The Wynwood Art Fair is a new, interactive art and street fair to raise funds for The Lotus House.
This year, the inaugural year, was 3 days, saw 10,000 visitors pass through the gates and raised $545,000 to benefit homeless women and children. Take a few moments to see the fair through the eyes of the visitors.

If so moved, you can donate to The Lotus House here.

Since the beginning of 2011, Coral Gables has seen a steady decrease of homes on the market, and we are right at the tipping point of reaching a Neutral or Stable Market.  A stable market normally doesn’t last very long, but during that time, neither Sellers nor Buyers have a strong advantage over the other.

Of even more interest, see the graph below, which is the Coral Gables Inventory Report for the past five year, we are at our lowest inventory in that time!

What does this mean to BUYERS?

• Fewer homes to choose from
• More competition from other Buyers
• “Low Ball” offers aren’t going to fly very far
• Keep a sharp eye on the listings for new and reduced properties and don’t wait too long to make an offer
• Know the inventory and market so as soon as a new property comes on the market that meets your criteria, be ready to act
• Interest rates are still low, take advantage of that and the market before the pendulum swings into a Sellers’ Market

This home is an outdoor living dream! Located in the prestigious gated Gables by the Sea, this home is located on a “no bridges to bay” waterfront lot. Dock your boat and be to the bay within minutes!

The home has been beautifully updated with contemporary flair and style. All bathrooms and kitchens (including the summer kitchen) have been fully updated. The ceiling height has been raised in the common living areas to add a real feeling of light and space.

Expansive balconies and terraces wrap around the back of the home, overlooking the pool area and water views.

Windows have been updated to impact windows.

The GEM of this home is the huge outdoor living space, pool and summer kitchen and bar. Over 1,000 sf of covered outdoor living space wrap the pool and outdoor kitchen providing many days and evenings of outdoor living enjoyment. A mosquito system assures that no pesky critters will bother you or your guests.

Downstairs you will also find a separate guest suite, ideal for in-laws, visitors or even an office.

This home is located in a perfect location. Tucked away in the gated Gables by the Sea, it’s an easy commute to the Florida Keys, downtown Miami and Miami Beach, have the best of all worlds!

Virtual and navigable Tour

Background image courtesy of: Justin Ornellas

To sell your home in this competitive market, not only do you need to be priced right, but you need to have both top notch marketing and international reach.

Here’s a run down of the marketing efforts we applied to this charming renovated home near the Italian Village in Coral Gables

• Professional photography to show off the features of the home.  Let’s face it, we are Realtors, not photographers, let them do their best while we do ours
• Professionally printed property flyers and mini-flyers to highlight the benefits and features of the home (not printed at our office, printed at the printers)
• We created an engaging video slide show with music to set the tone
• Not ONE but TWO websites created just for the property www.537SanLorenzoAve.com and http://537SanLorenzoAve.PropertyFlyer.com (which had 13,500 VIEWS!)

• Staging by a professional staging company to make the home “model like”
• The Owner took my suggestions for a few improvements which vastly updated the look and feel (new counter-top, landscaping, etc.)
• Large scale ad in the Miami Herald
• Public open houses to reach the neighbors (good news travels fast and neighbors are a great source of potential buyers)
• Broker open houses to reach the brokers working in the area
• Enhanced Realtor.com and Trulia.com listing including featured virtual tour
• Posting to several luxury websites, including JamesList.com, the Craigslist for the affluent
• Social Media promotion including Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to reach the social and the mobile
• A custom QR Code for quick info transmission to potential buyers

• Posting to www.ONESothebysRealty.com and www.SothebysRealty.com (independently verified as the MOST visited luxury international real estate website)

We also met with the Seller monthly to discuss both the real estate market as it directly related to this house and the marketing done for the property.  This is a crucial step.  The Seller must have all of the information on the other houses on the market, homes sold and marketing being used to reach potential buyers so they can make informed decisions on how to keep their home current, relevant and enticing to buyers.

If you’d like to learn how we can market your home to reach the best, most motivated and targeted buyers, give me a call on my cell, 786-252-4970 for a customized marketing consultation.

Negotiations are often an inevitable part of real estate transactions.  Unless you are buying a house in a bidding type atmosphere, which most often occurs in foreclosures, you are going to have to deal with some aspect of negotiations, on price, terms or both.  Some people relish this and see it as a game of winner-take-all, some people dread it (and they buy their cars at Carmax) and some just deal with it as a means to the end.

Things begin to go bad when people let their emotions enter into negotiations, which happens often in real estate sales.  The worst situation possible is when they start negotiating with the buyer or seller like a sparring partner.  They completely loose track of the goal (to buy or sell the home) and start to see themselves in a Greek warrior scene, mono-a-mono.  They overlook large items that should be important to them and focus on smaller things that have gotten under their skin.  They focus on the fact that the seller wants to take the curtains, or the built-in coffee maker or won’t fix the leaky sink.  All of these items are a fraction of a percent of the purchase, but they can’t get beyond it.

7 Tips to help take the Emotion out of the Negotiation

1) The most important thing you can do as buyer or seller is negotiate with YOURSELF, not the other side.  Figure out what the most you are willing to pay (or sell) for the home is, including any repairs, replacing items the seller might want to take and negotiate to that point.  Ignore the perceived pettiness of the other side and don’t let your feelings for the other side’s behavior and negotiating tactics blow your deal.  Keep coming back to negotiating with yourself.

2) Remember, you only have to deal the buyer or seller for 30-60 days, after that the home is yours (or you have moved on) and you never have to deal with them again.

