1332 Asturia Avenue, Coral Gables FL

I live in, and absolutely love, homes in the Old Spanish style as do so many people in our community. However, at the height of the buyer’s market when our inventory was saturated, the homes that were selling tended to be newer homes that were turn-key. A lot of these wonderful and charming older homes were often overlooked. As our inventory has decreased so dramatically and most new homes have been purchased, people are coming back to these wonderful homes with such character and finding the beauty in them again. They can be quirky, but the warmth and charm that they bring so often outweigh any idiosyncrasies that they have. On behalf of all the historic home owners & lovers, we invite you to enjoy and embrace all that make our unique homes so special!

Check out this wonderful Old Spanish currently on the market in Coral Gables listed by Laura Mullaney, Coldwell Banker!

10 Edgewater Drive, Unit #12 AC

A few weeks ago, a high end condo at the Gables Club that had been on the market for 9 months announced that it would be going up for absolute auction. Absolute auction means that no matter what, the condo would be sold to the highest bidder. It had been listed originally for $6,500,000 and it was to be auctioned the weekend of January 27^th. Every weekend until that date, the unit was open to be viewed by potential buyers.  Anyone interested would have to be registered with their realtor or on their own. I was so interested in seeing what would happen, because that is a pretty scary proposal for the seller that if someone came in at $2 million and that was the highest number received, they would have to sell. I had someone look that opted out, but if you are interested in an auction, you have to provide the proof of funds and be ready to close at auction. A week before the auction, we received an e-mail informing us that the owner had been presented a contract that he was willing to accept. It seems that the property had appraised lower and that the seller was pleased with the offer. That being said, it sold for more than $1million under the asking price. If the seller had had it listed closer to where it ultimately sold, I believe it would have sold much faster. Who knows, but it was a very interesting scenario!

7930 SW 57 Court

I just listed a very special custom-built home in South Miami that sold within days of being listed, with multiple offers. In doing my analysis, I knew it wouldn’t sell over $1 million, and most comps put it in the mid-$900,000s. While some sellers would be inclined to list it just over $1 million to try to get as much as they could out of it, I knew if we priced it just under $1million, we would derive more interest and maximize the selling price. Within two day of listing it, we had multiple offers. It eventually sold close to the asking price because of all the interest it generated. Our approach ensured that every serious buyer who had been out looking came to see the house. At times it’s hard to know exactly where something should be priced and in this case, I knew the $1 million mark was our ceiling. But by being aggressive on pricing, you won’t be leaving something on the table. You’ll actually probably get MORE out of it!

We have a client that was interested in seeing a short sale that just came on the market in a prime location of the Golden Triangle. We called the realtor about it immediately to get him in, but the realtor said they couldn’t get in to show the house for 4 days and to call him back then. Of course we told our client, he drove by the house a few times, and 4 short days later, we called the realtor back.

By the time I got ahold of the realtor that day that he finally had a key to let us in, he already had 4 OFFERS from different buyers, most of which were all cash! Of course I was aghast and asked him how they were able to get in to see the house before we were if he didn’t have a key, and he told me ALL FOUR OFFERS WERE MADE SIGHT UNSEEN. The owner had already selected a “highest and best” and he would not be showing the property.

I am incredibly curious to know what this home sells for. Investors are out there like hawks!

The Miami Herald ran a very positive article last weekend about the real estate market and the boom we’re entering. Did you know that we sold almost 25,000 homes & condos last year in Miami-Dade County? That’s a 46% increase over 2010 and a 4% increase over 2005, the height of the boom. Compared to 2010, condo sales were up 54% last year and home sales were up 36%. In December alone, we had huge jumps over the year before, while nationally sales were down 2%. Distressed sales were the driving force behind much of our frenzy, with international buyers playing a large part. Interestingly, cash sales accounted for almost 60% of 2011’s sales! Our prices are still holding steady, but hopefully with this resurgence of interest in our market, they will start to rebound soon. Inventory is down. Demand is clearly up. This market is hot!