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Last week I sold a home in Coconut Grove which is unlike any other: it is the first certified Fortified Construction and Energy Star home built in Miami-Dade County. The developers and sellers, Rochester Builders Inc., set out to build an affordable product with a construction standard that goes far beyond what is called for in Florida. They wanted to make the home energy efficient as well. They achieved their goal and I found them a lucky buyer.

The Insurance Institute For Business & Home Safety, or IBHS, is the independent, non-profit organization that designates the Fortified Home certificates. There are three levels of designation: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Gold represents the highest standard for disaster protection, which the developers received. The methods and materials employed in the construction of the home ensure the utmost protection from hurricanes and other potential disasters. The Environmental Protection Agency designated the property a high Energy Star rating due to its energy-efficient appliances, lighting, heating, cooling, and ventilation systems. These ratings are not just accolades; they also translate into thousands of dollars in savings for the homeowner due to lower home insurance and utility costs.

Selling the house involved a three-month process from the day I got the listing to the day it closed.  I used various methods and tools including listing it on the MLS, advertising it on our website, speaking with the pastor of the neighborhood church to get the word out to the community, as well as doing a mass mail-out through the Postal Service. The challenge was to inform the public of a unique product that had not been available before in this market. And that is exactly what I did.

As my broker, Tom Dixon, says “being a real estate agent is about problem solving”, it is about finding unique solutions to unique issues. The combination of our various methods prompted a lot of activity and interest in the house and it came down to choosing the right buyer.

So if you have a unique real estate problem or simply need representation in the sale or purchase of a property, give us a call and we will find you a solution.

Roger Lopez
Dixon Commercial Real Estate
[email protected]
305.443.4966

As commercial real estate brokers, when we list a property for sale, the first step is to properly identify the property’s address, legal description and owner’s name.

When we market the property, we may include a location map, aerial photos, copy of the plat showing the recorded information about the site,  a legal description, a survey and exhibits from the office of the Property Appraiser.

On the surface, this seems very simple; a property has an address and this tells you where the property is located on a map.  But it is not quite this simple. In the process of listing a 3.3 acre site, with industrial zoning located near the Airport Expressway and NW 27^th Avenue in Miami-Dade County, we encountered a strange situation.

Usually, the address is confirmed by a review of the legal description and plat.  However, in Miami-Dade, because of the 90 year age of some plats, the information on the plat is different from the information at the site.  For the property we are selling, the plat shows the west edge of the property being  NW 29^th Avenue, but maps and other exhibits show the western  boundary as being NW 30th Avenue.   One of the buildings has a listed address of 2990 NW 40^th Street,  but according to the original plat, it should be addressed as 2890 SW 40^th Street.

We don’t know how this happened, but further investigation found that in this part of Miami-Dade, some avenues on maps are missing.  For example, there is NW 27^th Avenue with the next avenue to the west being not NW 28^th Avenue  -which you would expect – but NW 29^th Avenue.  NW 28^th Avenue is missing or skipped.

Another example is found in old plats in the Brickell area of Miami. These old plats show what is now SW 8th Street being listed in the original plat recorded in 1901 as SW 20^th Street.  An apartment developer friend turned this to his advantage.   He built an apartment on what is now known as SW 15^th Road in Brickell and when looking for a name, saw that the original name for SW 15^th Road was Broadway.  So he named his building “One Broadway”.

Another strange artery is “Coral Way”.   It starts out as SW 13^th Street, then becomes SW 3^rd Avenue, then SW 22^nd  Street, and in Coral Gables, becomes Miracle Mile. After it goes west past Coral Gables, it becomes SW 24^th Street.

We don’t always have the correct address but we know how to find the right property for our buyers. 

-Tom Dixon

It is amazing how many students from my Commercial Brokerage class call and say they have an investor with $5,000,000 looking to purchase a commercial property showing a return of 10% on the investment. Or they ask do I know of any triple net lease properties with national credit tenants for sale with a return of 8%. In the real estate market today these types of properties are just not available for these kinds of return on investment.

Traditionally, real estate investors have been seeking investments with returns in the range of 8% to 10%. However, with the very, very low interest rates on savings deposits sellers are less willing to sell their properties in this market. Their position is that if they sell their property the net amount to reinvest after income taxes will not yield the same income as the property they now own.

The income properties which do come on the market are being sold because of issues with the property or issues with the owners of the property. Issues with the property could be it needs to be improved, re-marketed, has lost tenants or the market area has changed. Issues with the ownership could be partnership disagreements, lack of capital to improve the property, mortgage finances, a desire to reduce management responsibility or ownership is seeking to change/diversify investments.

This leads to a strange market condition in which the availability of properties for sale have returns on investment lower that the market is willing to accept “prices are too high” and buyers with expectations which cannot be obtained “investment returns are too low”.

Over time buyers become more willing to accept a lower return and are willing to pay higher prices. I guess you could call this price creep. We see this when we buy gasoline. Three years ago the price of $3.00/gallon was too high and we were aware of the this high price. Today the price is approaching $4.00/gallon and we just accept that this is the cost of driving.

Therefore, as the overall real estate market improves buyers must become more willing to pay a higher price if they want to invest.

As a real estate broker, when some one calls about a For Sale sign, I’m always asked, “What is the asking Price?” Usually, they expect a price based on cash to the seller. But lately my thinking has changed. Maybe the answer to this question should be, “It will cost you $$$ per month to own this property.”

This brings up the very interesting concept of price vs. value. Price is the measurement in dollars of something, whereas value is the actual benefit of your purchase. Let me give you an example. When I was a kid, my dad, an Air Force Colonel, enjoyed having a rum cocktail after a hard day at the base. I remember his explanation of how he had developed a system of converting price into value. Back then, he could purchase a bottle of rum for $5.00, and this bottle provided a benefit. Then when he went to buy a pair of shoes, he would compare the benefit or value of a pair of shoes priced at $10, converted to the benefit of two bottles of rum. So, when he went to buy something for $100, it translated to a value greater than 20 bottles of rum. (Needless to say, back in those times, he did not buy a lot of things for $100.)

This way of thinking about measurements applies to a lot of situations. A cruise ship is not 600 long, it can be better described as being as long as two football fields. A building is not 1,250’ tall, but is described as being as tall as the Empire State Building. When we travel by air, the trip is not described as being 1,000 miles, but as a trip of 3 hours. Think about the things we consume. Coca-Cola ads never show the price, it shows the benefit of satisfying your thirst.

Another way to measure something is to describe the cost or benefit in terms that are more understandable. For example, comparing the mileage of one car to another. Let’s say you drive a car 20,000 miles per year. If one car gets 20 miles per gallon and another gets 25 per gallon, what does this really mean? Over a distance of 20,000 miles, this will be an additional 200 gallons of gas. At $4.00 per gallon, this will be $800 more per year for the car with the lower mileage/gallon. Maybe this is the reason more expensive, super-economical cars with fewer creature comforts are not as popular as we think they should be.

Then there is the strange benefit of ownership satisfaction. Consider the difference in the price of watches. They all do the same thing, with the same degree of accuracy; yet sell from $20 to $20,000. There must be an emotional benefit of possessing a watch costing $20,000. The price is $20,000 – but for someone to buy the watch – they must receive a benefit equal to or greater than $20,000.

Call us we know how to measure the difference between price and value.