Miamism

You hear it so much that it's ingrained in your brain - when selling Miami Real Estate, go neutral - but why? 

People say I have a gift for color, my mom remembers me as a little girl painting color charts and experimenting with color hues and values instead of drawing stick figures.  I did a lot of color consulting in my architectural business before going into real estate (and now offer that service to our clients).  So let me tell you a little about color.

As in Real Estate, there are emotions associated with color - our senses are heightened and we react to certain hues and certain feelings come out with certain colors.  Unfortunately, we cannot generalize that red will make you angry, blue will sooth you and yellow will make you indecisive.  The psychology of color is a lot more complicated than that and different colors affect different people in different and unpredictable ways.

Just yesterday, I was asked to visit some dear friends' home to help them with color.  This is a married couple who are very compatible and at the same time very different.  While one of them wanted blue, the other one felt blue made them uncomfortable.  I'm not going to go into details about the colors that were finally chosen, but the whole point of this is that as a Miami Real Estate Seller, you have the ability to control certain aspects of how people will feel when they walk into your home.

When you are competing against so many other properties for sale, wouldn't it make sense for you to try to make that first visit as pleasant as possible, without instilling feelings that are out of your control?  That's the reason for neutral.

Keeping colors in the off-whites and light beige color scheme is not only the best way to feature elements within a property, but the best way for people to be unbiased when viewing your Miami home for sale.

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Ines.Hegedus-Garcia 2 feedbacks »

Some people refer to the area around The Arsht Center for Performing Arts, formerly known as Carnival Center for Performing Arts as "Miami's Performing Arts District" (somehow the whole name change makes me think of Prince). It is full of antagonisms and controversy because the Performing Arts Center has not, excuse the pun, "performed" as originally planned. The concept was to give Miami what it was missing, the performing arts and theater culture that major cities have. There were amazing projects built all around and the area has boomed....but maybe not at the pace everyone hoped.

Real Estate was to follow the lead of the multi-million dollar project, especially because the city was dumping a lot of cash into the re-design of the area - from pedestrian friendly streets to public places. And so it happened, beautiful Miami Luxury condos around the Arsht Center for Performing Arts were constructed with amazing views of the city of Miami as well as the Bay and Port of Miami together with best amenities. These are not only centrally located, but are close to shopping and withing walking distance to everything you need and a stone throw away from Downtown Miami.

The Arsht Center for The Performing Arts

The Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of multi-purpose state-of-the-art performance halls . Designedby Cesar Pelli and Associates, it is the focal point of performing arts activity in South Florida and serves as a showcase for the finest established and developing cultural programs.

i's Center for Performing Artsiami's Center for Performing ArtsLocated on Biscayne Boulevard between NE 13th and 14th streets, the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts consists of three performance facilities which are linked by a pedestrian bridge spanning the Boulevard. The Center's performance halls include a concert hall designed for concerts of classical and popular music and a ballet opera house, capable of accommodating the grand sets and scenery employed in major theatrical productions. The complex also houses a theater for small-scale theater and dance presentations. The center's auditoria, banquet facilities, plaza and other public areas are intended to accommodate a range of civic and social events.

The economic impact up and down Biscayne Boulevard, from Overtown to Biscayne Bay, is obvious and new Miami downtown condominium projects make their proximity to the Miami Arts District a major selling point.

This is an old photo before many of the condos South of the Center were built, but gives a great perspective of the city.

Wynwood Luxury Condos or Miami Arts District

Some local Realtors used to refer to the high-end condos at Wynwood (which is just East and North of the center) as "better" than those condos being built South of I-395 or "the grid-lock" area. I always laughed at the inference that those condos would be superior, since the others were not quite completed.

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We are being approached with this question constantly - Why didn't my Miami home sell? The answer comes in 3 parts and as many times as you may have seen and read these answers, you have to be objective and answer the questions honestly.

The answers are: Pricing, Condition and Marketing

Plain and simple.....ok, maybe not that simple but I'll explain each in detail

Funny thing is that although Real Estate is local, other agents around the US are going out of their way to give the same explanation to their real estate blog readers - take a look at Mariana Wagner's 3 part series on the same subject and she's on the opposite side of the US in Colorado Springs.

My Miami house did not sell because of price

You will instincly think that your house is better than all the others on the market. You will think that your house will sell quicker and will attract more buyers - It's natural, you love your house and think others will love it just as much.....but this may not always be the case.

To be able to price your house appropriately you will need to know the current Miami real estate market, know the inventory and the condition of other similar homes, you will need to be objective and be able to disconnect from all the emotional factors that define your "home". This will implicate being able to recognize what upgrades are marketable and have value to a buyer as well as what factors can be detrimental to a sale.

Hiring a Miami Realtor that is proficient in your area is key to pricing your home. We also see a lot of sellers that want to "test" the market by pricing a little higher than recommended (this is ultimately your call, but you may find yourself either selling for a lot less in the long run, or chasing the market down). Also read:

• Miami Home Sellers to the race: ready, set ....go!

Team Miamism recognizes certain triggers which mean a price reduction is warranted - if we see no showings in a week and we receive no offers in 3 weeks, it's time to rethink that pricing strategy.

If you are brave, also read this article (warning: not for the weak)

• Home Sellers Can't Handle The Truth

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Ines.Hegedus-Garcia 4 feedbacks »

Dear Miami Real Estate Seller:

Do you realize that today's real estate buyer is smart? is educated? and will research your property to death before they even place an offer?

Most of you are even aware that almost 90% of buyers start their search on the Internet, so what do you have to do to sell your home?

If you are planning to sell, you have to be just as smart as those buyers and you need to do a little homework.  Your research should start with Google.

Google the area you live in to see which agents have a strong Internet presence.  Those agents that have a strong presence will know how to market your property on-line and will know how to expose your listing to millions of buyers.

Example:  You want to sell you Miami Shores Home - you should Google "Miami Shores Real Estate", "Miami Shores", "Miami Shores Homes" and any other combination thereof.  Take a look at the first 2 (maybe even 3) pages of Google Searches and find out what each one of those Realtors is doing to market their listings.

It's not about your Realtor having a website anymore, it's about your Realtor knowing where to place your listing, exposing your property in not only local web-portals, but all over the world.

If you are not finding your favorite agent in Google, or the properties they are selling, it may be time to re-examine your "selling strategy".

Please remember that although this is a very important part of the equation, once you find that "Googable Realtor" (no that's not a real word), you should also follow home preparation and pricing recommendations.

• Staging your Miami Home

• Why isn't your Miami home selling?

• Pricing your Miami Home

• How to Sell Your Home in Black and White

• Home Sellers Can't Handle The Truth

• First Impressions in Real Estate

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Ines.Hegedus-Garcia 2 feedbacks »

We have recently received calls and e-mails from our Miami investor clients, asking about 1031 exchanges. So I decided to explain it in a brief and hopefully understandable way.

What is an IRC 1031 Tax Deferred Exchange?

A 1031 Exchange, is a transaction which specifies if an asset (usually some form of real estate such as land or a building) is sold and the proceeds of the sale are the reinvested in an asset of a similar kind, therefore no capital gain or loss is recognized, allowing the deferment of capital gains taxes that would otherwise have been due on the first sale. The actual law is Title 26, section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code.

In plain English, this means that a 1031 Exchange is a rollover of equity of like properties, rather than an avoidance of tax.

There are 3 important parts that are important for a smooth and successful 1031 Exchange:

1. Time Requirements

2. Identification Rules

3. Monetary Requirements

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Rick Send feedback »