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Nowadays I am noticing more advertisements for flipping houses and condos in Miami, which makes me believe we've already seen the largest increases in this cycle. Once the house flipping seminars start, you know you've missed the boat long, long ago. I suppose it's a good way for the speaker to make money, since he's not making much from actually flipping homes any more.
Nowadays I am noticing more advertisements for flipping houses and condos in Miami, which makes me believe we've already seen the largest increases in this cycle. Once the house flipping seminars start, you know you've missed the boat long, long ago. I suppose it's a good way for the speaker to make money, since he's not making much from actually flipping homes any more.
Very good insight! It is nice to know others are intelligent enough to see the signs.
A friend of mine bought a condo in Kendall for I think $120k about a year ago. She has young kids so the suburban thing was a good choice for her. I don't know whether the building is structurally sound or the results of her inspection, but she has been quite happy there.
YES, definitely get a real estate attorney involved to be sure about any purchase with a condo, because their finances and other details can be quite complicated. If you hire a good person, they will do a good job for you protecting you. You can limit how much you ask them to do if you don't have much money to pay them, but they can at the least investigate the property and advise you. If they draw up the documents and oversee the closing the fee might go up much higher, toward $2k, but basic stuff might only cost a few hundred and is really worth it given the very expensive headaches they can save you from.
Getting pre-approved generally won't hurt anything, and will give you access to view more places. It will also give you a heads up if at this time you can't get approved, or can't get a good deal, and need to clean things up in you credit history. You might be surprised by certain things, like for instance not having ENOUGH sources of credit, even if all of your payment history is perfect, can hurt your credit. So it's good to lean about this stuff to be prepared.
No one can tell you for sure if you should buy now or not, because each person's reasons for purchase are different. Sometimes people have very compelling reasons to buy due to health circumstances or events happening in their family that put one on a strict timeline. If you're doing it purely for investment, that is another story. Renting is very expensive, but so is ownership, and in SFL hazard insurances and taxes can sometimes be a lot more than you bargained for (depending on where and in what specific building you live). We are not in the midst of a very clear market crash, or the height of a huge bubble, to give a more obvious answer financially. The market is currently recovering from a crash, so prices are still comparatively low vs. what they were in 2007. But, the world is a more volatile place lately, both politically and environmentally, so another bad crash could come. Right now might be a good time for certain people, if you are usually a risk to banks, because they have recently relaxed requirements to be able to get approved for a loan, which were outrageously strict post-2010. If another crash happens, the the prices will go down, but if you don't have perfect credit you might no longer qualify for a loan because they'll probably increase loan restrictions again. So the answer is kind of individual, and depends on where you money is invested currently. If you're in a terrible apartment and it's affecting your health, moving to a more stable and pleasant place might be invaluable. On the other hand, if you're happy with your place now, there is not really any rush unless we are at the beginning of a long swing upward in the market.
One thing I would advise you to carefully consider, if you have no other pressing need to buy right now, is that Miami is long overdue for a major hurricane hit statistically speaking. Each year that passes without one, the chances go up exponentially that one will hit the following year. So just by numbers, we have a good chance of being hit in the next few years. It would suck to buy something and then have a big one hit that happens to strike your neighborhood hard, and find out your home was not that hurricane-proof. This is a risk we all live with every year, but it's something to consider with the timing of a purchase... at least with an apartment, you can keep renter's insurance, pack up your essentials and get the hell out. But with an owned property, you have to protect the home first, secure your possessions inside if they're on a first floor, or a second floor with a weak roof, and then prepare for the large costs that might occur from repairing damage, or possibly increasing insurance rates. You'll also need to consider things like trimming trees ASAP if you close before the end of the hurricane season, if your condo comes with ownership of some trees that are a threat to your home - and tree trimming generally speaking involves paying for permits and professionals, which can get pricey. So timing is everything. I personally would wait at the least to close right after hurricane season to give myself enough time to prepare, if not waiting until a major hurricane finally hits the area. But numbers are just numbers, sometimes there can be several direct hit hurricanes in a single year, or in multiple years in a row, just like there can be nothing for a long time, or serious hits that don't happen to damage much property or don't hit close to where many people live. Just like the real estate market, it is all a crap shoot to some extent, you just have to be willing to live with the risks you decide to take, whatever they are.
A friend of mine bought a condo in Kendall for I think $120k about a year ago. She has young kids so the suburban thing was a good choice for her. I don't know whether the building is structurally sound or the results of her inspection, but she has been quite happy there.
