An unbelievable new concept in living: Porsche and Dezer unite to create a masterpiece

Living on the Ocean in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida is already heaven on earth...the luscious silky sand beach, the endless ocean views, some of the top restaurants and shopping at your doorstep..luxury condo living...what more could you want?

How about being able to park your car outside your door ...even if you are on the 57th floor???!!!!

Well that is the new concept building that has been approved by the City of Sunny Isles Beach and is being designed by none other than the ultimate in car design ..PORSCHE. In conjunction with Dezer Properties the company that has already bought us such trophy properties as Trump Towers I,II,III, Trump Palace & Trump Royale, the Porsche Design Group are planning a 57-story residential tower with a robotic parking system so condo owners can park beside their units.

The 132-unit tower marks Porsche's inroad into residential.

The building will feature three circular platforms at the building's center that operate as "passenger-speed automobile elevators" outfitted with sensors to navigate to the correct floor. The vehicles will then be parked at one of 284 robotic parking spaces adjacent to owners' units.
"Our development team is confident this building will serve as a catalyst for other Porsche Design Towers throughout the world," said Gil Dezer, president of the New York- and South Florida based Real Estate Development Company.

Porsche Design Tower's units will range from 3,800 square feet to 9,500 square feet. More than half of the units will feature a duplex lay-out, with ocean-facing units including a private pool. The units are expected to range from $2.9 million to $9 million.

The building will be constructed on a 2.2 acre tract the Dezer family own at 185th and Collins.

If you want more information on this project, please drop The Golan Team a note here.. or call us at (001) 786-333-6200

Southeast Florida Home Prices Lowest Since Crash

It’s been a long time since we last blogged but it is not because we haven’t been thinking of you, it is because we have been really busy!!!

Real Estate in South Florida has taken off again and Buyers are back. In fact over the last week we were out with two new buyers and it was almost impossible to find them a house to show. This time last year, we would have had 7 or 8!!!

Inventory of houses on Miami Beach are at a low…hey SELLERS if you have a property to sell on Miami Beach, give us a call at 786-333-6200 or shoot us an email to debra@golanteam.com (saying thanks in advance!)

But don’t just take our word for it…

South Florida home prices in March hit their lowest level since the real estate crash!

Prices for Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties were down 6 percent from the previous year and a staggering 51 percent from their peak in December 2006, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller price index, which was released Tuesday

You can read the full article in the Palm Beach Post . Whatever the news you read, the truth is in the numbers…Buyers are out, properties are selling and inventory is lowering.

Over the next several blogs we will discuss inventory stats in closer detail.

Meanwhile, we wish you a wonderful and happy july 4th holiday and we will back at the blog next week.

Miami Beach - Fort Lauderdale New Foreclosures Hit the Market

Every week The Golan Team send out a free report on the latest Foreclosures of homes and condos in the area so you can be the first to find the best deal.

This week foreclosures are listed below. In order to access them, please click on the links below and scroll between the properties using the arrows on the top left.


Single Family Home Foreclosures Week of July 26


Condos and Townhomes Foreclosures Week of July 26


If you are interested in subscribing and having these reports sent directly to your email please fill in the request form at http://www.southfloridaluxuryforeclosures.com/

The Golan Team is headed by Eyal and Debra Golan a husband and wife team that have been selling luxury condos and single family homes in the South Florida for the past decade. Visit their website at www.golanteam.com or call them at 786-271-1235 to discuss your Real Estate needs

Weekly Foreclosure List

The Golan Team provides a free service to its clientele...A free weekly report of all new Single Family Homes and Condos Foreclosure report. See where the real deals are...If you already know where you want to buy whether it is in Miami Beach, Bal Harbour, Surfside, Sunny Isles, Aventura, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale, Hollywood or anywhere in Miami Dade or Broward county you can get this free list emailed to you weekly. You can even customize the search to meet your own needs.

To sign up click here: http://www.southfloridaluxuryforeclosures.com/

This week there were 11 new foreclosure condos and 14 new foreclosure homes. Just click on the link below and use the arrows on the top left to scroll from property to property.

