Researching local listings

Have you ever wanted to determine the approximate value of a property in South Florida?

Years ago, consumers were completely reliant on Realtors® to research the market (We had to rely on the likes of Suzanne). We had no idea if we were getting accurate or complete information. Fortunately, the Internet provides us with a huge amount of information on the local market.

In my opinion, the best site to start your search is Ziprealty.com. Although it requires registration, I prefer this site far more than Realtor.com. Ziprealty.com has features that Realtor.com does not including:

• Advanced search features including the ability to search by address, proximity, and MLS #
• Listing of HOA fees for most property when applicable
• Display of listing dates and days on market
• Display of price decreases and increases on the properties
• A great automatic email system that can be set to notify you when new listings appear and when your saved listings are changed
  

At the same time, I have found some of their online information highly unreliable –specifically their “Sold Homes” and “Estimated Value” features. Both of these features pull data from Zillow.com. Zillow.com is infamously inaccurate and, in my opinion, should never be trusted as remotely useful data. Also note that I have never used Ziprealty.com beyond its online search. I have no idea if their Realtors® are worthwhile or not.

To determine recent sales data on properties, it’s always better to go to the county’s property appraiser for recent sales information. The following are links to our local appraisers:

Broward County
Miami-Dade County
Palm Beach County
Monroe County

Recently, I used these sites to research a Fort Lauderdale loft a friend of mine was casually considering after seeing the following Craigslist.com advertisement:

“$359000 2/2 NEW YORK STYLE LOFT DOWNTOWN-Nola Lofts. BEAUTIFUL NEW YORK STYLE LOFT IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN FORT LAUDERDALE WITH POLISHED CONCRETE FLOORS AND FLOOR TO CEILING WINDOWS. CLOSE TO LAS OLAS AND BEACHES.BRING ALL OFFERS!!”

If you have a Ziprealty.com account, you can see the MLS listing here. The listing shows that unit has been on market for 46 days (as of today). It was originally listed for $389,000. Most importantly, it shows the unit’s outrageous monthly homeowners’ association (HOA) fees of $696.

I also used Ziprealty.com’s address search feature to find other 2/2 lofts in the same building. Unit #203 has been on the market now for 223 days and has dropped its price five times, all the way down to $319,000. Unit #705 was recently listed for $444,000.

On the Broward County Appraisers site, I was able to see that the unit was purchased for $329.000 back in March 2005. The site also shows its current annual property tax bill of $6,817.80 (if homesteaded, this amount would go down approximately $500 per year).

BCPA.net also shows that Unit #705 was purchased just 8 months ago for $306,000 prior to the recent accelerated market drop (down approximately 5.8% since this December 2006 purchase). In other words, based on comparable sales and the recent market drop, this Craigslist listing should probably be priced closer to $288,252.

We can also use the information we gathered to estimate of monthly costs (to calculate monthly mortgage payment, this is a good site):

• Mortgage (Assuming 90% financed, 6.5%, 30-year fixed): $2042.21
• HOA Fees (Assumes HOA covers property insurance): $696.00
• Taxes (Assuming property is homesteaded): $526.48
• Total Monthly Cost: $3,264.69

My friend would have to pay over $3,000 a month for a 2-bedroom loft -- a loft that is probably overpriced by $70,000 and will undoubtedly depreciate over the next few years? No wonder consumers have nearly stopped buying South Florida real estate.

If you have any other useful online research site, please let me know.