3 Bedroom Foreclosure at Mosaic in Miami Beach
December 14, 2009 by Lucas Lechuga
A 3 bedroom/3 bath foreclosure condo at Mosaic Miami Beach came onto the market earlier today. The condo has 1,507 square feet of interior space and 333 square feet of balcony. The list price is $702,900, or $466 per square foot. The flow-through unit is located on the 15th floor and has direct ocean and city views with a balcony on each side. The next best priced 3 bedroom in the building is listed for $949,000. That condo happens to be in the same line but located four floors lower.
Mosaic is a beachfront luxury building located in Miami Beach at 3801 Collins Avenue.
Just saw Lucas tweeted this earlier. The problem with Miami’s elected officials isn’t that they are criminals… it’s that they are DUMB criminals.
SEC Investigation Targeting City Of Miami
http://cbs4.com/local/sec.investigation.miami.2.136595
Link should have been: http://cbs4.com/local/sec.investigation.miami.2.1365952.html
Does Brooke Hogan still rent a unit in this building?
This building has too many LIS PENDENS and CIVIL COURT PAPERS to excite me. I need a death spiral deal.
http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2009/11/23/daily35.html
FYI
Aren’t we hearing these near bottom prices for past 3 years now. One thing for sure – people can ask whatever price they want and some people will use that as a market turning point.
Another overpriced condo. Asset valuations will continue to fall for the next 3 years, and $466 per sq. ft. will become excessive. Just wait. This is a declining economy that has no new bubble to prop it.
Yeah, $466 per square foot for a condo way up in the 3800 block of Collins is just a tad excessive, IMO.
Condo buyers allege flipping scheme
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091213/ARTICLE/912131050/2416/NEWS?Title=Condo-buyers-allege-flipping-scheme
This story has it all. I wish I could find these Brazilian buyers. They could take my condo off my hands any day.
Wild Bill:
Great article! Thanks for the post.
These dead-beat Brazilian buyers should be persecuted, prosecuted and, perhaps, publicly flogged!
scriv
Miami hotel moves 300 guests due to water-borne bacteria
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.f126eb54bdd49a96b5651384818d3f2b.511&show_article=1
300 Fla. hotel guests moved after bacteria kills 1
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9CJ92VG0&show_article=1
Epic Hotel shut, Legionnaire’s suspected
http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2009/12/14/daily3.html
scriv
Didn’t WCI, who built this building, go bankrupt while they still owned several units? I wonder if they left a big gap in the associations budget.
Reading that article the Brazilian’s are just a component of the complicated & extensive parties that should be prosecuted in these cases. It seems in retrospect that the whole industry operated in a willful vacuum of basic ethics or standards.
This may be a good deal, but for this price I wouldn’t settle for anything north of the W. I rather wait until this same sized unit is offered at Icon Brickell or Infinity for 200 a foot…
A 3/3 at 1,507 sq. feet sounds like it would be pretty cramped inside….just my humble opinion.
32 condos have just been purchased in 401 Blue condo conversion building in Miami Beach. These were all remaining units in the hands of the developer(actually he was not an original developer). Condos were purchased by an Italian co. Closings will take place in January 2010. The details of the deal are unknown to me at this time.
It is just FYI
You can a;ready get that deal at Icon Brickell. They have slashed prices by 30%
Wild Bill:
Good post. Forget the Brazilians, if they were Brazilians! Which realtors were involved in marketing those fabulous luxury condos?
Someone collected the $600,000 in commissions. Lot of money for not knowing the identity of the buyers.
Poorand unemloyed:
Great point. Another avenue of attack: get the names and file complaints with the Florida Department Business and Professional Regulation
https://www.myfloridalicense.com/entercomplaint.asp
Get these people off the street.
scriv
And what about the scumbag lawyer, Hector Diaz? He claims he caught the assistant taking money and fired him/her, but why didn’t Diaz report the assistant to the police? Don’t “officers of the court” have a duty to report such activity?
Joe:
I say we vote him off the island!
