THE BIG PICTURE
TRENDS & ISSUES
“It’s the buyers that may be transferring from a Midwestern city to a South Florida location that really don’t necessarily know what king tides are, or how the streets may be flooded in their area,” he says. Larger, commercial investors are interested in more than just whether the property will flood, according to Slap. “They’re interested in a lot of different things—ingress and egress of workers, employees who will be coming to a shopping center, an office building, a FedEx depot, or Hertz rental car—so the larger commercial developers need to cast their eye wider than just the four corners of a property,” he says. A property that doesn’t flood will be less valuable if most of the surrounding businesses do flood many days a year
and are therefore harder to access. Slap’s software can also provide potential tidal flood impacts on adjacent properties. An investor’s level of concern with sea level rise flooding is intimately connect- ed with his or her investing timeline. A rehabber, for example, knows that he can sell his house quickly in a hot market so the fact that the property may flood 20 times in a year in 2050 isn’t a concern. Buy-and-hold investors, on the other
they fail to disclose that a property is subject to natural hazards, while Cali- fornia, Pennsylvania and Washington require the disclosure of past flooding or susceptibility to future flooding. In a blog post, South Florida law firm Hackleman, Olive & Judd says that both sellers and buyers should consult a real estate attorney to assess what sellers need to disclose and make sure that buyers ask the right questions before investing in a property. effects from king tide flooding are desirable places to invest and live, like South Florida. “South Florida is attractive to foreigners, it’s attractive to the domestic clients from the U.S. and especial- ly the Northeast,” says Corey. “We get a lot of people from California because the pricing is—as crazy as some of the pricing may appear to people that live here—on a global scale we’re not that expensive compared to maybe a property in Brazil, France and certainly California, New York or Aspen.” Slap says it’s important for investors to start “talking about those issues in- stead of burying your head in the sand.” Only then will they know if king tide flooding could turn their promising investment into a nightmare. The lifestyle that coastal living offers ensures that people will want to live there, so it appears that rising sea levels and increased king tide flooding are just one more challenge that investors need to face in search of appreciation and positive cash flow. • Many of the places that are experiencing deleterious
hand, need to know the risk to their property and surrounding properties, Slap says. “Indi- vidual homeowners need to know the difference that this stuff ’s happening every year, and it’s going to get worse and worse every year,” he says. “You’re going to have this weeks at a time. Some areas, like the Florida Keys, already have it weeks at a time.”
+
Investors who are interested in prom- ising coastal real estate markets don’t need to ignore them entirely, according to Slap. Instead, they need to be strate- gic about where they put their money. “Perhaps a smart way for the larger investor, or even really a flipper, is to think, ‘How close can I get to the action (meaning the market action) without getting my feet wet?’ “That’s maybe a little bit of a funny way to phrase it, but when you look at the slides of king tide flooding in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale, and Charleston, and Annapolis, and Savan- nah—these are hot markets. There’s nothing wrong with these markets.”
RESOURCES
CLIMATE CENTRAL www.climatecentral.org 877 425-4724
COASTAL RISK CONSULTING www.coastalriskconsulting.com 844 732-7473
COLDWELL BANKER MIAMI BEACH LINCOLN BUILDING OFFICE www.coldwellbankerhomes. com/fl/miami-beach/office/ miami-beach-lincoln-building/ oid_913/ 305 672-6300
CAVEAT EMPTOR: TO DISCLOSE OR NOT TO DISCLOSE
THE JILLS www.thejills.com 305 672-6300
States regulate whether homeowners or Realtors need to disclose king tide related property damage. According to The New York Times, Florida Realtors face no penalties for noncompliance if
Robert Springer is a regular freelance contributor to Think Realty Magazine. Contact him at rtspringer@gmail.com.
14 | think realty magazine march :: april 2017
Made with FlippingBook Online document