MiamiLuxuryHomes.com Wins Best Website

Michael and Jaimee Light, owners and operators of MiamiLuxuryHomes.com and recently launched MiamiCondos.com, are extremely proud to announce that MiamiLuxuryHomes.com has been named “Best Agent Website” by South Florida Agent Magazine in their annual Agents’ Choice Awards.

Each year South Florida Agent Magazine holds its Agents’ Choice Awards to honor the very best of South Florida area real estate and those who make a serious impression on the real estate community. Among Best Agent Website, you will find winners in categories of Managing Broker of the Year, Loan Officer of The Year, Rookie of The Year, Developer of the Year and more.

We would like to say THANK YOU to all of our clients and readers for helping us become the best real estate website in South Florida! We would also like to congratulate all of this year’s award winners!

About The Light Group

With over one million unique visitors per year, MiamiLuxuryHomes.com is South Florida’s premier website for luxury real estate. It is owned and operated by the Light Group, a top-producing team with Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

Michael and Jaimee Light, a dynamic husband and wife duo, lead the Light Group. Michael is the executive director of luxury sales at Douglas Elliman and, prior to forming the Light Group, enjoyed a lucrative career in real estate finance and development. Both he and Jaimee pride themselves on being truly knowledgeable about the real estate market in South Florida.

The Light Group serves clients throughout South Florida’s prime residential areas, including Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, South Miami, Pinecrest, Downtown Miami, Brickell, Miami Beach, South Beach, South of Fifth, Surfside, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles Beach, Golden Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

In addition to real estate, the Light Group strongly believes in giving back to the community and many team members of the Light Group volunteer and/or sponsor various local and international philanthropic organizations.

Miami Luxury Homes Group is now The Light Group | Launches MiamiCondos.com

 

Going forward, The Miami Luxury Homes Group will be known as ‘The Light Group’ at Douglas Elliman Real Estate. To go along with this announcement, we have also finally launched The Official Condo Website for Miami, Miami Beach and the surrounding neighborhoods, MiamiCondos.com.

Though we had no intention of changing our group’s name, the State of Florida recently passed legislation regarding real estate teams in an effort to help the public understand who/what is a real estate company and who is an agent on a team, within a company. See, there have been many agents running teams with fancy names and titles that have misled the public into thinking the team is the overall brokerage company they worked for…in Florida, this is and always has been illegal. This change will help bring further transparency to our industry.

I have always been transparent that The Miami Luxury Homes Group, and now The Light Group, is part of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, our brokerage company with 523 offices in 60 countries and headquartered at 575 Madison Avenue in New York City.

The Light Group is very excited about launching MiamiCondos.com, but rest assured we will still be updating and servicing MiamiLuxuryHomes.com as well…the two will run parallel to each other.

MiamiCondos.com

The Miami Condos website is a comprehensive tool for both buyers and sellers, providing you with all of the necessary resources to make an informed decision regarding the purchase or sale of a condo only in Miami, while MiamiLuxuryHomes.com will serve as a source for both luxury homes and condos.

Why is MiamiCondos.com different from other condo websites? MiamiCondos.com is owned and operated by an award-winning luxury real estate team, The Light Group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, which is run by a dynamic husband and wife duo, Michael and Jaimee Light. Michael and Jaimee take pride in ensuring that MiamiCondos.com provides accurate statistics, news, condo building details and community information, by personally creating all of the copyrighted content on the site, as well as manually calculating statistical data for their readers. Further, Michael and Jaimee understand that their clients hail from all around the world, and it is significant to educate clients on the wide variety of neighborhoods that make up Miami and Miami Beach. The neighborhood section displays each condo community and highlights the key qualities of each neighborhood from a local’s perspective to guide you to the community that best suits your needs.

Please Keep in Mind…

Building a brand-new website from scratch with original copyrighted content, original copyrighted photography, original design, etc. takes a lot of time, so we hope that you understand that not all of our neighborhood pages and condo building pages will be launched from the start. Over the next 6 months, we hope to have all of our neighborhoods and condo pages up and running on MiamiCondos.com! We have launched with the following neighborhoods because these are the most high-demand areas for our current client base: Coconut GroveDowntown MiamiBrickellSouth BeachSouth of Fifth and Miami Beach.