If you like something call us to 786-271-1235 or drop us a note to foreclosures@golanteam.com and we will send you more information and schedule and appointment if you wish to see the property.

New Foreclosure Condos Listings

New Foreclosure Home Listings

Stay on top of the latest Foreclosures by subscribing to the Golan Team luxury foreclosure website.

The Golan Team is headed by Eyal and Debra Golan a husband and wife team that have been selling luxury condos and single family homes in the South Florida for the past decade. Visit their website at www.golanteam.com or call them at 786-271-1235 to discuss your Real Estate needs.

New law could cause an influx of Bulk Buyers to Miami

This week, Florida Governor Charlie Christ signed a new law into effect that significantly changes current Florida condominium statutes and may give Bulk Buyers a leg up.

First things first: What qualifies an Investor as a Bulk Buyer?

Answer - Believe it or not, according to Regulators a Bulk Buyer is any investor who owns or leases out seven units or more.

Prior to the passing of this new law, the Distressed Condominium Relief Act, deemed Bulk Buyers with the same responsibilities of Developers such as construction warranties as well as other responsibilities in association control. This new provision which will go into effect July 1, 2010 has a limited two year time window but removes the responsibilities of the Developer on the Bulk Buyer.

"Condominum law defines a developer as anyone who creates a condo, but also creates or offers units for sale or lease in the ordinary course of business," says Mark Grant, a partner at Ruden McClosky law firm in Fort Lauderdale. He helped draft the Bulk Buyer provision. "With the new law, it is very clear that a bulk buyer does not fit into the definition of a developer --- they're exempt."

The Golan Team who have been involved with and following closely Bulk Sale purchases in Miami feel this is added bonus to Bulk Buyers who have been deliberating when to enter the market. "We have spoken with Buyers who were interested in making big purchases but were very worried about the potential liabilites or future liabilities that would fall on their shoulders if they were to burden the responsibility of the Developer" says Debra Golan, Managing Partner of The Golan Team, Keller Williams Realty. She continues, "Our Buyers were willing to pay for the units and manage the responsibility of holding, leasing and reselling of those units but did not want to be part of the running of the building or association." Another benefit to the new law is that Bulk Buyers no longer have to budget for possible litigation.

Two other major provisions of the new law include:

a) A provision that doubles the amount of condo assesments that Lenders will have to pay when they take title to in foreclosure, from six months to 12 months. Payments to condo associations have been one reason that some Banks have been relunctant to foreclose on condo units.

b) A provision that now Condo associations can suspend uses of common area facilities when owners fail to pay their assessments.

South Florida home sales and prices on the RISE!!!

It is truly a pleasure when we can quote a newspaper on positive news on the South Florida Real Estate market. Such is today’s story in The Miami Herald.

Entitled : South Florida home sales – and prices – rise .. Home sales and prices increased in April compared to the year before – a possible sign of stability in a long-shaky real estate market.

You can read the full article here: MIAMI HERALD - HOME SALES UP

Here are the key points:

1) Median sale price of existing homes in Miami-Dade County (up 8%) and Broward county (up 7%) increased compared with last April (2009).

2) The number of Home sales also crept up – Miami Dade County up 7% and Broward County up 11%. This was mainly fueled by bargains on troubled properties, low mortgage rates and a deadline for thousands of dollars in tax credits.

3) Condo Sales also had huge numbers over last year. In Miami Dade County 723 units were sold which represents a 33% increase over the same period last year. In Broward County number of condos sold topped at 1,077 – an increase of 30% over April 2009.

Let’s hope this trend continues and we see successful increases in number of properties sold as well as increases in prices.

If you are interested in purchasing property from South Beach to Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles Beach, Aventura, Hallandale or Hollywood please contact The Golan Team at 786-271-1235 or drop us an email to info@golanteam.com

Do you need to appeal your property tax bill?

