'Selling Sunset' star Maya Vander breaks down Florida's real estate market: 'People are still buying'

Their new regulations that came out of the state after the 2021 Surfside condominium building collapse that require older buildings, 30 years old or older, 25 years old if it's near saltwater to be inspected and repaired. If their problems potentially costing homeowners individually well into the six figures, the high cost also you got to put set aside a pool of money for future repairs, causing homeowners association fees every month to just skyrocket. All of this is forcing retirees on fixed incomes, fixed budgets. Well, they're hard up, hard times and they're trying to sell their condominiums because they cannot afford these costs. Joining us now star of Selling Sunset and Miami based Realtor Maya Vander Maya, great to see you. This is causing a flood of some condominiums to hit the market and price decreases to Maya. How is it impacting potential buyers and sellers? Yeah, So Luke, I sell a lot of condos. We definitely seen an increase in the last literally since the Surfside collapse. It's a combination between that collapse and insurance cost. It's not ideal and we still with more inventory, but it's still a good market here and people are still buying investors second homes. I always advise my clients to calculate extra money towards the reserve towards towards the potential HOA increase. So if if this new law in Florida is driving up the the cost because of the, the evaluations of the buildings, number one, but then #2 you know, doing the repairs and then putting money in for a reserve fund. It seems like there should be a, a review is, is the Florida government, the legislature and the governor taking a look at how this policy is actually working? And if it's costing, you know, older homeowners on fixed incomes, their condos, are they going to re evaluate how this is being implemented and its impact on Floridians? Exactly. You know, and that's a good question to the government. Look, it's a big issue. I understand people put, you know, the most they can do sometimes on a condo and that's their literally their life saving. And it's sad that situation like that occur, especially after the Surfside collapse. It's something to calculate in your mind when you're buying a condo in Florida. I mean, when I moved there, price per square foot for a unit used to be $0.70 a dollar per square foot for HOA assessments. Now you're talking about $2.00 per square foot. It's a huge interest. And another question is like who is running the board on those associations? Are they, they know what they're doing with their budget because those assessments should not come in like such a like bang. It should be like a slow build up over the years to calculate those reserve for, you know, a rainy day. That my that was my point that I was making yesterday. The way that this law was implemented, it was, it was put in place. It wasn't staggered based on say starting with buildings that were, you know, by age, the oldest buildings first. It's all happening at once. And so you have a shortage of inspectors and engineers and, and contractors and it's a nightmare if you want to get anything done to a building. It is. And, and sometimes, you know, even if it gets done, you question how did, did there is certification of a building? Was it like done the right way? The inspector did the the good job. Same with the engineer. Because why we came to a potential collapse of a building on the ocean. And let alone, I mean, Collins Ave. here in Miami, I mean, you have all these older condos. Same age builders, Champlain Towers. So moving forward, I think it needs to be more regulated and people on the board needs to be more, I guess, experienced if you don't hire an accountant. And same with like what's going on behind the scenes. Florida gets a lot of things right, maybe got this one wrong. A lot of people want to move in. Maya, thanks for being with us.