THANK YOU!

First, we want to thank all of our clients, friends, family and everyone who has supported us throughout the years with MiamiLuxuryHomes.com and now MiamiCondos.com. A special thank you is well deserved to our website developer, Mario Zamora, Founder/Owner of GoIDX, and photographer Shawn Hood, Founder/Owner of Shawn Hood Media, who have both spent hundreds of hours helping to bring MiamiCondos.com to fruition. We really appreciate the hard work and dedication you all have shown us, and we thank you for helping us every step of the way!

About The Light Group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate

MiamiCondos.com, along with South Florida’s number one luxury real estate website MiamiLuxuryHomes.com, is owned and operated by a top-producing luxury real estate team, The Light Group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The Light Group is led by a dynamic husband and wife duo, Michael and Jaimee Light, who pride themselves on being truly knowledgeable about the real estate market in South Florida as well as offering white-glove treatment, innovative marketing strategies, integrity and overall professionalism to their clients.

The Light Group serves clients throughout South Florida’s prime residential areas including Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, South Miami, Pinecrest, Downtown Miami, Brickell, Miami Beach, South Beach, South of Fifth, Surfside, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles Beach, Golden Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

In addition to serving the Miami real estate market, The Light Group strongly believes that giving back to the community is extremely important. Members of The Light Group participate in many local and international philanthropic organizations by volunteering and/or sponsoring Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami, Women’s Fund of Miami, St. Hugh Charities, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a variety of local animal rescue groups, VICDA (Volunteer International Community Development Africa) and Day Love Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.

About Douglas Elliman Real Estate

Established in 1911, Douglas Elliman has grown to become the most reputable luxury real estate firm in the country. As the market leaders in New York, South Florida, California, Connecticut, Colorado, New Jersey, Boston and Houston, Douglas Elliman closed more than $28+ Billion in real estate transactions in 2018 making it the 2nd largest privately-owned residential real estate brokerage in the country by sales volume. In addition, Douglas Elliman has strategically partnered with Knight Frank Residential of London to extend their powerful real estate network to 523 offices in 60 countries across 6 continents.

Douglas Elliman’s Powerful International Partnership with Knight Frank Residential

Douglas Elliman Real Estate, the 2nd highest-grossing private real estate company in the United States, formed an exclusive partnership with Knight Frank Residential headquartered in London, which is an international luxury real estate firm that individually operates across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. These 2 real estate powerhouses strategically formed an alliance because Douglas Elliman only operates in the United States while Knight Frank operates everywhere but the U.S. So, what better way to take over the luxury real estate market across the globe…form an exclusive partnership. Both Douglas Elliman and Knight Frank represent many ultra-high-net-worth individuals that are buying real estate all over the world. Together, DE & KF joined forces to create an influential real estate network spanning 523 offices in 60 countries across 6 continents.

Our companies share clients and data as well as collaborate on projects. For example, every year DE & KF put out the highly-respected Wealth Report, which reflects the global perspective on prime property and investment, including key wealth trends and property hotspots around the world. The Wealth Report examines investment trends covering almost 100 countries and 100+ cities, including what $1M USD buys you around the world.


If you have questions about the market, a specific neighborhood or would just like to talk about real estate, please contact Michael Light, Senior Director of Luxury Sales at Douglas Elliman and a member of the exclusive Douglas Elliman Sports and Entertainment Division. You may contact Michael directly at (305) 350-9842 or michael@miamicondos.com.

MiamiLuxuryHomes.com Celebrates its 5th Year!

 
The Miami Luxury Homes Group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate in South Florida is excited to announce that its highly-trafficked luxury website, MiamiLuxuryHomes.com celebrated its 5-year anniversary on June 12! This date not only marked a big day for our website, but I also turned 40 years old on June 12. My amazing wife Jaimee planned a trip to celebrate and we visited Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Interlaken and Paris during our European vacation! Well, we are back from our trip and it is time to get back to work!

