Beautiful 5 Bedroom Condo at Villa Regina with 4,100 Square Feet – $1,499,900
May 6, 2008 by Lucas Lechuga
If size, quality, and location are what you need, then look no further. The 5 bedroom listing at Villa Regina spans 4,100 square feet (380.9 square meters), has a total of 15 rooms, 5 full bathrooms, comes with 3 parking spaces, has 4 terraces with gorgeous bay and city views and has been tastefully remodeled. The kitchen has new granite countertops and stainless steel appliances with custom cabinetry. The air conditioning system was also replaced 3 months ago and the condo has impact resistance windows and shutters.
The amenities at Villa Regina include: 24-hour full-service concierge and security, swimming pool, fitness center, his and her spas, barbecue area and 4 grand party rooms. Villa Regina is located directly on Biscayne Bay and is one of the few condo buildings in Brickell with its own private marina.
Contact me today if you'd like to take a look at this 5 bedroom condo at Villa Regina.
Unless I start my own company….i’ll never be able to afford anything like that! lol
$426 psf is good for larger locations?
Would the tax be something like 40k a year?
Recent 4+ BR sales have been between $400 and $500 psf in Brickell. 2007 Taxes: $15,042
Unit# is 905 – so I believe it’s 9th floor in a 30-story building
Lucas any news on Onyx on the Bay??.
Ii it true that Corus bank is taking over by the end of may??.
Guillermo,
I haven’t heard anything new. Is that what you’ve been hearing?
Wow…really amazing.
Just wondering what you all think would be the best place to purchase this year if you had 300K cash? Brickell, SOBE, CBD, etc…
Miami2008 – Direct Waterfront!
Very nice. Congrats on the listing!
Yes waterfront is a must. Bay or beach?
Hey Lucas, can I buy this place $0 down? My DTI is 60%. My FICO is 620. I want to flip this place to double my money in a few weeks.
I forgot to add that I make 30K a year and I spend most of that on my BMW lease.
Mo, you need to be more creative. Offer $3 mill as long as the owner kicks $1mill cash back to you and Lucas can pocket the extra $250k on the side for hooking it all up. Everybody’s happy hapy happy. It’s the American Dream 33139 style.
Speaking of mortgage fraud (a little off-topic, but I know it’s a hot issue among the posters on this blog) – the Palm Beach Post reported on the crackdown of a group of mortgage scammers:
So, maybe we will see some justice after all. In this particular case, the suspects were under investigation for over a year before the arrests were made. Hopefully we’ll see the same thing happen to the countless Brickell fraudsters.
A little closer to home:
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2008/04/21/daily53.html
Looks like it takes the Feds to come in and do something about this stuff. I wonder why this isn’t getting so much press. It ties right in to the meltdown of the mortgage market… highlights how bad a lot of the loans making up all that fancy “collaterizezd” structured debt doodoo really were.
Shocking, though, to hear that this type of flipping happened in the high end units on South Beach. The price for those could never be inflated….
Looks like high-end closings aren’t suffering too many walkaways. Canyon Ranch has closed 63 in about 4 months.
If Canyon has only closed 63 in 4 months, then that is awful. A good closing attorneys office can typically close 5-6 units per day for a new tower. 63 units can easily be done in 2-3 weeks.
PLEASE JUSTIFY – According to your Brickell Index, average PSF in Villa Regina = $356.79
You have priced this at $426.83!
How do you justify a premium of $70 PSF
Would a buyer not be overpaying by $287,000 (over 1/4 of a million)
What am I missing here?
DL,
1. The ASKING price is $1.75M. The price isn’t set in stone.
2. 5 bedroom condos in Brickell are very rare.
3. Having 3 parking spaces is extremely rare.
Vallejo, CA declares bankrupcy. Wow…i didnt know a city/county could declare bankrupcy.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/06/BACH10HUK6.DTL&tsp=1
Could this happen in Miami? The biggest employer in Miami area is the government and all of those employees have nice fat retirement packages.
