The County doesn’t recognize foreclosures as reflective of true property values in an effort to keep property tax assessments artificially high.  But to hide the actual sale prices from the public is an outrage.  Now the public has only one way to find out what property is actually selling for:

You can ask your friendly Realtor, who has access to the unedited information, for the answers.

I’d be glad to answer any of your real estate questions.  You can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

Worthy of Architectural Digest!

This 1954 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 2,600 square-foot home in Miami Springs has been completely re-modeled by the owner/construction professional.  He spared no expense.   An over-sized covered porch overlooks a magnificent pool and patio area worthy of Architectural Digest.  There is a guest house with its own covered porch that features a summer kitchen.  Marble floors, wood inlaid ceilings, tasteful wall coverings, and textured columns grace the interior that features an expansive eat-in kitchen with stainless steel appliances.  There is both a full-sized living room and family room. The home is on a full lot and a half in the heart of Miami Springs, the City of Trees.  Miami Springs is a delightful hideaway north of Miami International airport and has golf courses, lakes, pedestrian walkways and has achieved national recognition in its efforts to promote a healthy tree canopy.

You can reach me at bishopric.r@ewm.com or 305-401-8058.

Easy-living South Miami/High Pines is a kid- and dog-friendly, get out and walk the streets kind of neighborhood. This new listing at 5360 SW 76th Street is a well maintained three-bedroom, two-bath beauty on an oversized 12,500 square foot lot.  The home is a split plan, with two bedrooms and a bath on one side and the other bedroom and bath separated by a breezway.  So it would be perfect for a guest room, mother-in-law quarters, an office or even a rental.

The kitchen features brand-new stainless steel appliances, a new tile floor and contemporary white cabinetry.

The kitchen features a unique seamless double window behind the sink for a nice view outside.

Dining area overlooks the porch through French doors.

Giant family/living room area with beautiful white tile.

Back porch under awning.  Open the French doors and let the outside in when the weather turns nice!

There’s even an air conditioned storage shed which could be used as a play room or an office.

If you’d like to see this fine home in High Pines or any other listing in South Florida, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Just for the record, I have no financial interest in this company.  I learned about it from Alex Moskovitz, the CFO, while we were both sweating away at the gym.  You can reach Alex at 305-677-0022, ext. 803.  Funny the stuff you can learn at the gym.  Anyway, I thought that this sounded like a good service that people ought to know about and that could help property owners and associations.

If you’d like any information about real estate in South Florida, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

Next thing a few weeks later, we’re all sitting around the closing table and the seller notices that the contract says that the coin-operated laundry equipment is included in the sale.  She says I don’t own that equipment so I can’t sell it to you.  Uh oh.  Pens stop scratching.  A silence settles.  But you signed the contract that says on the front page about what’s included, right?  Yes, but I didn’t notice that.  And is there any lease?  Well, I didn’t sign any lease, but there’s a guy who gives me a few dollars every other month or so.  Double uh oh.  More silence.

After a lot of discussion, we agree to postpone the closing until a determination can be made regarding lease or no lease.   My buyer doesn’t care about the laundry equipment; he doesn’t want to buy a building that is encumbered by a lease.

Turns out that the laundry equipment belongs to a guy named Pepe and after a few days he comes up with a lease signed by the previous owner of the building.  The lease perpetually renews.  There is no out.  And the lease runs with whoever owns the building.    Forever.  Unless you pay Pepe off and get a release from the lease.  Pepe and his really aggressive lawyer have done this before and have prevailed in court as well.  In Florida, these kinds of leases are legal.

Well, there’s a lot of angst by this point.  Seller wants to sell.  Buyer wants to buy.  Pepe and the sharky lawyer want many many thousands of dollars to go away and threaten a bazillion dollar lawsuit if anybody touches Pepe’s rusty old machines.

Contract deadline is extended and finally seller and Pepe reach a buyout agreement after my buyer agrees to help bear the cost.

We regroup and manage to close.  The title company says that have now changed their check-list to include determining whether or not there are any laundry leases on property.

You should too.   It could be a deal-breaker.

You can reach me at bishopric.r@ewm.com or 305-401-8058.

I did some analysis using single-family homes in Miami-Dade County. As of this morning there were 1585 homes in “pending” or “backup” status. Of those, 1482 were in “pending” status, meaning that there was one contract and 103 were in “backup” status, meaning that there was one contract and one or more other contracts offered in the hope that the first contract failed for some reason. County-wide, almost 7% of all contracted homes are in “backup” status. I believe that this is more than has been seen in a long time.

Which areas are the hottest? I broke the data down for the different parts of town to determine which areas had the highest percentage of backup offers. I figured that this indicates where the most buyers were finding the best values. Here are the results:

14% Lake Lucerne
12% Opa Locka
11% Miami Lakes
10% N. Miami/N. Miami Beach
10% Tamiami/Kendale Lakes
7% Westchester/Olympia Heights
7% Country Walk
7% Silver Palm/Naranja
6% Doral
4% C. Gables/S. Miami
4% Pinecrest/Palmetto Bay
4% Fla. City
4% Homestead
3% Miami Beach
2% SE Hialeah/Model City

You can see that the northern part of the county is where the “backup activity index” is highest.

If you’re a seller, one strategy would be to drop your price significantly and hope to start a bidding war. I was speaking with another agent day before yesterday and he said that he had a property with many offers. It was a foreclosure that the bank, in its eagerness to sell, had priced too low. So the price was being bid up!

If you’re a buyer now may well be the time to plunge in. Remember, we’ll never know where the bottom was until we’re way past it.

If you’d like to know more about home prices or real estate in South Florida, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

If you’d like any information about homes, foreclosures or even cats in South Florida you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

Here’s another steal of a foreclosure, priced at just $139,900 in the beautiful Waterstone complex. This property has a market value of $238,500 on the tax roll.

And here’s one at SW 112th Avenue and 237th Street in Spicewood, just reduced to only $135,000.

If you’d like any information about these foreclosures or any home in South Florida, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

If you’d like to see this townhouse or would like to know more about foreclosure opportunities in South Florida, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

Here are some pictures of the building and the inside spaces.

If you’d like a tour of the building or want to know about homes for sale in easy-living South Miami/High Pines or Coral Gables, you can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.