Miami-Dade: Almost 65% of all Sold Properties in December, 2010 were Distressed Sales. Is Your Agent Prepared?

How can buyers and sellers figure out what to do in this confusing environment? Some media provide grim news…others shine on hopeful rays of light

Home values stabilizing | Higher occupancy, rents for Broward | Miami among top five most-searched U.S. real estate markets

With mortgage rates falling again, refinance apps up nationwide | Weak U.S. housing rebound slows economic growth for 2011

The truth of the matter is that…the numbers don’t lie (http://wp.me/p9Ggo-dn), but numbers can also be deceiving.

Reading national and regional news can cloud more localized reports (see above link for Miami-Dade), and affect important decisions you could (and should) be making. In fact, even within Miami-Dade, segments of our county are doing better than others – even one building could be doing much better than the one next door.

It is truly difficult to make up one’s mind with so much to consider. So what should a buyer or seller do these days?

First, no buyer or seller should be treading these real estate waters alone. Whether you agree or disagree, we can all agree that things “real estate” are quite different this time around.

Miami-Dade county has what some say, is the largest Realtor board in the entire country (USA), with well over 20,000 members. However, digging a little deeper, many are either late paying their dues or simply and understandably, engaged in this business part-time.

All of these part-time agents who may no longer be members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), because they can’t afford the dues, can no longer call themselves Realtors© (who abide by NAR’s strict Code of Ethics).

In addition, many of these are unable to attend training provided to full-time agents who do not have the commitments of other employment to keep them from attending these very important courses.

Also, full-time Realtors© who understand this market, pursue additional designations such as the Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) designation. This important designation is now held by over 25,000 agents nationwide, making it one of the (if not THE), largest designation held in our profession.

In fact, in December/2010, Distressed Properties Sold (1,377 – left chart) represented over 64.8% of all properties Sold (2,123 total closed – chart on right), in Miami-Dade.

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Additionally, Closed (Sold) Distressed Properties were up 16% from November/2010 and up 23.2% from December/2009.

Therefore, now more than ever, whether you are buying or selling, you must ensure you are working with an experienced, full time professional Realtor who is either a CDPE or well versed in the area of Distressed Property Sales.

Buying and selling foreclosed property (REO’s or Real Estate Owned) and pre-foreclosures (usually via a Short Sale approval process), require additional training since each is handled differently from each other and from regular non-distressed sales.

By contrast, Non-Distressed Closed (Sold) properties accounted for 746 units or about 35% of all properties sold in December/2010. This was an increase of 10% over November/2010 but a decline of 13.3% over December/2009.

Finally, Pending Sales are considered a forward leading indicator of future closed / sold activity. This segment of the market was down 20.2% among non-distressed property sales from November, 2010 while up 5.5% among all distressed properties that are under contract (pending) over the same period.

What’s worse, while non-distressed Pending transactions were down 10% from December/2009, they were actually up a whopping 57.5% among distressed properties in the same period.

So, if your agent is not on top of the ins and outs of the Distressed Property Market Segment and how to help you take advantage as a buyer or seller…you better be.

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* All reports are published January 2011, based on data available at the end of December 2010. This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches, Realtor Association of Miami-Dade County, Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale and Northwestern Dade Association of Realtors. Neither the Board or its MLS guarantees or is in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Board or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.