A bulk buyer made $200,000 in 20 minutes by purchasing 19 bank-owned units in a new Miami project and then immediately retrading the same condo inventory to another investor for a profit, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

Even at the retraded price, the ultimate bulk owner still purchased the units at a 60 percent discount compared to the $293 average closed sales price in the project, according to the report based on Miami-Dade County records. 

The Fama Group Inc., with principal Nancy Marquez, purchased 19 units in the new 30-unit Mi Primera Ilusion Villas condominium on Southwest 18th Avenue in Miami for $1.25 million, or $102 per square foot, at 1:25 pm Friday, March 5, according to the report based on Florida Secretary of State records.

Exactly 20 minutes later at 1:45 pm, Marquez's group sold the units for $1.45 million, or $118 per square foot, to another Miami-based entity, Rentdepo LLC with principals Alain Bonvecchio and Karen Stanford Bonvecchio, according to government records.

"The Fama Group earned a 16 percent cash-on-cash return on its money in 20 minutes, minus fees," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC. "This is another example of well-connected condominium bulk buyers purchasing new product at deep discounts and then immediately retrading the units for a spread.

"Call this condo arbitrage, Miami style."

Condo Vultures® is scheduled to publish a White Paper™ report during the week of March 22 examining the status of the more than 40 bulk buyers that have purchased new condo product at deep discounts in South Florida since July 2008, and what the product is retrading at in the current market.

CondoVultures.com has documented at least five examples where bulk buyers have purchased product and retraded it for more than a 40 percent spread in the course of weeks, according to the Condo Vultures® Bulk Deals Database™.

In this most recent example of condo arbitrage, the original developer Mi Primera Ilusion Villas LLC, with principal Miguel Soliman, deeded over on Jan. 6 the remaining unsold units in the four-story condo building to an affiliate of the project's construction lender, Eastern National Bank in Miami.

Eastern National recorded the deed transfer of the units with Miami-Dade County at a combined price of $2.8 million, or $224 per square foot, according to the report.

Eastern National Bank provided at least $3.7 million in construction financing plus interest and fees for the project that generated about $2 million in completed transactions under the original developer, according to Miami-Dade County records.

Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures® can be reached at 800-750-0517 or by email at peter@condovultures.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Don't forget to sign up for our weekly Market Intelligence Report™ for detailed condo reports. Looking for a property at a deep discount? You are encouraged to take a peek at the Vultures Database™ or view our Video Gallery. Looking for bulk projects direct from developers or lenders? Visit the Condo Vultures® Bulk Deals Database. Our new books, the Official Condo Buyers Guide to Miami™ , Official Condo Buyers Guide To South Beach™, Official Condo Buyers Guide to Sunny Isles Beach™, Miami's Great Condo Crash: A Chronicle of the Boom and Bust™ , and the First-Time Home Buyers Guide To South Florida™ are now available. Want to see every foreclosure filed in South Florida since 2007? Check out our Foreclosure Database™.

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