Who’s with me?
scriv
Yeah, this Hector Diaz guy sounds about as dirty as they come. He has no disciplinary history as per the Florida Bar….I have a feeling that will probably change soon.
This is quoted text from comments that follow Wild Bill’s posted article:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091213/ARTICLE/912131050/2416/NEWS?Title=Condo-buyers-allege-flipping-scheme
the following statements do not reflect my views or opinions and i’m including them because there are some pearls that can help when doing your homework for condo re.
“Only fools, saps, and woman buy condo’s ( for the most part )
To purchase a condo – 3 must ask questions you should ask the realtor or owner before you buy.
* How much money is in reserves?
( higher the better )
* How many units in the building are owned and occupied by the same individual /s
( higher the better )
* How many and when was the last special assessment and how much was it for?
These 3 questions answered and coupled with a look at the yearly budget will give you a good idea to the health of the building /association.One should be fully cognizant of the health of the physical building as well as the health of the association.
One should know what the term ” special assessment ” means. Said, condo association should have X amount of dollars in reserves. Always find out how many units are forclosed in the building / association.. Never buy into a building where 1 individual owner owns many, many units ( an investor ) He will be majority owner and what he says will go.. He can and will dictate prices on anything from carpet to roofing in common areas and you will be at his mercy as to price.. Look up the Management company in the BBB to see if they are on the up and up. Are they bonded? Find out if the manangement company owns any units in the building.
The information I just wrote here is a realtor and an owners worst nightmare when it comes to selling and owning a condo.. Can anyone else add to this? Never buy a condo until you are well aware of the health of the association. Because not only do you buy the unit, but you buy into a gamble that everyone in the building is going to be able to keep their unit. STAY AWAY FROM CONDO’S unless the buiding has a long healthy history of being a winning building with winning owners. Buildings with judges, lawyers, doctors, and other highly qualified professionals living in them are the best buildings to buy into..”
Good read:
Foreclosure buyer demand dips as supply mounts
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B90JZ20091215
38th and collins is a nice area.
still too pricey and the building is in flux. this was a big speculator building.
Shwin,
I saw that post. Most that stuff is too complex for the average buyer. They have no clue what a condominium budget should look like. They have no clue about all the rules and regulations. Most people in Miami don’t even now how to use a trash chute. Very sad.
The average dumb buyer will only look at view, location, and price per square foot. Most of what is repeated on this site daily.
It is sad how many brokers and buyers do not look at the buildings financials. A condo is like buying into a BUSINESS….with hundreds of strangers. Its crazy how many buyers go into a building “blind” without knowing how stable or unstable the building is.
I just noticed that Lucas has this place listed on his condo deals page: http://www.miamicondoinvestments.com/property-search/view.php?mlsid=M1354533
What’s the deal with this place, and lofts in general? Bare concrete everywhere and the cheapest looking tiles I’ve ever seen outside of a gas station bathroom. It’s like the developer didn’t even finish the project.
I can’t really think of a more awful, uninviting place to live. What I really can’t believe though is that someone is actually asking over a million dollars for that empty shell. Not to mention it’s in one of the worst neighborhoods there is.
scrivener
Ouch!!!!!!!! Did that really hurt your feelings? I am sorry! I meant to say the stupid sellers who paid $600,000 in commissions.
Wild Bill said, “The average dumb buyer will only look at view, location, and price per square foot. Most of what is repeated on this site daily.”
— Actually, I doubt the average buyer even considers the third item. Calculating price per square foot is actually a savvy move, but I doubt most buyers do it. Instead, they calculate *what they can afford,* i.e., “I qualify for a $__ per month mortgage and this condo costs $__ per month.” Very few buyers look at VALUE — only price.
——
southbeachsand said, “It is sad how many brokers and buyers do not look at the buildings financials. A condo is like buying into a BUSINESS….with hundreds of strangers. Its crazy how many buyers go into a building “blind” without knowing how stable or unstable the building is.”
