Inside Miami’s Ultra Luxury Real Estate Market with Raul Santidrian

Raul Santidrian PA (00:00)
Some of my favorite projects include what is gonna be the tallest building in Miami, which is 888 Brickle, Dolce & Gabbana. It’s a branded building. It’s gonna be 90 stories.

And 11 foot ceilings each each floor. So imagine that that’s really more than 100 stories if you really go that route. It’s 1049 feet tall and I love it because it’s going to be the first of its kind meaning it’s going to be a building where you can actually put in a hotel program or Airbnb it but at the ultra luxury level there’s nothing like that. There’s a lot of Airbnbs here and there but they’re usually cheaper buildings not something that an affluent person will want to stay in. So 888 Dullshit is definitely one of my favorites.

Kristen Knapp (02:13)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Raul Santidrian. He’s a real estate agent in Miami. You know, we’re going to talk about some super lux condos, pre-construction, luxury listings. I’m very excited to get into it. Thank you for being here.

Raul Santidrian PA (02:27)
Thank you, Kristen And it is my pleasure to be here. So I’m here in my co-banker office here behind me. I’m flashing some of the websites that I have, know, preconstruction305.com for preconstruction condos, Luxury Listings Miami.

Kristen Knapp (02:30)
Yes, and you can.

Yeah.

Raul Santidrian PA (02:44)
for single-family homes and condos305.com for resales existing condos. So thank you for having me. I’m very excited.

Kristen Knapp (02:52)
Yes, you got a lot going on. I mean, Miami, I was telling you before the podcast, I love Miami so much. It’s one of my favorite places.

Raul Santidrian PA (02:59)
That’s my favorite place.

Kristen Knapp (03:01)
Yeah,

and you grew up in the area, you know the area very well.

Raul Santidrian PA (03:04)
yeah.

Yeah, I’ve been here forever.

Kristen Knapp (03:06)
Yeah. And tell us what kind of got you into the real estate business. I know that you had kind of an entrepreneurial journey right before.

Raul Santidrian PA (03:13)
Well, before I was in real estate, I used to own the largest independent video rental stores. For some people watching, they probably don’t even know what a video rental store They’ve never been in one. So some of the younger generation. But in the 90s, I used to own Monster Video. And I sold it to Blockbuster Video in 1995. And then I got bored doing other business ventures. And then in 2004, I said, you know what? I like real estate. I like selling.

Let me become a realtor. So I got my license and I’ve been a licensed realtor since 2004. That’s 21 years now. And I love it. I mean, I see Miami transformed into the most interesting city in the world. And that’s not just my opinion. Everybody wants to live here. You know, you have Citadel moving, know, Ken Griffin moving over here and his entire operation. So many billionaires are buying homes, 50, $100 million in Miami. And I never imagined that that would be possible, but it’s happening right in front of my eyes.

Kristen Knapp (04:07)
Yeah, incredible. you work with a, like you work with luxury clientele and you tell us more about the different areas that you work with.

Raul Santidrian PA (04:16)
Well, I pretty much sell all over Miami. If I’m taking a listing of a multimillion dollar home, I prefer certain areas like Coral Gables, Pinecrest, Miami Beach. But with buyers that are buying a second home or even a primary home of pre-construction condos, anything that is luxury and anything that I feel like is a reputable developer and that my clients are going to be satisfied.

I dive into it. Like in preconstruction305.com I have more than 60 projects at the moment that I’m featuring. And it has to be of quality to get to my website because I’m not gonna sell something that is gonna disappoint somebody once they get handed the keys. So

some of my favorite projects include what is gonna be the tallest building in Miami, which is 888 Brickle, Dolce & Gabbana.

It’s a branded building. It’s gonna be 90 stories.

and 11 foot ceilings each each floor. So imagine that that’s really more than 100 stories if you really go that route. It’s 1049 feet tall and I love it because it’s going to be the first of its kind meaning it’s going to be a building where you can actually put in a hotel program or Airbnb it but at the ultra luxury level there’s nothing like that. There’s a lot of Airbnbs here and there but they’re usually cheaper buildings not

something that an affluent person will want to stay in. So 888 Dullshit is definitely one of my favorites.

