Anthony Askowitz is the president and manager of RE/MAX Advance Realty
Every week, we ask a Miami real estate professional for their thoughts on the top stories in Miami real estate.
This week, we talked with Anthony Askowitz, a Miami native who is the president and managing broker of RE/MAX Advance Realty. In addition to directing the activities of more than 140 real estate agents in the company’s Kendall and South Miami offices, Anthony is also an active and productive agent, consistently selling more than 150 homes a year and maintaining his membership in RE/MAX’s “Diamond Club,” which is for associates whose paid annual commissions totaled more than $1 million.
In 2011, RE/MAX Advance Realty earned the company’s “Florida Office of the Year” award, and the same year, Anthony was named RE/MAX North America’s “Broker of the Year.”
Miami Agent (MA): A recent guest post on mobile apps generated a great response from our readers; what real estate-related apps do you find the most beneficial for your agents?
Anthony Askowitz (AA): We pride ourselves on keeping our team very tech savvy, and our agents are having tremendous success with HomeSnap, which allows them to learn all about listings simply by taking photos their smart phones; Evernote, which creates “living notebooks,” allowing members to retain ideas, sounds, photos and anything else that can be shared; and Dropbox, which our agents use to save and find transactions.
MA: Home prices in Miami-Dade continue to post strong year-over-year growth; what do you think is behind the continued increases?
AA: Three primary factors continue to positively influence our region’s housing market: geography, politics and low interest rates. Miami’s central location, as a hub for South America and the Caribbean, guarantees a continued influx of visitors, investors, new business and new residents.
The continued difficulties in foreign countries – and their uncertain political futures – make Miami real estate a very safe and desirable investment. And low interest rates make borrowed money relatively “cheap” and easy to secure. This perfect storm of drivers makes Miami very unique, almost an economy unto itself.
MA: Finally, our readers continue to follow our coverage of housing inventory closely; does inventory remain low in your primary markets, or are you seeing some movement?
AA: I still see properties coming on the market and selling quickly – oftentimes with multiple offers – when priced correctly. Fair to say that our low inventory is certainly impacting the marketability and pricing of new listings, and I don’t see inventory levels changing any time soon.