DL. Usually larger condos do sell at a premium. The market for those condos is small, but the buyers are usually ones with deep pockets. I know a person who has 4 kids and has a 5 bedroom condo in CA. They like to live in a urban area and so they got the 5 bedroom condo. A house would be cheaper, more practical and easier to get in/out of, but my friend prefers to live in a large building with a big pool and amenaties such as 24 hr valet and dry cleaning service.
Execs of corporations also buy these larger condos so that they can entertain guests/business partners close to work (instead of driving to burbs for a large house).
Do you really believe that there is $287,000 of additional value
– almost $60,000/ bedroom?
– seems to me it is way over-priced, particularly as it is most likely less liquid than a 2/2 for example
– i would want a discount if the market is so “rare”/ small for 5 bedroom condo in Miami.
Just a thought – I look forward to seeing how ling this takes to sell and at what price.
I totally agree with DL…”rare” doesnt mean anything in this market!…let me know when you sell this unit.
Going price for 3060 sf units is $1,150,000 –> $375 psf.
So yes DL – if you plan to buy it – don’t offer more than 1.5M
Maybe even lower if you go by Condo Vulture average condo discounts – BTW – 27% off asking price according to his latest study.
$1.3M would be my offer.
there is a premium if it is a 5 bedroom condo and the demand for 5 bedroom condos exceeds the Supply
DL, how is it less liquid that a 2/2? I disagree 2/2 are all competing with each other and there are thousands too choose from literary thousands and those 15,000 more condos coming to the brickell area are mostly 1 and 2 bedrooms, no developers built many 4 and 5 bedroom condos, thats why I see various bids go for 4 bedroom apartments and have them raise the prices in this market and I see 2/2 priced very aggresively just sit and stay in the Banks books. I have seen many people that buy and look for 2 apartments next to each other so they can join them and make it a 2/2.5 into 4 bedrooms however its expensive, hard to find 2 next to each other, they usually have different sloos, you end up having 2 small kitchens , the layouts are hard to transform into something that looks right and the maintenance fees are higher for since you have to pay for additional square feet that isnt needed like the extra kitchen.
4 and 5 bedroom condos in brickell definitely carry a premium because they are rare and I cant believe I am using the words “rare” “apartment” and “Brickell” on the same sentence
bc wrote, “A good closing attorneys office can typically close 5-6 units per day for a new tower”
Please name one condo that is closing at that rate. I don’t believe any of the condos Lucas has been tracking are closing at that rate, and certainly the credit crunch isn’t helping.
The HOA on 3050 sq. ft condo would be a killer/
nuff said, and high carrying costs.
The HOA fee is based on the square footage of the condo. It might be a killer monthly payment for someone in the market for a 1-2 bedroom condo. You can’t compare apples to oranges. Obviously, someone in the market for a 5 bedroom continue is going to incur a higher monthly carrying cost than someone looking at a condo with less bedrooms. You also have to keep in mind that the annual income of buyers requiring this type of space is much higher than your average buyer.
Why is it so rare for a 5 BR apt? There are thousands of 2 BR’s. Just join 2 adjacent 2/2 units, make one kitchen/LR into a BR and Voila, you got a 5 BR, 4 Bath condo with 2 or 3 parking spaces to boot. Rare, my ass.
2 bedroom condos nowadays are only 1,000-1,300 square feet. Join two of those together and you’re nowhere even close to 4,100 square feet. Maybe you can try to join 3-4 adjacent condos together instead. Good luck with that!
How many people are earning enough to fill all these multi-million dollar condos? Lucas, you need to start showing some of the homeless people around these condos. Can you secure funding for people with little to no credit history?
Mo:
Not that many, that’s why the “rare” adjective.
Also somebody buying this kind of property will not have an issue with making the payment.
Not out of the question neither that a company would buy it.