After 5 years of hard work on the website and a few major relaunches including one just a few months ago, MiamiLuxuryHomes.com (“MLH”) has truly become a successful site with the help of all of our readers and clients, and we want to thank all of you! Further, MLH has been named the #1 private website and blog in Miami AND the #15 luxury real estate website in the country by an independent California-based firm. Operated by real estate and website expert Michael Light, MLH has become a leading news source regarding the Miami real estate market and has been referenced in nearly a hundred articles by leading news outlets around the globe including The Wall Street Journal, The Miami Herald, The Real Deal, Los Angeles Times, Yahoo and Mansion Global, just to name a few.

As the Founder/Owner of MLH, I want to personally say thank you very much to all of my clients and readers for the support in making this website one of the highest-trafficked luxury real estate websites in South Florida!

If you ever have any comments or questions about the site, please do not hesitate to email me at michael@miamiluxuryhomes.com.

Version 2.0 of MiamiLuxuryHomes.com | MLH Gets a Major Overhaul

 
It has been 3 weeks since I have published a new article, and I want to apologize for that. For the past 6 months, I have been working on a “new and improved” MiamiLuxuryHomes.com. For the past few weeks, I have put 100’s of hours into finishing the new site, which you are now using, and it had taken time away from publishing high-quality Miami real estate news articles. Well, I am back and hope you enjoy the new site!

I pride myself on operating one of the most trafficked luxury real estate websites in South Florida, so it is important to me that my website is very user-friendly, intuitive and up-to-date, which is why we have been working on a major facelift for the website over the past 6 months. Because most of the work is on the “back-end” of the website, you may not notice many of the changes, even if you are one of the many long-term visitors of the site.

For those of you who might not understand, without you the subscriber, user, reader, buyer or seller, MiamiLuxuryHomes.com would not have a reason to exist. The new site design was created almost entirely from the perspective of the user. If we do not offer you the best user experience, it does not matter how detailed our knowledge or information is. The user experience is paramount to our success.

Here is a list of some of the details of the new website. You will notice that almost all of the changes were tailored to making a better overall user experience for our readers:

  • New Platform: This new platform enables overall faster speed of the website for a more efficient user experience.
  • New Server: Our site was switched from Apache to a new, web-based server that offers load balancing, providing more reliability and preventing data loss.
  • New URL Structures: New and improved formatting, providing a more intuitive and better overall user experience regarding navigation of all 270+ condo building pages and 40+ neighborhood pages.
  • New ‘Clean’ Font: We utilized a more clean, crisp font throughout the site to provide the user with a more aesthetically-pleasing experience.
  • New Community Page: We added over 40, brand-new pages to the site dedicated to describing the lifestyle of each neighborhood that we service. We understand that Miami and Miami Beach are comprised of so many different neighborhoods, each offering their own unique charm and allure, so it is important for us to give our readers more information about the lifestyle of a specific community, in addition to real estate. To become more familiar with the different communities in and around Miami and Miami Beach, please check out our new ‘Miami Luxury Communities’ page.
  • Updated Photo Library: Hundreds of new vibrant photos were added to the site to create a better user experience, more alluring to the eye. Unfortunately, there are still many condo buildings on the site with old photos, but rest assured that we are continuously working on adding new pictures for these pages over time. Our goal is to provide our readers with the most comprehensive Miami real estate photo database on the web.
  • New Blog Search: A brand-new, keyword search feature was added to the Miami Luxury Homes Blog allowing users to easily search for different articles we have published.
  • New Homepage Slider: Created a new-designed home-page slider to provide a better visual aesthetic that easily translates to mobile devices, providing a better user experience.
  • New Subscriber Navigation: We want to make our site as convenient as possible for our users, so we created a new subscriber navigation tool to make it easier for our users to add themselves to our database to automatically receive our news stories.
  • Updated Condo Association Database: Unfortunately, in Miami and the surrounding areas, it is almost impossible to find phone numbers for condo associations online, so we want to provide our users with 1 collective database of condo association phone numbers throughout Miami and Miami Beach. We have had our Condo Association Database page on the website for quite some time, but due to the number of condos in South Florida, it is an ever-changing list that we continue to update. On this relaunch, we have added many more condo associations, and we will continue to update it to provide you with the most comprehensive database of condo association phone numbers and contact information. Please visit our updated Miami Condo Association Database.
  • Updated Services Page: Under the main ‘About’ tab on the site, we provide you with the services that our team offers that we feel makes us unique from other real estate groups in South Florida. We have updated this information to give our users details about our team including our most innovative marketing strategies and our commitment to our clients. Please visit our Miami Real Estate Services.
  • Full Site Audit: Anyone who has designed a website with thousands of pages knows that it is very hard to confirm that every single link functions 100%, but we try to make that a priority! Our goal is to make sure that every single page on the site works properly to provide the best overall user experience for our readers. As you use our site, if you ever see something that does not work or function as you would expect or have any ideas that might make the site better, please feel free to let us know.