By now, everyone who owns property in either Miami-Dade county or Broward county should have received their Property Tax notice last week. Did your taxes go down? Did your taxes go up? With property values declining across the board, how is it possible that your property taxes have gone up?

There are two components to your Property Tax Notice. First is the ASSESSED VALUE and the second is MILLAGE RATE. The ASSESSED VALUE is where the counties base their tax bills on the “market value” which is the value of comparable properties in your neighborhood as of January 1, of this year. That means if there was a phenomenally low sale last month on a comparable property near yours that closed last month, it will not count until next year. Note that because foreclosure prices closed much lower than “traditional” home closings, the County Appraiser’s office has decided not to include them in their equation. If you want more information on this click http://www.miamidade.gov/pa/exempt_homestead.asp
or if you own property in Broward county go to http://www.bcpa.net/

The MILLAGE RATE – is how the county Property Appraiser determines the value of the property for tax purposes, the local taxing authorities (school board, commissioners, etc.) decide how much money is required to provide services and establish the millage rate . The Property Appraiser’s office does not determine the amount of taxes you pay. The taxes can increase or decrease depending on the millage rate set by the school board, commissioners, cities and other taxing authorities. The assessed value provides the base for this equation.

Therefore even if your property values have gone down (you should check on your notice the market/assessed value columns 2008 vs 2009) the millage rate could have gone up and that would cause an increase in your taxes due.

If you feel your taxes have been assessed wrong you must make a complaint by SEPTEMBER 18, 2009 latest.

In Dade county – click here to appeal
Or in person visit please visit one of their two Offices:
111 NW First St., 8th Floor, in downtown Miami

OR

10710 SW 211 St., 2nd Floor, in Cutler Bay

In Broward County - visit http://www.bcpa.net/ for information

If you own a House – call 954-357-6831
If you own a Condo – call 954-357-6832
If you own Commercial Property – call 954-357-6835

Remember the deadline is only 19 days away so do not delay if you want to appeal.

This blog has been provided as a free service from THE GOLAN TEAM. For all your Real Estate needs whether residential, commercial or investment. Contact us at 786-271-1235 or visit us at http://www.golanteam.com/. Interested in foreclosures – sign up for a free list of foreclosures at http://www.southfloridaluxuryforeclosures.com/ . Interested in subscribing to our blog – visit http://www.southfloridacondosblog,com/ and look for the subscribe box on the right hand side.

SOUTH FLORIDA REAL ESTATE BULK DEALS

For the past two years the two buzz terms in Real Estate in South Florida have been “Foreclosure” or “Short Sale”. Buyers looking for deals or to buy below current market value were constantly looking for these two “adjectives” or what The Golan Team calls “qualifiers”. It was amazing there were Buyers out there that literally would only want to see properties with these criteria and then would decide of the choices they saw which one to take.

Now these buzz terms have taken a back seat to the newest buzz in the Real Estate world “BULK SALE”. A Bulk Sale is defined as an investor lead individual or group that purchases a group or Bulk of units ranging in numbers from a low quantity such as 10 units to 500+ units at a discounted rate. They are usually purchasing from the Developer units that either were never sold or were sold and not closed (due to lack of financing) and returned to the Developer. Some of these Bulk Deals are also being negotiated directly with Lenders who are looking to Foreclose on other Developers or on complexes that are in default. The Bulk deals are almost always "ALL CASH" scenarios. After the deal closes there are opportunities to obtain some financing.

According to our research over 1700 units have exchanged hands in the past year to year and a half as “Bulk Sales” in our local area (Dade, Broward, Palm Beach counties). Other smaller deals if included (smaller we classify as 10 or less) can take this number even higher.

Some of the highlight deals include:

1) July 2008 - 50 Biscayne (Downtown Miami, FL) – 146 units sold to a group of investors from Philadelphia (Lubert-Adler Partners LP) who joined Related group (the Developer) in this bulk sales @ $246/ft. ($36.4m) Shortly after closing they sold 10 units $367/ft.