— In buyers’ defense, most Realtards ™ in Miami don’t bother to list the true HOA fee and/or true tax bill on r.e. listings, so it’s tough to get an accurate picture before going out and even looking at units/buildings.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I believe any r.e. agent who lists a property without accurate HOA and tax info. should have his/her license suspended. Most r.e. listings are only for 6-12 months, so it shouldn’t be that hard to get accurate info. at the time of the listing. It’s not like these listings are active for years at a time and the taxes, HOA fees, etc., are constantly changing.
I agree with jcrimes. Mosaic has a great location. Actually you have a location that is direct ocean and boardwalk – 2 minutes to the expressway and then a straight shot 15 minutes to the airport. You are a stones throw to South Beach without being right in the middle of weekend traffic nightmares and the sometimes drunk and rowdy bridge people crawling up and down Collins and Ocean Drive. It’s a 5 minute cab ride to Lincoln Road or Ocean Drive without the parking hassles.
I don’t think anyone has said the 3800 block of Collins is a bad location. The objection is to the $500/sf price tag. That’s almost SoFi pricing.
Most buildings lie about HOA fees. I’ve worked in real estate before. I’ve seen fraud on all sides. Real estate agents, condo boards, title insurance, and appraisals. The federal government is involved in a ton of fraud cases with FHA loans.
Feds Allege Real Estate Fraud Ring; Crime: Thirty agents, others are accused in $10-million scheme involving FHA loans.
Los Angles Times May 30, 2002
2002? WTF? It’s still going on today.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=fha+fraud
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=owner+occupancy+fraud
This stuff has been going on forever. Real estate and the financial markets are the most fraudulent items in America.
Test
Poorandunemployed:
No. Your observation concerning the $600K in commissions collected by the agents in question was right on point- – though not surprising that they did not know the identity of the buyers. If I had a dime for every ethically questionable thing I have seen or heard a real estate agent do in the past ten years – – (including the pin-head agent who, without my permission, entered my apartment and showed it to a perspective buyer – – breach of contract by the agent and trespass by the potential buyer) – – I could retire.
As for the buyers – – well, the commissions were just part of the transaction/price of admission purportedly representing FMV. Ehhh….a fool and their money are soon parted. Yes?
As for my feelings – – they are untouched, unscared, unscathed (and according to some, unused [smile]).
Best regards.
scriv
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2009-12-17/news/golf-porn-on-ritzy-fisher-island/
This story has it all: porno, condos, foreclosures, wealth……
Drew
Ahhahahaha. Thanks . That was precious.
Drew:
NICE!
scriv
I’d like to know how the “modeling agency rep” was able to contact him about the 6-hr lease. I bet he was marketing his unit on a per-hour basis for “modeling shoots” just like this. Now he’s trying to claim ignorance due to Fisher Island backlash. Plus, any dipshit knows that “modeling” is usually code-word for porn.
Plenty of condo owners and homeowners (primarily North Bay Road, Sunset Islands, Venetian Islands) actively market their homes for these Internet porno videos.
Its easy money…just throw away the couch and clean the carpet afterwards.
Mosaic is still a nice building. It is new construction and beachfront – thats quite rare in Miami Beach.
Location is good for a permanent home, because its only 1 mile to Lincoln, yet very quiet in this area. The beach is very clean and not touristy/dirty like south beach.
However to note….this building faces directly into the new Caribbean condo tower. Caribbean took away those great views down the beach, and took away the privacy. I think it even cast a shadow on Mosaic pool because of how close it is.
Mosaic is also right across the street from a huge NURSING HOME.Do upscale people want to live there .I DONT THINK SO
Did not mention that beside that hideous looking nursing home across the street ,I think its called freedom house,you have that pretentious horrific monstrosity that blocks every view that you can have of the beach from the south ,besides they cannot even sell one apartment in that building .In the long run it will rent to subsidized tenants .Watch out for abandoned buildings on both sides that have derelicts sleeping inside .Good luck ,would not buy a condo in mosaic for over $300 .
Drew $600 for 6 hours is chicken shit. I will not rent my dog house for that kind of chump change. This guy must be one desperate dude.
