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Representation
Buying here.
Most of the value we add on the buy side is subtraction: the four houses you do not buy, and the number you do not pay.
The approach
An appraiser reads the file before you read the brochure.
Theo spent six years valuing waterfront for the county, and the habit that came out of it is simple: the documents come first. Before you spend a Saturday touring, he pulls the assessor record, the permit history and, on the water, the elevation certificate and any seawall engineering. On a recent search that exercise eliminated three of the seven houses on a client's shortlist before anyone drove anywhere, one of them because a 2016 permit for a dock extension had been opened and never closed.
When we do go, we go early and at low tide. He walks the seawall with a probe, looks at the cap and the return, and photographs the tie-back plates if there are any. He measures the water rather than believing the word deep. He looks up at the bridge on the way out. None of this is exotic — it is what an appraiser does routinely and what almost nobody does before an offer, which is why buyers keep discovering it during the inspection period when their negotiating position is weaker.
Camille handles the building itself. She will tell you what the house cannot become as well as what it can: which walls carry load, whether the addition you are imagining survives architectural review in Hyde Park, and whether the renovation you have in mind crosses the substantial-improvement threshold and turns into a rebuild. That conversation happens on the second visit, with a plan in hand, not after you own it.
On price, we write offers from closed comparables we have walked, with the deficiencies costed. A seawall at the end of its life is not a bargaining chip, it is a number, and a number is much harder for the other side to argue with. Two of our last four buy-side transactions closed below the seller's list because the estimate was attached to the offer.
And there is the part that is not a process at all: knowing which houses might sell. In a year we represent fourteen estates and hear about perhaps thirty more. If you engage us and tell us precisely what you want, we will go and ask the owners of the houses that fit, whether or not they have ever thought about selling.
Questions
Asked on every first call.
Do I pay you as a buyer?
We agree our fee with you in writing before we show you anything, as Florida practice now requires. Where a seller offers compensation to a buyer's broker it is credited against that fee, and in most transactions in these three neighborhoods it covers it entirely. If it does not, you will know the shortfall before you view the house rather than at the closing table.
What do you check before I make an offer on waterfront?
Depth at mean low tide, taken as soundings rather than from the listing. Bridge clearance on the route to open water. The age and condition of the seawall, walked at low tide with a probe, plus any tie-back engineering on file. The dock and lift permits, checked against the boat you actually own. The elevation certificate and the finished-floor height. The permit history for the last twenty years, and the insurance loss history. Theo does this before an offer, not during the inspection period.
Can you show me houses that are not publicly for sale?
Yes, and it is a large part of why buyers engage us. Between four and six of the fourteen estates we represent each year never appear publicly, and we also know which owners in these streets would sell at the right number without ever listing. We will approach them on your behalf once we understand precisely what you are looking for and can demonstrate that you are in a position to transact.
See what we currently represent in the portfolio, or read the market commentary behind these checks.