Almost 40% of Downtown Miami Residents Have Pets – Strategies for Investors and Tenants

The Downtown Miami DDA (Downtown Development Authority) released its updated demographics study today, and they found that 39% of Downtown Miami households include a pet. This is interesting because so many of the developments impose strict pet policies upon their residents. Some only allow certain sizes of pets, some only cats, some only allow pets for unit owners and some say no pets at all.

This is always a touchy subject when we are working with a client who has a pet. There is so much misinformation out there regarding which buildings do and do not welcome pets. If a resident gets caught with an unauthorized pet, they are forced with the difficult choice of paying a lease cancellation fee (which is typically the value of 2 months’ rent), or re-homing their beloved pet. Unfortunately, not all agents verify the pet policies before entering into a contract, which wastes time and gets the client all excited about an apartment that they cannot have. No bueno.

I even once had a client who cheated on me with another agent that had told them they could have a large pet in a pet-restricted building. That is completely irresponsible and self-serving of that agent. Thank goodness, the clients realized what would happen if they went forward with that deal. The agent would have been paid and then they would have either had to break their lease or part with their dog. That is a horrible choice to have to make when most people consider their pets as members of the family.

In order to have an authorized pet in the building, many associations require an additional registration and application. The pet’s weight is verified (many times with a report from the veterinarian), their vaccinations are verified and some buildings even take it a step further. Infinity at Brickell requires a DNA sample to be placed on file and in the event that messes are found in the lobby, the mess is sent in for a DNA match. The resident that pops up after the DNA test is issued a fine. I call it Maury Povich enforcement… but it works. If people know they’re going to get busted breaking the rules, they’ll be less likely to do so. This way, the building can continue to allow large pets for everyone.

Over recent years, a popular workaround to the ‘No Pets’ buildings has become all the rage. There are websites where you can claim that you need a therapy dog. They’ll issue you a certificate for a fee and, viola! Your dog can go with you everywhere and nobody can say anything… except the condo associations have started to get wise of this ruse. The Jade at Brickell verifies these Therapy Dog certificates through an attorney. It takes an extra few days during the application process and you don’t get your application fees back if you get caught with a phony form. I don’t recommend the fake therapy dog stunt.

If you are curious of whether a particular building accepts pets, just have a look at the building page on our website. We have verified all of the buildings’ policies and list them in the FAQ section of the website. Every now and again, a building will change their policy in between when we last called to verify, but we update it frequently. Our agents also keep themselves updated of the pet policies and fees for the buildings in the area. We’re all about efficiency and not wasting your time or energy…

So what about investors?

With the rental market changing, it is important to have apartments that appeal to as many people as possible. Purchasing an investment condo for sale in a pet-restricted building automatically crosses out almost 40% of the prospective tenants that could be interested in moving in. Some of my favorite pet-friendly buildings are MarinaBlue and 900 Biscayne Bay in Park West, Infinity at Brickell in Brickell, the Midtown developments in Midtown and One Miami in Downtown.

For investors who are concerned with having animals in your property without knowing the behavior or cleanliness of the pets, it is completely customary to charge a pet deposit for the unit. In many cases, the building has a separate pet deposit or fee, but I suggest a refundable deposit for the unit itself. The amount can vary depending upon the pet. Puppies would require a bit of a larger deposit since they tend to chew and have accidents. You could also lower the deposits in the event that a tenant was able to submit a diploma from obedience school or behavior training.

Whether you are an investor, or if you are buying/renting a home for yourself, if there is a specific building that you are curious about, don’t hesitate to drop us a line and inquire. We’re happy to help.

Midtown Walmart Hits Another Snag

It looks like Walmart’s controversial plans for a new Midtown store have hit another snag. A couple of months back, they were forced to stop construction because their permit expired and then it was discovered that they didn’t have full chain of title on their site. Oops. Now, a city attorney was caught lying to the commissioner in order to influence a zoning decision. Yikes.

According to Grant Stern, the leader of the #NoWalmartInMidtown movement, the attorney lied about their involvement with the project and then emails uncovered from the IT department showed otherwise. When confronted, the attorney said that it was all just because a lobbyist was bothering them. There is already a big investigation going down at City Hall with the city attorney saying that this is all just a big misunderstanding even though the evidence indicates otherwise.

To be honest, I really hope Walmart isn’t able to complete their Midtown project. My personal thoughts on them as corporate citizens aside, they’re just not a fit for that location. The intersection of NE36th Street & North Miami Avenue just to the north of the build site has been named one of the ten worst intersections in South Florida. Could you imagine how the intersection will be after bringing in the traffic from Walmart shoppers and the trucks that will keep the store stocked?

It is a well-known fact that big box stores (especially Walmart) strip communities of their culture and force local shops to close their doors. The Walmart would affect the culture of not only Midtown, but also the neighboring areas of the Design District and Wynwood. It also just seems odd to have a Walmart within a mile of an Hermes store. No?

Is There a Way to Save Midtown’s Central Green Space?

Photo by Sean McCaughan.

The great big empty lawn in the center of Midtown Miami has sat there for years as Midtown gradually gets built up around it. Originally meant to be the location of an entertainment center and mall when Midtown was first developed from the old Buena Vista Rail Yards, the huge lawn has for years been literally nothing but a luscious green carpet of grass, with the potential to make a fantastic public space, parkland, gardens, Central Park, etc. for the entire neighborhood. Back in 2012, I wondered what was up, and the answer was nothing. The assumption today in 2016 is that it still will be developed, by its owners or whoever they sell it to, someday. But is there an alternative? I posed the question to some friends on Facebook and one, urban planner Donald Shockey, offered an intriguing potential solution:

The City could aggressively offer the owners expanded transferable development rights to make this a permanent park and still profit from their investment. This is very feasible and would provide a desperately needed central park to serve Midtown, Wynwood, and Edgewater. This would be an enormously transformative project for Miami.

City Revokes Midtown Walmart Construction Permit

Photo by Lucas Lechuga.

The Miami Building Department has nailed the controversial new Walmart in Midtown Miami, revoking a construction permit it issued near the end of last year. The reason for the usual move was explained as a lack of unity of title, in a letter issued to the retailer in February and reported by The Next Miami. “A partner in the project, Midtown Opportunities, needed to sign a covenant in lieu of unity of title, along with the Midtown Community Development District.” Evidently, when Walmart didn’t fix the situation in the intervening four months, well, there went the permit. Neighborhood activist and opposition leader Grant Stern’s response conveys a subtle hint of satisfaction: “I’m glad the city of Miami finally revoked Walmart’s foundation permit. Walmart’s plan has a fatal design flaw, that violates Miami21 and that we’ve been pointing out to our public officials in writing, in public meetings and in court since 2013.”

Update (October 2020): The parcel of land where a Walmart was slated to be built in Midtown Miami still remains vacant. Gio Midtown, an apartment complex, has been built across the street to the east of it.

Midtown Construction Update: Walmart’s a’ Comin’

Hyde Midtown. All photos by Lucas Lechuga.

Construction at Midtown Miami is heating up, with one tower already topped off, another looking close, and a third well off the ground. Midtown 36, a residential tower with a considerable amount of ground floor retail and gallery space has topped off, while Midtown 5, which is planned to be a rental apartment tower (and thus not much info has been released) looks like it’s nearing or at top off. Finally, fresh off of having sold the hotel portion of Hyde Midtown, construction is zipping along. We thought we saw a recent announcement about the sales center closing in 90 days, but a search came up empty, so that may or may not be happening. Oh well. And then of course there’s the Midtown Walmart, a source of so much drama. Having broken ground back in January, after five months it’s still not looking like much.