[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD8y7QU9HIY&hl=en&fs=1]Miami has been all over the news as one of the poster “children” for boom-and-bust major cities. I’m still reading about it in articles that continue to speak as though they have a “handle” on what the situation is there. I went to Miami to meet with my FIABCI colleague, Vilma Dwake, of Skyline International Realty. Vilma introduced me to a colleague of hers who works on the development side of real estate, Mario Kroeff. Mario was very informative.

He gave us some very interesting information from someone who is “in the trenches” and knows what the current status is. You can watch our conversation in the video piece. I was somewhat surprised to learn that all the empty towers have been purchased by vulture funds that are sitting on the inventory waiting for the market to improve. This will doom any individual owner for years to come as Mario points out the funds can always release inventory at slightly below whatever the prevailing market level. Another unknown to me is the interior build-out situation. Many of the towers that went into foreclosure were unfinished on the interior so the banks hired outside contractors to finish out the interior. This will probably create “issues” for years to come for those home owners associations. A word to the wise…before you buy in Miami I would recommend calling Vilma to have an advocate who knows the market.

All the Best,

Lance