You guys are all nuts, five bedrooms in brickell is unheard of, you guys talking about joining units have obviously never tried that. and good luck trying to get 4100 sq.ft. doing it, I think this unit is amazing, great views, great space and I think you’ll have no problem selling it Lucas. People looking to buy this size unit aren’t affected by “The credit crunch” or “recession” this is for people that make “real money” not your average joe shmoe.
If I had close to 2M lying around under my sofa – I would be looking for a penthouse
And perhaps a building which is much newer than 1984
Believe it or not, folks that buy $1-2M dollar homes are not always the idle rich.
Sometimes Hubby is making $300k at the bank and Wifey is pulling down $500k lawyering. They’ve got to pay for the kids’ private school, the nanny (lawyering takes up a lot of time), the car payments…these people have budgets, too.
It’s easy for us as mere mortals to say, if they can afford $1.75M why not the sweet $2M penthouse unit.
A) Any penthouse in Brickell for that $ is going to be half the size.
B) Doesn’t work that way. This will be the dream appartment that some couple is just reaching for… and scrambling to pay the $1M mortgage on.
The question is how many of those couples want to raise their kids in an appartment when they can buy a nice house in the Gables for the same amount.
Tom – it doesn’t look like that hubby & wifey you are talking about are particularly interested in this unit as it has been in the market since Nov-07
Richard – HOA in this 5br 4100 sf unit is: $2396
So DL is right on the money – price should be 1.5M
Not to change the subject, but:
Nice quotes in the DBR short-sale article, Lucas. Was it here that we were debating why the short-sale process took so long (i.e., b/c the lenders would rather wait through the cumbersome process than take the paper loss on the underlying collateral immediately)? It may have been another blog, though…
guys
i think lucas is trying to tell you that the final sales price may differ from the LIST price. maybe 1.5M will be the final sales price…maybe it won’t.
lucas – who do you envision being the end user for this spot? out of town couple? in town?
MF Tom,
They wouldnt buy a house in the gables cause the gables sux. You cant fart without getting a violation in that place.
jcrimes,
I envision a foreign buyer with a couple of kids and a nanny buying the place.
Raffi, you crack me up. LOL.
Thanks Kim. I just read the article.
**Great debate – my point is really the following – why not “price to sell”.
Carmax has done well because you know you are getting “true market value”, not what the car dealer thinks he can get – maybe, if his buyer hasn’t done his/ her homework.
** Sales people have a HUGE role to play in building trust and re-starting the market – can you imagine what would happen if IBM “thought” their stock was worth $100 – when it was really worth $50
ZERO transactions
– PRICE TO SELL based on TMV. You owe it to your client.
I absolutely agree with DL. The bull of high asking prices and then negotiating down should stop. TMV should be the norm.
The disparity in asking price and true sales price (TMV) is a major issue that the RE industry had better address if they want to improve activity in the market. I am in the position to buy a condo for a good price-not necessary to lowball just not overpay. The problem is the idiots who continue to publish list prices way beyond the value of the condo.
Even when i know the price must be negotiated down to sell, I wont even consider the property. This lack of correlation between a sellers world and reality indicates either the seller has a few screws loose upstairs or is an unreliable scheming shuckster. I wont enter into one of my largest financial transactions with such lack of confidence with the other party. Perhaps its time the RE industry begin to better consider this situation.
I realize lowering prices requires sellers, agents, banks, etc to get on the same page, but if the RE industry wants to get back on its feet again it better begin to act responsibly. Otherwise many other folks in the same position as me will remain on the sideline. I dont need to buy, rents are getting cheap.
The Ritz-Carlton in Coconut Grove is a state of the art building. thumb reading security, high impact glass, new building.
There is a 5,500 square foot 5 bedroom 5 1/2 bath with an asking price of $500 dollars a squre foot, with all offers entertained. The realtor already said that $450 a square foot would be accepted. Now that is a deal, this is a lame deal in comparison.
Your monthly maintenance fees at the Ritz are also about twice as much per month.
I live at the Ritz and I have a 1540 SqFt Unit and I pay about 1400 per month or about 91 Cents a Foot, what is the maintenance per SqFt at Villa Regina?