***There is something that I have done that no other site has done and many have asked me why. When you view a condo page and it shows you available inventory, there are times you might see a price change in either green ↓ or red ↑. EVERYONE else shows a price increase as green and price reduction as red. I never understood that. Green means go, so if you are a buyer, wouldn’t you rather focus on a unit that has had its price reduced…meaning the seller may be more motivated…GO? And, when you see red, you stop…as in when a seller raises the price, they may not be realistic or motivated to sell…STOP. 


We really appreciate your feedback, so please let us know what you think about the look and feel of the new site! You may reach Michael directly at (305) 350-9842 or by email at michael@miamiluxuryhomes.com.

Miami Luxury Homes Ranks #1 Private Real Estate Blog in Miami & #15 Nationally

 
MiamiLuxuryHomes.com was recently selected by an independent company out of California as a “Top 100 Miami Blog & Website” and a “Top Luxury Homes Website” in the entire country.

Top 100 Miami Blog & Website

Ranking overall as the #8th best Miami website/blog, Miami Luxury Homes was ranked as the #1 real estate website owned by a private realtor/broker, which is quite exciting for the bespoke houses in Real Estate.

Taking the cake for the #1 blog in Miami was the Miami New Times, followed by Miami.com, which are both websites that contain news about many aspects of Miami, such as entertainment, events, culture and pretty much everything you want to know about Miami. Curbed Miami came in at #3, which is a news source for every aspect of living in Miami including real estate. Curbed Miami is the only real estate-esque blog on this list that ranks ahead of the Miami Luxury Homes Blog, but is a nationally owned website with affiliates in cities around the country.

CLICK HERE to check out the full list of Feedspot’s Top Miami Blogs and Websites on the Web.

Top Luxury Homes Website in U.S.

MiamiLuxuryHomes.com ranked as the #15 Top Luxury Homes Website in the entire country, which is also very exciting, especially considering that most of the websites on this list are huge global companies such as Sotheby’s International, Los Angeles Times and Christie’s International Real Estate.

CLICK HERE to check out the full list of Feedspot’s Top Luxury Homes Websites.


If you, or someone you know, are interested in learning more about the Miami real estate market, contact Michael Light, Founder/Owner of the Miami Luxury Homes Group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate and Senior Director of Luxury Sales at Douglas Elliman Coconut Grove. You may reach Michael directly at his office at (305) 350-9842 or at michael@miamiluxuryhomes.com.

Miami Condo Developers Need to Embrace Technology to Survive

 
Developers in the South Florida real estate market need outside brokers, meaning brokers that do not work for the developer and have no association with a specific project, to sell their pre-construction condo projects, especially brokers that utilize technology marketing. Think about it…the more people marketing a specific project means the more buyers for that project.