YES, definitely get a real estate attorney involved to be sure about any purchase with a condo, because their finances and other details can be quite complicated. If you hire a good person, they will do a good job for you protecting you. You can limit how much you ask them to do if you don't have much money to pay them, but they can at the least investigate the property and advise you. If they draw up the documents and oversee the closing the fee might go up much higher, toward $2k, but basic stuff might only cost a few hundred and is really worth it given the very expensive headaches they can save you from.
Getting pre-approved generally won't hurt anything, and will give you access to view more places. It will also give you a heads up if at this time you can't get approved, or can't get a good deal, and need to clean things up in you credit history. You might be surprised by certain things, like for instance not having ENOUGH sources of credit, even if all of your payment history is perfect, can hurt your credit. So it's good to lean about this stuff to be prepared.
No one can tell you for sure if you should buy now or not, because each person's reasons for purchase are different. Sometimes people have very compelling reasons to buy due to health circumstances or events happening in their family that put one on a strict timeline. If you're doing it purely for investment, that is another story. Renting is very expensive, but so is ownership, and in SFL hazard insurances and taxes can sometimes be a lot more than you bargained for (depending on where and in what specific building you live). We are not in the midst of a very clear market crash, or the height of a huge bubble, to give a more obvious answer financially. The market is currently recovering from a crash, so prices are still comparatively low vs. what they were in 2007. But, the world is a more volatile place lately, both politically and environmentally, so another bad crash could come. Right now might be a good time for certain people, if you are usually a risk to banks, because they have recently relaxed requirements to be able to get approved for a loan, which were outrageously strict post-2010. If another crash happens, the the prices will go down, but if you don't have perfect credit you might no longer qualify for a loan because they'll probably increase loan restrictions again. So the answer is kind of individual, and depends on where you money is invested currently. If you're in a terrible apartment and it's affecting your health, moving to a more stable and pleasant place might be invaluable. On the other hand, if you're happy with your place now, there is not really any rush unless we are at the beginning of a long swing upward in the market.
One thing I would advise you to carefully consider, if you have no other pressing need to buy right now, is that Miami is long overdue for a major hurricane hit statistically speaking. Each year that passes without one, the chances go up exponentially that one will hit the following year. So just by numbers, we have a good chance of being hit in the next few years. It would suck to buy something and then have a big one hit that happens to strike your neighborhood hard, and find out your home was not that hurricane-proof. This is a risk we all live with every year, but it's something to consider with the timing of a purchase... at least with an apartment, you can keep renter's insurance, pack up your essentials and get the hell out. But with an owned property, you have to protect the home first, secure your possessions inside if they're on a first floor, or a second floor with a weak roof, and then prepare for the large costs that might occur from repairing damage, or possibly increasing insurance rates. You'll also need to consider things like trimming trees ASAP if you close before the end of the hurricane season, if your condo comes with ownership of some trees that are a threat to your home - and tree trimming generally speaking involves paying for permits and professionals, which can get pricey. So timing is everything. I personally would wait at the least to close right after hurricane season to give myself enough time to prepare, if not waiting until a major hurricane finally hits the area. But numbers are just numbers, sometimes there can be several direct hit hurricanes in a single year, or in multiple years in a row, just like there can be nothing for a long time, or serious hits that don't happen to damage much property or don't hit close to where many people live. Just like the real estate market, it is all a crap shoot to some extent, you just have to be willing to live with the risks you decide to take, whatever they are.
2015 is shaping up to be another quiet year, but as stated above that can change quickly. A fire can be a disaster too, especially in those cheaply built condos with wooden roofs. Avoid any building with a wood roof or any wood floor structures at all cost!~
Every year has an equal statistical likelihood of getting a hurricane. Over time (like several decades or longer), the law of averages catches up with you, and you end up "making up" for those quiet years. But each individual year really is a crap shoot. It's like at the casino, if you lose your bet, your odds of winning next time are no better than they were the first time. The most likely time to get hit here is actually the first half of October, so you'd want to wait a bit longer than the peak in mid-September. May also be a good time since it's in between the summer house hunting season (school break) and the snowbird season. OP can potentially have some more cash saved up then as well.
Midtown/ Edgewater and Brickell are building condos left and right with more to come while the Central Business District is stagnant in comparison with just the building of Met3 and are talking about another Lofts near the Metrorail, Logik(new name), the WorldCenter I question and All Aboard Florida is questionable.
As long as we have Venezuelan and Brazilians along with New Yorkers teemed with cheap dollar, Miami will continue to boom.
Amazing how the bubble cycle continues. Luckily for the developers 2015 looks like another quiet hurricane year. Yet we all know that eventually the big one will come. Investors, don't forget to read the comments in the link above. They tell the real story.
Remember, despite the laundered foreign money, Miami has a lower median income than Detroit!
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. OP can potentially have some more cash saved up then as well.