2) January 2009 - Harbour House, Bal Harbour – a consortium of Related investors paid $277/ft for 101 units. Total purchase price was $27m. (Note the Related Group was said to have raised $1 billion in a consortium just to buy Bulk Sale Condo opportunities).

3) July 2009 - A South Florida private equity group, Elcom Condominium LLC paid $2.6 million to purchase 51 new, oceanfront condo-hotel units in the luxury One Bal Harbour complex – Regent (now called Bal Harbour Hotel) and another $12 million for 67,031 square feet of hotel common areas and land. (This equates to approximately $135/ft average for the common area and hotel compared to the average selling price of $1100/ft that the Developer WCI Communities charged Buyers for preconstruction pricing at the One Bal Harbour Regent Hotel project.) Interesting to note, the day after this Bulk deal went through, the Regent Hotel chain pulled out of their contract to run the hotel. There are a total of 124 hotel condo units in the Regent/Bal Harbour Hotel.


Now there are two Bulk deals arising that are of interest

1) WCI Communities – the builder of the One Bal Harbour/Regent Bal Harbour project, is seeking court approval to hold a September 22, 2009 auction for its Pompano Beach condo complex. Currently a New York based company, Chetrit Group LLC is bidding $46.7 million. According to the Miami Herald , WCI Communities and it’s chairman, billionaire investor, Carl Icahn wants this $46.7m bid to be the opening bid at an auction A September 2, hearing has been requested for court approval of the auction proceedings. The Chetrit Group have been huge players in the Real Estate world and have been linked to bids and purchases of such iconic structures as the Sears Tower in Chicago ($840m sale), Roney Palace in Miami Beach (bid was $150m) and various iconic buildings in Manhattan.

2) The Related Group of Florida (whose iconic Condo King head is Jorge Perez easily the most recognizable name in South Florida Real Estate) associate company, New York Developer, Related Cos and the Lubert-Adler Partners LP of Philadelphia (you will recognize their name from the purchase of Bulk units at 50 Biscayne in Downtown Miami) have teamed up to bid on the assets of condo lender Chicago based, Corus Bank. A sale could be weeks away though according to the Wall Street Journal there are up to three other key bidders for these assets. Some of the most prominent condo projects in South Florida: Jade Beach and Jade Ocean Condominiums in Sunny Isles Beach, FL, the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Fort Lauderdale and Edge Condominium in West Palm Beach. All in all the assets could be as high as 6,400 condo units in South Florida.

The Golan Team are working with investors interested in purchasing Bulk Deals particularly on Oceanfront properties and Downtown Miami/Brickell area. We have identified several key opportunities for purchase. If you are interested, please contact us at 786-333-6200 or send an email with your requirements and preferences to debra@golanteam.com

Buying a Property in South Florida - Weighing your options

There are so many Real Estate topics to write about that a blog can be a full time job!! With the information technology that exists whether you are a Realtor, a Buyer, a Seller or an Investor, there are literally thousands of articles, blogs, comments or sources one can turn too to educate or confuse (LOL) you more!!!

Real Estate is definitely changing and in my opinion, becoming more and more accountable. Buyers are not just buying “what they like” they are using more “scientific” methods to determine which property to purchase.

Case in point, we have been working with a Buyer over the last few weeks who came to Florida with his wife on a “property buying trip”. We spent two days appealing to their “senses” and showed them a variety of oceanfront condos from Bal Harbour across Sunny Isles Beach and up to Hallandale Beach. During this time all their decisions and comments were based on what they saw and what appealed to their physical senses. We needed this process to occur as it helps us determine where they want to live. At the end of this search, we finally settled on one particular building that answered their needs vis a vie to location & amenities. Now we reached the point of selecting a unit to make an offer on.

In the past at this point of beginning the process of making an offer, is when I am used to hearing all about the various aspects of one particular unit that wins over another unit. It could be the choice of flooring, a custom closet, particular lighting etc etc etc. Again, it is a continuation of the process of using their "senses" to purchase. However, in this situation and we are finding the same with a lot of the Buyers we are working with, this is not the case.