Developers Should Take Notice

So many developers in South Florida think they will just hire an in-house sales team, and the sales team will sell all of their inventory. OK, sounds easy enough…but, it is not that simple. In my experience, less than 5% of a project’s sales are done with a buyer who just “walks in off the street” with no outside broker representation (which is a big mistake for a buyer because in-house agents do not have the buyers’ interests in mind, but instead the developers) and the rest are represented by outside brokers. Developers need outside brokers to sell their projects, especially brokers who utilize technology marketing, like myself.

A Big Mistake…Missoni Baia

I was one of the very first outside brokers introduced to the newest luxury condo project in Edgewater dubbed Missoni Baia, a collaboration by the OKO Group and Italian fashion house Missoni. I was shown renderings of the project and was quite impressed with its overall design and quality, so I wrote a detailed article about it which displayed a few of the renderings in an effort to present the project to my clients and readers.

Strike One

I published the article on a Saturday afternoon, and the following Monday morning at 7:30 a.m. I started receiving phone calls from my brokerage’s CEO about the article. Why? Because the in-house sales team hired by OKO Group, Cervera, was up-in-arms that I had written about the project, and instead of calling me directly to discuss it, Cervera’s managing partner called my CEO. After a bit of back-and-forth, I decided to take the article down if only to keep the peace.

What Cervera, OKO Group or Missoni (whichever was upset about my article) doesn’t understand is that they will not sell their project without outside brokers. How am I supposed to share the project with my clients and readers if I am restricted in marketing? Missoni Baia is absolutely an incredible project, but compared with the average pricing in Edgewater, it is the most expensive project ever to launch in Edgewater. Do they somehow think that buyers will hear about the project, call them directly and pay whatever price they are asking…without any guidance on the overall market? And trust an agent that works directly for the developer…as if that person has the buyer’s best interests in mind? Hardly.

Strike Two

The same day I published the article I mentioned above, I purchased the URL www.MissoniBaiaCondos.com with the intention of creating a website to market Missoni Baia (as some of you know, I currently operate 6 different real estate websites with 6 more currently in development). However, before I got the chance to even launch the website, I got a letter from Missoni’s trademark attorney demanding that I transfer the domain immediately to Missoni because I was in violation of their trademark. Now, I’m not going to get into the legal analysis of the trademark laws because I am not an attorney, but my point is that I am trying to help Missoni sell their product at no cost to them. Now, I was not the only broker that was forced by Missoni to transfer my domain, other agents were included in their demand including an in-house agent who works for the developer—yes, an in-house agent working for the developer was also given a demand letter!

Strike Three…I’m Done

After I purchased the URL, but before I received the demand letter, I was personally invited by the sales team to take a tour of the sales gallery. While taking pictures of the sales gallery, I was told by the sales manager that I could not post these pictures on my website or social media. Again, do they not understand they need outside brokers? How am I supposed to share the project with my clients, readers or followers? Maybe the in-house sales team wants to control publicity and not cooperate with outside brokers? Maybe they have discovered some super-secret marketing strategy that gets as FEW eyes on their project as possible and somehow results in success?

Most Developers Get It…Paramount Miami Worldcenter & Park Grove

One of the many websites that I own and operate is www.ParamountMiamiCondos.com. This is a building-specific site dedicated to marketing Paramount Miami in Downtown Miami. Now, when I first launched this website, the developer, Dan Kodsi, was not particularly happy that I was “competing” with his own website. However, when I quickly became one of the top brokers at the project for many reasons including my website, not to mention the more than 25 articles I have written about the project because I do truly believe in it and the impact it will have on the City of Miami, the developer soon realized that my website actually only helped his project and its sales. And, thereafter, began giving me inside scoops and stories before anyone else, which then I was able to share this exclusive info with my clients. It was a so-called team effort between me, an outside broker, and the developer.

There are many other developers in Miami who have embraced outside brokers and understand what I am trying to say. David Martin, President of Terra Group, understands and embraces relationships with the broker community. His most recent project, Park Grove – the most prestigious condo development ever constructed in Coconut Grove, is currently approaching the 90% sold threshold which is due in large part to his cooperation with outside brokers and utilization of technology marketing.

