February 12, 2007

Condoflip.com folds up shop. "We saw thousands of sellers and very few buyers". No duh.

From dot-com to dot-condo, I sure got some serious deja-vu goin' on right about now... First the banking and subprime implosion horrifically underway, then you have HP favorite bubble-sign condoflip.com going out of business last week. What's next - Bob Toll and Angelo Mozilo getting arrested?

Real estate game ends at CondoFlip - CondoFlip.com is dead.

Created in 2004 to take advantage of investor demand for Miami area residential condos, the site has shuttered, with plans to be rebranded as Condo Super Center.

Mark Zilbert created and built the site as a flipper's marketplace, a venue where buyers could post units for resale before the condos were completed.

But the push to invest in pre-construction units has wound down. An over-supply of units has prompted buyers to sit back and see if prices fall.

Miami's skyline saw a record numbers of new units. Over 10 years, from 1995 to 2005, fewer than 10,000 residential units were completed, city development data shows. But from September 2005 to September 2006, more than 6,000 units were completed.

The last batch of numbers from the city's planning department listed more than 22,000 units under construction. Nearly 30,000 more units were approved but had not broken ground.

And then there's this bolt of honesty (paying attention Greg Swann?) today on condoflip.com:

How Did The Market Change in 2004 and Beyond? We saw a dramatic shift in how preconstruction condos were bought and sold. The condo boom was driven by overly-ambitious speculators, many of whom had been successful in flipping condos in the past. As condo inventories grew and prices rose many speculators realized that further purchasing was increasingly risky. So, buyers just stopped buying.

What Kinds of Results Did Condo Flip See? We saw thousands of sellers, and very few buyers. It didn't make sense for us to maintain a marketplace where there were few buyers. But, we learned much from this transitioning marketplace, and we are actually very keen on what we see coming next.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

What took so long?

Anonymous said...

What they see next???

They're going to come back under the title "MustSell.com" or "FireSale.com" or "FixYourCredit.TV"

Anonymous said...

wow ! it really is over.

Anonymous said...

I like the concept "condo super store." It sounds like he's going to try to become the WalMart of real estate, you know, selling cheap crap for CHEAP PRICES.

Who knows, he might have a winner here people!

Anonymous said...

Check out their website:

"The good news is that Miami's market seems to be recovering from its 2 year [started 2004] dry spell."

Are there any bulls out there that aren't bankrupt?

Actually, I blame them for the downturn; seems by their own admission it got started right as they opened.

Anonymous said...

G'day Mates

Ozzie Tim here!

I wonder if those wanks over at CNBC will hype the demise of condoflip.com as much as they hyped it about a year and a half ago?

Any takers?

Hooroo. Ozzie Tim

Anonymous said...

Bubble aint just for bath tubs, boy-o

blogger said...

I'm seeing full page ads in the Sunday papers here in London for buying your vacation paradise condo in Miami - how they make a great investment and all.

Run out of suckers in the US? Come to housing-crazy England looking for more.

Brilliant!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

"But, we learned much from this transitioning marketplace, and we are actually very keen on what we see coming next."

-------------------------------

We see debt people.

Hahaha, who made that up anyway? Still so funny. :)

Anonymous said...

And yet on the website they are claiming that there's a big turnaround taking place and that buyers are cropping up... If so, why not remain CondoFlip and take advantage of it?

Because they are full of shit

Anonymous said...

what a bunch of asshole guys. they got what they deserved.

condo flip u the bird...condo flip.

insane morons

Anonymous said...

No one is going to buy any stinkin condo in Florida!!!

They would be better off renting all that drywall and sticks to all the new homeless and baby boomer retirees.

Anonymous said...

-TIME mag hit the top last summer withthte cover story.

- Anyone remember the TV shows about Wall Street a few years ago, they topped tha market.

Now I see fox has a show they have been advertising (starts march 12) called "The RICHES". Boy oh boy does anyone think this is the TOP and will marke the true depression of 07?

Anonymous said...

"And yet on the website they are claiming that there's a big turnaround taking place and that buyers are cropping up"

Fortunately, since the bust is over, I guess the state of FL won't have to impose communism to save the homedebtors after all:

http://wallstreetexaminer.com/blogs/wheeler/?p=80

Anonymous said...

"The good news is that Miami's market seems to be recovering from its 2 year [started 2004] dry spell."

The bad news is that the rain is the outer edge of a Cat 5 'cane.

Anonymous said...

"Condo Super Center"? "Condos 'R' Us" would be more appropriate, surely. At least it would be appealing to the right mental age group.

Anonymous said...

How about moving the content over to www.condoflop.com