Miami Condo

 by: Chris Anderson, PhD

By this point and time, many people have heard about buying preconstruction condos and some of the amazing profits that have been generated by these investments. What many people don’t understand is that there is another way to play the preconstruction investing game, especially for those investors with solid financial resources. Let’s take a look at the Miami condo market as a great example.

Right now, there is a Miami condo that originally sold out almost 2 years ago when the prices were much lower but original investors are now interested in reselling their units. This project was one of the first high-rise projects in the downtown Miami area. Recently, similar units at ICON Brickell (on the opposite side of the Miami river) sold out the first tower in 2 days at an average of $550 a square foot. The second tower is now selling at an average of $600 sq ft. For some of these resells in the area, we are seeing close to a $100/sqft reductions in price to around $500 per square foot; and that is asking price. Now is when the negotiations begin.

One strategy is to AGRESSIVELY pursue projects where other investors are about to close. In this case, you have a number of original investors that are hearing that loud clock ticking in their head. that is the clock counting down to close where they will 1) have to close on their Miami condo, 2) have to pay debt service, and 3) potentially try to rent out their Miami condo. You have to realize that these sellers are people that have already made (on paper) great returns, then they may have a lot of motivation to just get most of their profits and run without incurring additional expenses.

As an example, suppose you were able to negotiate a $130/sqft discount on such a Miami condo instead of only $100/sqft. Let’s say that results in an additional $30,000 savings on a 1,000 sqft unit. From a motivated seller’s perspective, what do they care if they have to drop their profit from $150,000 on a Miami condo to only $120,000. For the right kind of seller, the important thing is that if they know you, as the buyer, can make it painless for them with no additional cash outlays.

For a resell type investor, they may look at this and say well, I will rent the Miami condo out for a couple of years. No, their payments will not cover their mortgage and maybe they end up losing $800 per month. That is only $19,200 over the course of two years. Compared to that $30,000 extra discount they got, that is a small price to pay for the right individual knowing that they purchased their condo at $130 *1000 sqft = $130,000 less than what people across the river are paying for new Miami condos. If you do this type of investment, you need to establish the actual numbers for yourself since these numbers are only provided as an example.

We have used a Miami condo as an example here but these opportunities are going to exist in many places. As projects begin to close, especially in overbuilt areas having lots of investors that are ill prepared to close, that provides an excellent opportunity to find EXTREMELY motivated sellers. One trick to this, in my opinion, is to find those early projects in an area that are about to close since there is tons of equity that the seller can give up to the new investor if that new investor will just pay them some profit and not make them incur any additional expenses.