Miami Real Estate Blog

Every once in a while I have the pleasure of telling you about historically significant homes that are on the market for sale.   This time, there is a California Bungalow Estate located in The Shorecrest subdivision of Miami’s Upper East Side. It is the original estate of the Renuart Family, owners of Renuart Lumber.

This particular home is very unique because of many different factors. First, it sits on an acre lot which is a commodity in this area of Miami. Second, its architectural style is not common for South Florida and third, it has been exquisitely restored.

The home sits on one side of the acre property and is surrounded by a gated masonry wall with balustrades. The main house has 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and has a separate 1 bedroom / 1 bathroom cottage with a 2 car garage. Its tropical landscaping includes a Sapodilla Tree, an Avocado tree, as well as Protected Florida Mangroves on the canal side of the property.

This home reflects its California Bungalow style because of the typical projecting bay on its front façade, pedestal type tapered columns, and L-shaped veranda with a transitional planter which incorporates the land to the home. The interior is full of great surprises including beautifully patterned oak floors, built-ins and prominent hearth.

Lastly, the meticulous restoration is something to see. The owners of this estate painstakingly restored every corner of this home, from the ceiling fresco in the living room, to all the millwork, doors, frames and baseboards including door hinges and door hardware.  At the same time the house was modernized with new electrical and plumbing, new bathrooms to accentuate the home’s architectural style, and new cabinetry in the kitchen and bathrooms which reflect the home’s arts and crafts influence.  

The features that jumped out at me when I visited the home were: 

• the scale of the interior spaces
• the millwork found throughout and the 9” baseboards
• the red oak floor pattern
• the restored honeycomb shaped mosaic tile in the bathrooms
• the beautiful stained glass in the secondary dining room
• the second floor terrace overlooking the front of the property
• the bordered Terrazzo floors in the veranda 

The owner of the estate does not have an easy task at hand, to find the perfect owner that appreciates the uniqueness of the home as well as its grandeur, but the fact is that it is an impressive property worthy of a loving owner.

I've been debating whether to post this or not and finally decided to go for it to get your opinions. 

I would like to set the tone for this story about a Real Estate Investor who I will call JAKE.  Jake purchased one of our listings before.  He called without an agent, claimed he did not have one, we showed him the property, gave him comps, and did other due diligence.

Several weeks later, we received an offer for that property from Jake's real estate agent.  Although felt somewhat disturbed by Jake's ways, we decided to try to negotiate the best deal possible for our seller.  The offer had the typical seller's contributions, money back at closing and other manipulating schemes typical of this market.  We cleaned up the offer according to Fannie Mae guidelines, countered and we were able to achieve a sale.  Jake's agent did not do a thing; we had to do our job and his job.  Jake insisted in talking directly with us, the agent did not return one single call during the whole transaction.  Did not show up to appraisal, inspections or even the closing. But our seller got what he wanted at the time agreed, after many headaches and close calls.  We had to jump hurdles and were so happy when it was all done.

So a couple of months go by and I receive a call form Jake.  "Hey Ines, I see you have a listing I may be interested in, could you please send me the information via e-mail?"

I took a big breath, sent him an e-mail and asked sarcastically, "So I can assume you are not working with an agent this time either?"  Here's Jake's response (unedited):

Ines, yes i am working with a realtor however if you know how to structure this adendom and sales contract i will be glad to work with you. I would like to offer 500k with 3% sellers contribution back to buyer. I also want an adendom saying buyer would like to get back 70K at closing for repairs. i will put down 1,000.00 deposit and 49,000.00 15 days after excepted. I will give you a pre aproved letter with contract and a commitment letter with deposit and will close before July 25th. The total offer after money back is going tobe 415,000.00 less your double dip....

What do you think?  Please remember that in Florida we are transaction Brokers which is "a broker who provides limited representation to a buyer, a seller, or both in a real estate transaction, but does not represent either in a fiduciary capacity or as a single agent".

El Portal is a small community just South of Miami Shores, between 85th and 91st Streets and between NE and NW 5th Avenues.

The city is a bird sanctuary and it is known for its beautiful trees and birds. You may also be one of the fortunate ones that will see a peacock walking around. There is even a piece of Tequesta Indian history in The Sherwood Forest area where you will find a historically designated Ancient Burial Ground.

Three cities merged in 1937 (El Jardin, Sherwood Forest and El Portal) and were incorporated into what is known today as The City of El Portal.

El Portal real estate varies from historic Spanish Revival Architecture to modern homes. Although there is no commercial district in El Portal, it is centrally located and close enough to neighboring shopping.

I have reached the LAST ASSIGNMENT! Wooo Hoo!  It was a great exercise and made me think and re-think a bit on the value of reading other blogs, I really recommend everyone takes it on, at least for fun's sake.

