A Buyer's Market For South Florida Commercial Property

If you've ever considered purchasing commercial property in South Florida, you might never find a better opportunity than right now. In the early 2000s, commercial property and residential real estate went up in South Florida at an amazing rate. Prices fell during the housing slump over the last year or two, and since the housing crash, prices have dropped to amazing lows. The developers who had been building South Florida commercial real estate can't sell their properties to pay loans they used to fund construction. Nervous investors are trying selling off properties at huge losses. Everyone involved in South Florida commercial property is taking a huge hit.

Everyone, except buyers.

Buyers in the South Florida commercial real estate market have rarely had it better. Big investors are coming in and buying up batches of property in the area. Rock-bottom prices, eager sellers and the need for them to move the property quickly to give them ready cash all make it easier and cheaper for buyers to acquire investment property in South Florida. Prices in the area have always been higher than most other places across the nation because of the location, but South Florida is one of the hardest hit areas in the glut of foreclosures plaguing the country. Yet even though the property values have fallen, and may yet fall even more before the crisis is over, those values will rise again

Wealthy investors who don't need to liquidate their South Florida commercial properties are just waiting out the storm with the knowledge that eventually, market prices will rise and they'll be able to sell and break even. Or for very patient investors, they'll wait even longer and make a tidy profit. They know that an investment in South Florida commercial property right now is much like owning a stock that takes a hit when the Dow drops. If you sell, you're finalizing the loss. But if you hang onto the stock, it will most likely rebound and go higher that before.

But those who can't afford the luxury of time are selling in record numbers and taking losses in the hopes of preventing even bigger losses down the road. If you want to buy commercial property in South Florida, it's unlikely you'll get a better price or better terms in the future, since the bailout is supposed to start stimulating the credit markets again, and start us on the road out of the housing crisis. To take advantage of the buyer's market in South Florida commercial property right now, be prepared to make a large down payment—up to 40%.

This isn't something that's normally necessary, but the housing crisis and the waiting line of cash-heavy investors looking to buy the same investment properties in South Florida make it necessary to be sure you'll get the seller's nod. Because of credit difficulties, you'll be much more like to score an investment property in South Florida if you can pay a hefty down payment, and close the deal quickly.