It has come down to Price per Square Foot or (PSF). The Price per Square Foot is calculated by taking the asking price and dividing it by the interior (under air) square footage of a property. For example if a property is asking $1,000,000 and is 2,000 sf under air (balconies or garages do not count in this equation), the PSF is $500/ft. I want to add two caveats here. The first is when one is getting ready to buy Real Estate you should look at not only the asking price/foot but also the closed sales prices/ft. Many times this number can be vastly different. The second point that I want to make is regarding quality and finishes. You will pay more PSF for a finished condo on the Ocean then a “Decorator Ready” unit (one that needs flooring, paint etc) and this should be factored in to your PSF. Always make sure you are comparing “like” properties in your analysis.

You should be aware of this especially if you are purchasing a property including financing. An appraiser only uses comparables of sold properties. So even if a property looks like “a great deal” and is priced much lower than competitive ones, check and ask what the sold comparables are and then judge if you have found that “great deal”. The properties that are moving and selling in this market are the ones that have priced themselves correctly against recent closed sales.

Foreclosure properties – those owned by the bank are mostly always priced below the last closed sale comparable. If you are interested in receiving a weekly list (for free) of all luxury foreclosures please subscribe here http://www.southfloridaluxuryforeclosures.com/

The Golan Team launches new South Florida Luxury Foreclosure Website

The Golan Team at Keller Williams Realty are proud to announce the launch of a new luxury focused foreclosure website.

If you are specifically interested in luxury foreclosures in Dade, Broward or Palm Beach counties (that from just above the Keys to Port St Lucie) click on www.southfloridaluxuryforeclosures.com and sign up for your own personalized free foreclosure mailing list that you can customize to whatever type of property you are interested in. You will receive a weekly list of all foreclosure condos or homes (you specify choose one or the other or choose both!!!) in Southeast Florida.

Foreclosures or REO (Real Estate Owned) are properties that have gone through the entire foreclosure process and are now wholly owned by the bank. We are able to negotiate these properties directly with the bank through their representatives.

As we all know banks are definitely not in the Real Estate business but the money business. Therefore some of these properties can give you the absolute best opportunity to buy at rock bottom dollar.

We urge you to visit www.southfloridaluxuryforeclosures.com and get started on purchasing that great home, vacation condo or investment property today.

Please note this service is being offered to you as a valued subscriber of southfloridacondosblog.com absolutely FREE. At the Golan Team we believe in Helping a Client realize their vision is paramount to our Success.

First Time Homebuyers Credit - $8000 you can use now to purchase a property.

July 4th has come and gone and I hope you all enjoyed the festivities and fireworks. Personally here in Aventura, Florida we had lovely fireworks though the weather was a little sticky and humid!!!

Well now that we’ve caught up on the festivities, thought I would share some more good news to all the first time home buyers out there (or the ones you may know). First off, let’s recap the definition of a “First Time Home Buyer”. These are classified as individuals who have not owned a “principal” residence in the last 3 years. This means that even if you own a vacation place or investment property you can still qualify. We first wrote about this in our blog on May 4th, 2009 (Do you want $8000? Buy a house and it’s yours!!!)

When this program first rolled out you needed to purchase your property and close by Nov 30, 2009. Then when you filed your taxes for the year you could apply for the credit. The credit went up to a maximum of $8000.

Last week on July 1, 2009 a new program names Florida Homebuyer Opportunity Program (FLHOP) was created to help First Time Homebuyers get their federal tax credit early and allowing them to use up to $8000 toward a downpayment. This bridge loan is created so that the new homeowner can effectively borrow the funds from the State of Florida and then pay them back after they receive the new tax credit.

For us as local Realtors we think this is going to healthily encourage purchasing of property with quick closings. We anticipate an upsurge of sales as more lenders and Realtors will educate their clients of this wonderful opportunity.

If you qualify for the First Time Home Buyer Credit or know of someone who does please send us information to info@golanteam.com or call us at 786-333-6200.