I will make this a List of some of my favorite Blogs outside of AR: 

• The Springs Realty Scoop

• Rain For Change

• SoundBiteBlog

• My Oakland County

• The Denver Blog

• Longbeach Real Estate Blog

• Sacramento Real Estate Voice

• RSS Pieces

• Stuck On The Palmetto

• About Home Buying / Selling

• Boom or Bust: Miami

So there you have them....some of my favorites, the ones I check in often and the list just keeps growing.  Just to think that 2 months ago I was afraid to go out into the real blogosphere is just amazing to me.

Here's the other 2 assignments:  Project Blogger Coaching - learn or not?  and My 10 favorite Active Rain Bloggers

The punishment continues.  I know it's a little harsh to call it punishment.....and it is making us think.  So here's something I've learned from Project Blogger coaches.

JEFF TURNER - I could easily dedicate a whole post or two to Jeff alone.  I've learned from Jeff to keep it real, to be yourself and to communicate to my blog audience like I would to a good friend.  I also have a killer camera recommended by Jeff (you should have seen the Active Rain Gathering....it was like a Kodak party....everyone had the same camera).  And the tools.....so many cool tools (Jott, Gizmoz, Real Estate Shows,  the annoying little bubble, meez....).  I also learned to not take the PB judging to heart (easier said than done)...and my favorite lesson ----->Google Is A Woman.

ARDELL DELLALOGGIA - The biggest lesson I've learned from Ardell is to see your blog from a consumer's perspective.  Although I have to admit I am far from grasping the concept, it is one of the most important lessons.  We take for granted the perspective from which people read, and it's important to place oneself in the consumer's position and read from their perspective.  I hope she has a magic secret to share with us, but have a feeling it's all about practice.  Now I have to decide whether or not I want to be a bit more controversial....although not my style, I'm sure with the right topic I would be more than capable. I have to point out this post because the criticism was SPECIAL, Top Ten Apprentice Blog Posts - Warning -"Simonish" .

TERESA BOARDMAN - from Teresa I've learned that it can be fun to have "theme days" in your blog, like her Friday Fun posts.  (Hence the idea of Miamism Fridays was born.......maybe it should have been Miamism Mondays......but I like Fridays so much more).I also learned that people other than architects also enjoy architecture and historic homes (that was such a relief!). And that having a different point of view is very satisfying.  I loved the article on Blog Swaps and Guest Authors.  I'll be working on that soon, if I could just find a victim.

THE REAL ESTATE TOMATO - I learned one very important lesson - that it is OK to be a perfectionist.  From Jim I have also learned that there are really great sales people that we can all learn a little from.

GREG SWANN - What can I say about Greg but "holy cow can he write!!" - Every time I go into the bloodhound blog I am so filled with information that it's a bit overwhelming.  I will admit that Greg intimidates me, but I'm sure I will get over that soon.  He has a great sense of humor and is a blogging machine.

SELLSIUS - The KISS principle comes to mind (Keep It Simple Stupid) - their blog is always so inviting and so easy to read and navigate, their topic down to earth - doesn't hurt to be nice guys too.

I don't think I need to mention what I've learned from Paul Chaney in this post because I've dedicated at least a handful of posts to that alone.  As for the other coaches, I have to admit that I have not paid much attention to and that's totally my fault.  It could be because they are not in AR much, it could be because the wealth of information coming from the top three coaches above was all I could take, or I could say that I am trying to come up with excuses and should go pay more attention.  SEE ARDELL?  Another lesson.....do you ever stop?

Don't miss the other 2 assignments at:  My 10 favorite Active Rain Bloggers and  Real Estate Blogs outside Active Rain

I don't know if you heard, but Project Blogger Apprentices have been PUNISHED!!

I do think this is a great exercise for everyone, so feel free to take on the challenge and list your 10 favorite top ten favorite Active Rain Bloggers.

1)The Lovely Wife (for spark, humor and personality and passion)

2)Broker Bryant (for his business ethics and straight-forward thinking)

3) Mariana Wagner (for her style, humor and originality)

4) Tool Boy Turner (for his sincerity, candor and of course his tools)

5) Nicky Mississippi (for his down-to-earth cool attitude)

6) Ann Cummings (for her thirst for knowledge and willingness to help)

7) Monika McGuillicuddy (for the teacher in her and her sisterly nature)

8) Rich Jacobson (because he's a genuinely nice guy and for his love of crabs)

9)Laurie Manny (because she tells it like it is)

10)George Souto (for his values and his great singing voice)

You guys have no idea how difficult it was to pick 10 - I could go on for days here:  The Codgers, Craig Schiller, Maureen Francis, Kristal Kraft, Carole Cohen, Maggie Dokic......better yet, click HEREand take a look at my associates, it reflects my favorite bloggers in Active Rain.

The assignment doesn't stop here, we also need to:

• List your top 10 favorite Real Estate Blogs NOT on Active Rain (and not your own!)Real Estate Blogs outside Active Rain
• Pick one piece of advice from EACH COACH and list it in a blog post for others to learn from.  NOT a link to a coach article ,but an ACTUAL piece of advice FROM an article that taught you something valuable. Project Blogger Coaching - learn or not?