Conclusion

Developers, please understand….you need outside brokers to market your pre-construction condo developments. Let us use our own resources and utilize technology marketing to sell your inventory. Here are a few key points from a recent Inman News article that I found interesting:

  • You need to implement the latest technological trends to succeed in real estate.
  • Advancements in technology will aid real estate agents’ efforts to sell homes more than they know.
  • There’s no way faster to cripple a healthy real estate business than by ignoring tech.
  • Technology is meant to make our lives easier; anyone not taking advantage of it is essentially doing the opposite. Those who refuse to adopt advancements in technology will be rendered moot by the competition in no time flat.

Basically, the days of pouring money into a fancy sales office with brochures, floor plans and a scale model, and taking out ad space in magazines to drive traffic to said sales office is long over.

Developers need brokers just as much as brokers need developers.

FAA Loosens Drone Rules—Good for Miami Real Estate Marketing

 
Thank goodness the FAA came to their senses and finally introduced new regulations that loosen drone rules allowing real estate agents to not have to jump through hoops to market properties for their clients.

I purchased my drone back in April 2014 to begin using it for real estate marketing. Shortly thereafter, the FAA enacted these crazy regulations forcing real estate agents to apply for a Section 333 exemption with the FAA to legally use a drone for real estate marketing (in other words, a “pay to play” B.S. regulation). But the new rules, which will take effect in August of this year, no longer require a Section 333 exemption for real estate agents to use drones for marketing purposes.

Specifically, I had the intention of using my drone to provide my developer clients with aerial views of properties that they were debating to purchase for redevelopment, for my clients looking to purchase pre-construction condos to allow them to get a real feel of what their actual view would be from their respective purchase, for my listings to create videos of properties from above and showcase highlights of certain neighborhoods to show out-of-town buyers.  However, I was simply too busy to jump through hoops with the FAA to get permission to use my drone, so I just didn’t.

Well, at least the rules came after one of my videos showcasing Kennedy Park in Coconut Grove was shown on Good Morning America.

So, the official rule changes are exciting for my business and my clients as I will be able to use my drone again to market properties and to assist various buyers in their decision-making process.

Click Here to read more information regarding the new FAA regulations.

If you, or someone you know, are interested in working with a Miami real estate broker who utilizes technology to market properties for sale, please contact Michael Light of Miami Luxury Homes. You may reach me directly at my office at (305) 350-9842 or via email at michael@miamiluxuryhomes.com.

Douglas Elliman Presents Innovative Digital Marketing Presentations

 
Douglas Elliman is THE premiere luxury real estate firm in the country with $22+ billion in sales in 2015.

Established in 1911, Douglas Elliman has grown to become the 4th largest real estate firm in the United States and the most reputable luxury real estate firm in the country. As the market leaders in New York, South Florida, California, Connecticut, Colorado and New Jersey, Douglas Elliman closed $22+ billion with 37,800 sale and rental transactions in 2015 alone…$2.4 billion of which came from South Florida. In addition, Douglas Elliman has strategically partnered with Knight Frank Residential of London to extend their powerful real estate network to 489 offices in 58 countries across 6 continents. No brokerage has a bigger global reach when marketing your home or condo for sale.

Douglas Elliman prides itself on being a leader in the luxury real estate market while providing the most innovative marketing tools to its clients. So, it should come as no surprise that Douglas Elliman is the first brokerage firm in South Florida to provide its luxury brokers with a custom-designed “folder” that has a built-in tablet display that plays an unparalleled digital listing presentation for prospective clients that showcases Douglas Elliman is the premier brokerage firm in the country.

First introduced at the “South Florida Ellies” award ceremony a few weeks ago, the remarkable digital presentation folders highlight the outstanding excellence of Douglas Elliman and all of its accomplishments. Please watch the 2 videos below included in the digital folder.

If you, or someone you know, are interested in marketing your South Florida luxury home or condo with the most innovative marketing tools offered in the real estate industry, please contact Michael Light of Douglas Elliman. You may reach Michael directly at (786) 566-1700 or via email at michael@miamiluxuryhomes.com.

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