BTW, I tried to find the flick on bangbros site and could not. Anyone know the link or is it removed due to the pending lawsuit?
Geez – So Continuum is next to Penrods free for all nightclub and Apogee is next to a subsidized senior citizen retirement tower. And Caribbean is NOT right next door to Mosaic and if this listing has direct east ocean views who the heck cares if you dont get a straight shot as you look south. This building is direct oceanfront convenient to everything and everywhere and @466. per sq foot is a good deal for brand new oceanfront direct east views. Keep up with the mis-information posts. Waiting like joe i suppose for $400. Apogee and Continuum deals. Give me a break.
Kramer — Get serious. $466/sf in a building known to have a high % of investor-owned units, lis pendens, etc., is a huge gamble. I don’t care how nice the view is, if the condo/HOA itself is unstable, then it’s a bad buy.
Kramer
You said it right. Who the heck cares …… $466 per sq ft is a good deal….
For a realtor! Duh!
In this whole mess there are few winners – Relators, Realtors and Realtors. Not all are bad but the good ones have not done anything to weedout the bad ones.
If you want to know what future holds for Mosiac – check the Santa Maria and Bristol Tower prices from 90’s. If you do not know – then you can not predict the future. If you cant find them – tell me and I will send them to you.
Testing
Good News! I am very happy for Epic.
Downtown Miami hotel gets partial reprieve in guest’s death
Miami-Dade health officials say the tourist who died of Legionnaire’s disease did not contract it at the Epic Hotel in downtown Miami.
Miami-Dade health officials called a hurried press conference Wednesday evening to give downtown’s luxury Epic Hotel & Residences a partial reprieve in their investigation of one tourist who died of Legionnaire’s disease and two who were sickened by it but recovered.
The tourist who died contracted the disease somewhere else, not at the hotel, they said. The two who were sickened did stay there, but testing to see if they contracted the bacteria at the hotel is incomplete.
“Today the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention got in touch with us to say that molecular and biological analysis has shown that the strain of Legionella bacteria the patient expired from actually is associated with a different source,” said Dr. Vincent Conte, the health department’s chief epidemiologist. “We can’t divulge this source. If it represented any health threat, we would give you more information.”
The officials would not say whether the source was in South Florida.
“For the two who became ill and were tested through a urine antigen, the tests showed positive for Legionnaire’s Disease. These two patients are linked to the hotel,” Conte said.
Testing for the Legionella bacteria at the Epic Hotel, 200 Biscayne Blvd. Way, by the Miami-Dade Health Department is not yet complete, he said, adding, “We’re still looking at other sources they may have been exposed to.”
The health department stuck by its Monday statement that a water-filtering system inside the hotel was taking too much chlorine out of its county-supplied water, leaving it susceptible to contamination by bacteria such as the one that causes Legionnaire’s Disease.
“Our testing so far indicates that the system did not have adequate chlorine levels to prevent opportunistic waterborne pathogens to grow,” said Dr. Samir Elmir, the department’s director of environmental health and engineering.
He went on: “We continue to collect information about other buildings that have used a similar filter in the past, and we’re in contact with regulatory agencies and the supplier of the filters for more information.”
One European tourist died of Legionnaires Disease in October and two others fell ill in November.
On Monday, county health department officials said that the only connection they could find among the three was that all had stayed at the Epic.
But on Wednesday, Conte said the strain that killed the tourist has been definitely traced to a different source. Rivera stressed that hotel officials have cooperated fully with the county’s investigation. She said work continues at the hotel to increase the chlorine levels in its interior water system.
The hotel is expected to remain closed until that work and further bacteria testing are completed.
More condos to sieze on money laundered from overseas by foreign nationals who do not pay taxes. Jig is up
Unemployed and uneducated:
Time will tell.
scriv
Visionary:
Ain’t it cool? They built a monster of a development – – granted the Sheraton Hotel was old, run down, tired and in need of demolition. But its replacement – – though shiny and new – – is, in its current condition, financially unstable and, arguably, unsustainable/insolvent.
Old and tired exchanged for new and insolvent. Great trade!
scriv