We are reading all kinds of articles about the proposed Florida Tax Reforms.  Because a lot of our customers are absentee owners, second home owners and commercial property owners they keep contacting us about how the proposed tax reform will impact them.

Rick and I decided to write a post only on the changes proposed for these owners, since they have called us and requested more information from our Miamism blog.  The post is called Property Tax reform for 2nd home owners and commercial properties.  These are the changes that will definitely take place and will give these owners a better idea in order to budget their expenses.

The Florida Tax Reform Proposal for non-homesteaded properties is:

• Just like homesteaded properties, effective 2007-2008 budget year, cities and counties will have to rollback taxes to the 2006-2007 levels.

• All properties, which include non-homesteaded properties and commercial properties, will get a modest 7% tax cut (approximately) at the expense of local governments.

• Moving forward, the property taxes will be capped at a rate that does not exceed the growth of personal income and population growth.  Just as a bench mark, personal income has grown at a rate of approximately 4%.

I have to admit that we expected more and there was talk about rolling these back to 2003-2004 levels.  It is disappointing for a lot of us, but at least these 2nd home and commercial property owners will know what to expect with regards to their tax increase every year.

Fisher Island, the private residential community only accessible by private ferry and helicopter, is looking for options for dock space for their daily barge service that carries food, household supplies and construction materials across the bay.  This daily barge is considered the island's "life line" since it provides residents with everyday necessities and according to Mark James, president of the Fisher Island Community Association, the barge is "essential for our survival".

Fisher Island had a 10-year lease with The Port of Miami, and after not being billed for some years, settled on $1.135 million in port fees.  The Island is now looking for alternatives and has a number of different options at a lower cost, according to the Miami Herald's Article, Fisher Island agrees to $1.135M port fees.

Fisher Island is a private island, once home of The Vanderbilts and later developed as an exclusive luxurious community.  Amenities in the island include the Fisher Island Hotel and Resort, A par-35 nine-hole golf course designed by architect P. B. Dye, an 18 court tennis center, a spa and fitness center, 2 world-class deep water marinas, 8 restaurants, A commercial center with a high-end gourmet market and shopping, a polo field, private beaches, The Fisher Island Day School (from Pre-K to 5th grade), large playground for kids of all ages, post office, on-island fire and emergency station, Seaplane, Car-Ferry and helicopter access 24-hours a day.

As for real estate available on Fisher Island right now, there are 63 properties for sale and they range from a 420 square foot studio apartment for $449,000 to a 5 bedroom/5 bathroom Oceanside residence listed for $10.9 million.

Make sure you check out some of Fisher Island's famous residents in this Wikipedia link.

I can honestly tell you that before Project Blogger began, I had no idea that a blog needed marketing.  I figured blogging was enough!  Write key-word rich articles with all the right tools and Voila!

Well....you can try that route, but I can tell you that it takes so much more than writing to increase you Google Ranking and for people to find you.  One article I mentioned before and I will mention again that Paul Chaney Guided me to is Lee Odden's 25 Tips for marketing your blog.  I have printed out the post and have it next to my screen to remind me of what I've done and what I need to work on. 

I know everyone reading this is thinking, so if we do all that, when will we have time to actually work?  Those are my sentiments exactly!  I'm going a lot slower than I would like, and realized that sometimes it is good to get help and that's where I'm going with this post. 

One way I've gotten help  is with number 12 on the list, which says:  "Submit RSS feed and Blog URL to prominent RSS and Blog directories / search engines".   When I started researching the amount of blog directories, I found out there were over 100 of them!  At that time I asked Paul if he knew of someone who would do the submissions and he did.

It so happened that Paul's son, Allan, was helping people with blog submissions.  They had so many requests, that it developed into a business for him.  Allan Chaney did all the blog submissions for me and then e-mailed me a summary of all the blog directories and other relevant details.  Paul wrote a post about it - Submit Your Blog to Blog Directories and Search Engines.  The most important thing here is that the work was done by someone trustworthy and I did not have to do it myself!  Thanks Alan for all the hard work.

You can contact Alan Chaney at achaney82@gmail.com

Next, I got Rick to write his first post.....I wonder who else I can recruit?

Can you guys believe Rick actually wrote his first post,  Hurricane Season - are you ready? .He woke up yesterday, grabbed the hurricane preparation guide provided by Miami-Dade County and said, "This is definitely blog material!".

Usually I would grab the publication, do some research and post, but this time he blew me away. I did assist him and jotted down his thoughts on paper (before he changed his mind), and then helped him add the map and the links.

But I think it's a great start!  I will consider him my first guest writer on our Miamism blog site, since I don't think it will happen often.

The article talks about the 2005 hurricane season putting a damper on the South Florida real estate market.  It talks about buyers being concerned about property location including evacuation zones.  It tells people about Miami Dade County's yearly publication, Miami-Dade Now, which provides great information about hurricane preparedness, a map with evacuation zones and other useful information. 

We can't control the weather, but can guide our readers on how to be better prepared.