Going Down, Down, Down!

By Helen Hill

A model shows off BC Architects’ award-winning gown, constructed of specialty metal ceiling tiles.

Andy Rooney, the sardonic CBS News’ 60 Minutes correspondent, recently reviewed the self-help book 1,001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home with a profound observation: “You don’t need 1,001 tips on how to do it — to sell a house, just bring the price down!”

That’s hardly news to experienced real estate agents who’ve long been saying that in a buyers’ market, price rules. That’s depressing news for sellers still stuck in the peak 2004-2005 mindset who’ve watched prices decline an average of 20 to 30 percent in the Miami area during the past year.

An attractive 4,000-square-foot house on a double lot in a Coconut Grove cul-de-sac exemplifies the state of the local buyers’ market. First listed for $1.75 million in October 2005, at the beginning of the current down trend, the house is now offered at $1.1 million ($268 per square foot), a 38 percent drop in the asking price. For the money, a buyer will get a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home built in 1984 and set in 13,000 square feet of secluded tropical gardens with a waterfall spa, all surrounded by an artist-designed mosaic wall. The kitchen is brand-new, and there’s a steam room in the guest bathroom, two wood-burning fireplaces and a third Gel fireplace. Included in the sale are a Bang & Olufsen entertainment unit, two flat-screen televisions and Bose speakers throughout.

Allan Kleer, a senior real estate associate with Fortune International Realty’s Miami Beach office and the new listing agent for the Grove property, says prices are back to 2003 levels. “It’s essential to price right from the beginning to encourage multiple offers,” he says. Sellers are advised to look at comparable closed sales during the past six months and deduct 10 percent to give a pretty good asking price in today’s market.

Kleer believes that staging is critical and suggests that sellers should be flexible on negotiations, giving a buyer credit for something like new flooring or including furnishings in the sale. Also, they should consider seller financing if feasible.  

Good heavens!

Sometimes a little divine intervention is needed to sell a home in a down market, even while the sale is being nurtured by a real estate agent. If bad karma is perceived as the problem, then perhaps a séance will chase out bad spirits. But if the home’s energy is negative, sellers can call in a feng shui specialist. The ancient Chinese design philosophy centers on rearranging living spaces to enhance positive energy, called “chi,” and create harmony in the home.  

Vaastu shastra is an ancient Indian science that’s very similar to feng shui. It aims to create a peaceful, balanced environment by avoiding bright paint colors and not displaying images depicting violence or sadness, among other things, while making sure that the stairs leading into the home are undamaged.

As a more practical approach, Jews believe that checking and changing their mezuzahs will bring a change of mazel (luck). Other people opt for burying a statue of St. Joseph, the patron saint of family and carpentry, to jump-start sales. Origins of the folk tradition are hazy, and it’s not endorsed by any church.

Online retailers offer St. Joseph kits for a few dollars, and some agents keep boxes of St. Joe statues on hand for clients. The small plastic statue is buried upside down in the front yard, facing the street and preferably near a For Sale sign, or in a flowerpot on a condo balcony. 

Will these approaches work? Maybe, but a real estate agent who asked to remain anonymous noted, “No amount of feng shui is going to help an overpriced listing.”

In the pink!

“An illusive destination where rock stars retreat, supermodels sunbathe, moguls sip rum and fashion designers find inspiration…” sounds like South Beach on a warm winter afternoon, but this lyrical brochure description introduces the famed celebrity Bahamian retreat Pink Sands Harbour Island. Still, the Miami inspiration is real; former Pink Sands owner Chris Blackwell’s Island Outpost hotel and resort company began it all in Miami Beach with the purchase of the boutique Marlin Hotel at 1200 Collins Ave. The company later expanded into owning and selling The Leslie, the Cavalier, the Cardozo, the Carlyle, the Kent and the Tides hotels.

Blackwell sold the Pink Sands to PS Limited (partners Victor Bubnow, Tom Sherman, Jose Luis Zapata, Pedro Arbula and Ernesto Shutz) for $30 million last May. Now, they’re adding an ownership component to the fab resort. Coming up are 13 villas and estate homes ranging from 2,851 to 4,985 square feet of interior space; 15 cottages, ranging from 550 to 1,810 square feet and 16 condo-hotel units ranging from 850 to 1,200 square feet. The green-sensitive residences, designed by Miami architects Carlos Prio-Touzet and Jacqueline Gonzalez-Touzet of Touzet Studio, feature vast terraces and are priced from $1 million to $8 million.

The 19-acre Pink Sands property has a three-mile powder-pink sand beach on Harbour Island, which is only 3½ miles long and ½ mile wide. And forget cars — most visitors buzz around in golf carts or on bicycles.

Looking up for style

Well, it didn’t make the red carpet at the Oscars, but an evening gown made almost entirely of metal ceiling panels won its own award for “Best Use of Challenging Materials” at the recent International Interior Design Association’s Design Mix ’08 in Miami.

Two designers from Coral Gables-based BC Architects spent 100 hours creating the 9-pound dress out of 250 pieces of USG specialty tiles in silver and copper. They used pattern changes, strategic shaping, slip-joint rivet connections and underlying leather strips to create the sparkly, flowing gown flaunted by a professional model at the Vizcaya gala. Money raised at the annual International Interior Design Association’s event helps to provide scholarships for design students at Florida International University, American International University and Miami-Dade College.

And when BC Architects are not showing off wearable creativity, the company is busy focusing on design, production and construction of luxury residential, hospitality, retail and mixed-use projects throughout South Florida and the Caribbean.

Please send news items on Miami-Dade real estate to hhill@miamisunpost.com