3) Stay focused on the property and your deal with yourself and tune out the white noise of the other side.

4) See their demands and counters as pawns which you use to get to the end of negotiations.  Some are disposable and will actually be used strategically to get you what you want in the end.

5) Stay focused on the property and the total deal.

6) Use your Realtor to run interference, this helps diffuse some of the emotion.

7) Wait to respond.  Sometimes people respond out of emotion and they think better of it later.  If your contract gives you a deadline, don’t feel that you need to respond prior to then, let all the possible outcomes come to light before you answer.  Don’t negotiate from emotion but as a form of strategy.

It’s not about winning or loosing the battle of the negotiation, it’s about winning or loosing the sale, stay focused on that and you should be fine.

We had a great deal of fun and wrapped up with cupcakes and a champagne toast as the beautiful Lotus House thrift shop truck pulled up.

See a quick video the homes and the spoils…

There are several numbers most seen relating to single family homes….

• Total Square Feet includes the full square footage of covered buildings including garages, covered patios, out buildings, etc.
• Adjusted Square Feet a combination of living square feet (ie the home) which is calculate at 100% plus a percentage for the non-living areas (ie enclosed garage at 50%, covered parking at 33%, etc).  For example, if a home had 2,000 living sq. ft. and another 400 sq. ft for a garage (2,400 total sq. ft), the garage will likely only be calculated at 50%, or 200 sq. ft, making the Adjusted Sq. Ft. 2,200 sq. ft.

Example of a home with a covered parking area (33% calculated)

When a listing agent enters a home into the MLS, they most likely use the Miami-Dade County Property Tax records website to gather the information.  The numbers are populated directly from the tax assessors website and the number that is pulled from the ADJUSTED Sq. Ft. on the tax assessors page is used in the “Sq. Ft. Living Area” in the MLS.  This is also the number used when real estate agents or the board of Realtors report $/sq. ft. data.

These are calculated from outside dimensions, not from interior dimensions.

These are most likely from construction which was both permitted and properly closed out.  There can be square footage on the Dade-County property records that was not permitted, but it is less of the norm.  The tax assessor rarely goes out and measures buildings like they do in other parts of the country, they rely on building permits for the most part.

Warning: If you see “home is bigger than tax records” this is not a good thing.  This indicates an illegal or un-permitted addition, which is going to cause a home buyer some big issues, including possibly not being able to obtain a loan on the property.  If you see this on a house you are interested in, investigate before making an offer.

Sometimes the owner believes the square footage varies from the tax records and then the listing agent will note “square footage per owner”, this is again something that should be further investigated.

Exact Square Footage can be much more of a fuzzy thing than most people expect, so having an understanding of how things are calculated helps make sense of the various numbers.

Key Take-Aways:

• The square footage on the MLS is in high probability not a number the listing agent or seller come up with but the adjusted square footage number from the Dade County property appraiser’s website.
• This adjusted square footage will include a portion of the non-living areas, such as garages, covered patios, barns, out buildings, etc.
• Anytime a number varies from the Dade County tax records, be wary and investigate.

Blog image courtesy of WhosWho on flickr

The most expensive home to sell in Coral Gables this year is the stunning historic Coral Cove estate by Phineas Paist.  Built in 1937, this home is a real piece of Coral Gables history.  The home, built on 1.5 waterfront acres located on the Coral Gables Waterway in the Riviera Section, Coral Cove is a rare treasure.

The  estate was listed by Audrey Ross of EWM and was on the market since 2007, with a starting list price of $22,000,000.  It sold for $4,500,000 ($402/sf) and was a cash transaction.

Home Features:

• Two boathouses
• Tennis court
• Pavilion
• Shuffleboard courts
• Dance patio
• Heated Olympic size pool
• Built-in barbeque
• Cabanas

Coral Cove has been sold, but there are several more historic and stately Coral Gables estates on the market.  If you are looking for something similar, let  me assist you.  I specialize in historic Coral Gables homes and am here for you.  I offer knowledgeable, discreet service for Coral Gables home buyers.  You can reach me on my cell, 786-252-4970.

This is important to know for several reasons.  If you are a buyer, you may want to include an inspection of the septic tank as part of your inspections.  This can be tricky as the current owner may not know where the tank is, but a septic company will come out and locate it.  It will entail breaking open (most often) the concrete tank for an inspection, then resealing it.

Why would I want to know if there is a septic system and where it is?

If you are planning any of the following, you can’t do them where the drain field is, so you’d not be able to, or you’d have to move the drain field:

• adding a pool
• adding parking spaces, drives, etc.
• building an addition

Also, the tank needs occasional maintenance, cleaning (rough estimate, every 5 years). It’s not too expensive (a few hundred dollars) but could be VERY expensive if your drain field is ruined. (not to mention unpleasant).

By checking the tank and knowing where the field is, you can make sure not to drive or park on it (critical) and plan for it should you have plans of adding structures, etc.

This recently came up with a house I’m selling and the owner didn’t know that he was even on a septic system.  He had a septic company out, located it and cleaned it out.  Imagine if he had not and owned it for years without taking care of it?

I’ve found the following map which has proven to be very helpful for home buyers (and sellers!) of the Sewer districts in Coral Gables.

While it surprises many, having a septic system is not a big deal, you just need to know where the tank and drain field are and have it serviced every few years, as suggested by your septic contractor.  If you are buying a house, ask the owners if they know where the tank and field are and if they have any records as when it was last serviced.