Brickell Condos and Neighborhood Guide
August 25, 2012 by Lucas Lechuga
We have officially launched our revised and updated Brickell condos page. It went live earlier this week but a few minor kinks had to be worked out before I wanted to make the announcement. Around 90% of our business comes from non-locals so, first and foremost, I wanted to create a page which catered to those who are unfamiliar with the area. Our new neighborhood page is loaded with fresh content. I included a brief description, geographic and demographic information, as well as a short history lesson about Brickell. It also has a video/picture slideshow which contains over 150 pictures of the neighborhood. A Yelp widget was included as well to give people a sense for the quality of restaurants and other types of businesses throughout Brickell.
Towards the middle of the page, we have highlighted the five most recent resident reviews for condo buildings in Brickell. We hope that people who currently reside or have resided in one or more of the buildings in the neighborhood will share their experience and assessment with those looking for an unbiased opinion when shopping for a new condo in Brickell.
For those who are used to the old version of the page and wish to skip to the Brickell condos section, click on the "jump to Brickell condos" link found at the top of the page. We have, however, modified the way this section is organized. Now, not only can you get a quick glance at the inventory counts for each building but you can also see how many short sales and REOs are currently available for sale on the MLS. As you will see, a majority of the condo buildings in Brickell do not have any short sales or REOs on the market for sale. In fact, excluding the three pre-construction condo developments, two-thirds of them (20/30) do not have any distressed sales at all. That is pretty remarkable given how bad things were just a few years ago.
Perhaps the greatest new addition to the Brickell condos page is the statistics box in the upper right-hand corner just above the video. Towards the middle of each month, we will begin posting various neighborhood statistics calculated using sales figures as of the last day from the previous month. The reason why we wait a few weeks is because real estate agents tend to forget to change the status of a property from pending to sold in the MLS after it closes. Only sales figures for condo developments in Brickell that are found on the page will be incorporated. Think of it as a mini Brickell Condo Index. Expect the first update to be released around the middle of September.
Considering my day-to-day responsibilities as a real estate agent and the amount of time I already put into the website, my hope is to roll out a new neighborhood page every 2-3 months. I would appreciate any feedback that you might have so that these neighborhood pages will continue to evolve and get better with time.
Lucas,
Have you ever thought of allowing your bloggers to post a thread instead of just replying to a topic that you posted? Talk to your web master to see if you can allow bloggers to post topics, photos. That way this blog will catch fire. If not there will be no activity for ever. Also that will ease pressure off of your busy self to post something periodically to keep the interest going.
If anyone posts any off-topic subjects unrelated to the Miami Re, it can always be removed by you.
AJ,
Good suggestion but I doubt that I would ever allow something like that. However, we have been talking about hiring someone to be a ghost writer so that each day there is a new post. Now that business is super busy we’ll likely have to go that route.
Lucas – I’ve read your blog since 2005 and have seen the ups and downs in the Miami market and the level of engagement from the other reviewers, learned a lot too. You have an advertsing asset that you are letting die by not maintaining some level of normalcy in postings.
1100 Millecento sold out and broke ground on Wednesday
I hope Icon Bay will have an accelerated GB too.
Any idea why Sonesta Mikado is not breaking ground even after so many announcements, false starts and Tax breaks from OMNI CRD. Anyone with inside info on FECR plans for the site?
They’re still working on the Midado. They’re using their MUSP approval. I’ve seen the renderings, it looks OK. It’s basically the typical huge pedestal garage which they’ve covered with ivy with the condo sitting above it.
However right now they’re extremely focused on 1101 Brickell trying to get it out of the ground. There is a lot more urgency in Brickell than the Omni area.
So we suddenly have our own Julliard behind the Pace Park Buildings. That is great!
Thank you for this info AJ. Its very nice to hear
Thanks Gix for the Mikado update
http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2012/10/08/grand-central-park-goes-for-35-million-to-miami-world-center.php
Who wants to voulenteer to start a new blog like the one AJ suggested up top? With all the action happening in our backyard i think it would be nice to have a place to discuss whats happening and see who is best at predicting the future!
A facebook group should be good. I am already running 2 successful FB blogs on different subjects. I realized that unless readers can post their own stuff, views, opinions and photos, a blog is dead. Lucas does not want to allow that here. Even if he employs a ghost writer as he suggested, it is not the same. Readers must be able to post and start a thread. But by starting a FB group to discuss Miami RE issues, I do not want to shift the action from here to there. Damned if I do damned if I dont!
Even if I do not want to split this blog by starting another interactive one, someone else will do it. So whether Lucas likes it or not, he has to allow reader posting photos and start a thread. If not he might lose his readers to another blog which lets them do just that. Just a friendly advice.
AJ,
I just remembered that a few years ago we launched a product just like that but not one single person used it. It was a forum/message board type site where people could post different topics under main categories. We even had the link on the homepage but no one used it. I spoke with my website developer and he is going to host the site again. Products like that are difficult to get popular because no one wants to be the first to post. Hopefully this time around some of you will use it. Once it is up I will post the link here.
Well the difference is a few years ago there was no facebook or no facebook groups. Now you have a group for every silly thing and people love to post. They now are used to it and have a different mindset. The problem is in a FB group, you have to reveal your identity. some people may not like that even though I have no issue about it. so things might be different this time around. If you provide a link on MCI that takes people to an interactive blog, it just might work.
I remember that forum from a couple of years ago. I think I was the only person (or two) to post a small question there. If it’s possible to revive it without too much work I think it still has good potential. I like a locally hosted forum better than the facebook suggestion (of which I am not a member, and will likely never will be). There should be a prominent link from the other pages to make sure people notice it.
Here is the link: http://forums.miamicondoinvestments.com/
Let me know if you have any issues posting or uploading pictures. I can’t remember what kind of permissions I set back then. I also just added a link to the forum on the second navigation bar in the header.
There are a couple of other forums like this but they focus just on what’s being built. It would be interesting to hear discussions from potential investors about how they feel these new investments will affect the market. I’ll begin to post some of these projects and see if anyone responds.
Gixxer,
Thank you! I just increased your permissions to that of moderator.