Emilio Palomo is the broker/owner of Riteway Properties III in Miami

Every week, we ask a Miami real estate professional for their thoughts on the top three stories from the week before.

This week, we talked with Emilio Palomo, the broker/owner of Riteway Properties III in Miami. Emilio, who has the CRB, CRS and GRI designations, has been in real estate since 1971, and is a past chairman of the Miami Master Brokers Forum. He is still on the forum’s Miami board, and he continues to work in residential, commercial and property management.

Miami Agent (MA): Have you found much success from any real estate syndication sites in your business?

Emilio Palomo (EP): No, I have not. As a matter of fact, most of the listings we see on Trulia are really off on their prices. I find that consumers today really rely on their services, but we don’t do much advertising on those sites.

I would say that 80 percent of my business is referrals from prior clients and contacts, which fortunately I have a lot of. But in my opinion, the data on those syndication sites are extremely off, especially regarding prices.

MA: Recent studies show that housing inventory has been on the rise nationally since the start of the year. What’s inventory been like in Miami?

EP: With the areas in Miami, you really don’t have much of a choice. That’s going to change, especially in Miami, with all the construction that’s going on. But a lot of sales now are happening for buildings that are not even built yet. Sales are extremely strong.

There are also agents telling me that the banks have a lot of inventory that they have not released yet. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I keep hearing that, that there are many foreclosures that the banks have no released. I doubt it, but you keep hearing it.

MA: Finally, we recently reported on NAR’s data that sales from foreign homebuyers were down nationally by 17 percent from 2012 to 2013; we take it that’s not the case in Miami?

EP: I don’t have the statistics to approve it or disprove it, but I don’t believe that would be correct here in Miami. And it’s very interesting, there is a big influence of French buyers now in the Miami area.