Another one of my favorites in Brickle is also 1428 Brickle. It’s another building that somebody is going to be blown away by the finishes. It’s a traditional building. It’s not the kind of building that you can rent out on a day by day like you do with Dullshit, but it’s more of a home where you actually make your home and you could lease it for six months, 12 months.

And then on the beach, my absolute favorite is the Ritz Carlton Residences South Beach. It’s a boutique building, only 30 units, but it’s got the Ritz Carlton name and it’s right on South Beach on 16th and Collins. It’s just amazing. But there’s so many, I could be here for hours telling you about all the buildings that I’m selling. to choose a very favorite one is very difficult. I think I gravitated to 888 Brickle because it’s got the title of the…

Kristen Knapp (07:08)
Yeah.

Raul Santidrian PA (07:17)
tallest building in Miami. So for some reason that rattles my cage.

Kristen Knapp (07:21)
I mean, it’s so impressive. You are the guy when it comes to luxury properties in Miami. How did you build this up? Like when you first started in real estate, how did you build your network?

Raul Santidrian PA (07:32)
I was lucky enough that in 1997 out of curiosity when the internet started becoming the internet before Facebook existed probably Zuckerberg was probably like 12 years old. I don’t know how old he is but I mean before Facebook, before YouTube, before a lot of different things that we now have like you know a staple of normal thing. In 1997 there was something called Netscape and that was the browser at the time there was no

Google Chrome or none of that. And Nescape had a tutorial on how to build websites built into it. I got curious and I started teaching myself how to build websites and how to program at the amateur level. when I became a real estate agent, I was already pretty much an expert at building websites. So I never really needed a webmaster to build my websites. And I think that was an edge. I also understood Google very well.

So I had an internet presence from the beginning, which I think it gave me an edge. So now I’ve discovered that I need to catch up because I did neglect one thing and that was social media. know, my YouTube channel, I felt I it for 10 years, but all I would do is upload videos that, you know, the developers will give me to promote. But recently and very recently, I’m talking about less than a month ago, I started making my own videos with my co-star.

my nine-year-old daughter Chloe who wants to be a YouTube star and she said daddy please put me on your video so I said okay and I did it you know just to please her and then she turns out to be the star of the videos in other words she’s outshining me and my my my she and I’m not kidding I’m not saying that because she’s my daughter you can go to my YouTube channel which is at luxury listings Miami so youtube.com at luxury listings Miami

Kristen Knapp (09:05)
I would have had it. Yeah.

Raul Santidrian PA (09:16)
and you could see her videos Chloe she’s done two so far and wow she’s a natural so now that I’m doing my own videos my channel grew from 2700 subscribers to almost 5000 in a matter of three weeks and my goal is to get to 100 000 so I’m not going to stop until we get there because I discovered that social media for a professional like me is more than just a vanity thing it’s actually a very good

to reach your audience and your customers. And you know, the customers do deserve to have all that information prior to contacting me. So now I’m on board with that.

Kristen Knapp (10:28)
Absolutely, and I mean it’s a good parallel to when websites were coming out and you were so on it with the websites. It’s just a continuation of that where people are just changing the way that they consume information or they go look for information. But that’s amazing that you get to do the channel with her. That must be really fun.

Raul Santidrian PA (10:46)
It was by accident, you know, it was funny because I had to, you know, we’re in summertime right now. She doesn’t start school again until August 14th. She’s turning the fourth grade. She’s nine years old and I couldn’t just leave her alone to go do my videos. I said, you gotta come with me. And I told my coworker, hey, I gotta bring my daughter because he goes, oh, that’s great. And then on the way she goes, daddy, can I be on the video? You know, I really want to be on the video. And I go, okay. And I was like, how’s this gonna work? And all of a sudden she’s like,

Kristen Knapp (11:12)
Thank

Raul Santidrian PA (11:15)
my God. I want you in every one of my videos. And she goes, yeah. So it just happened by the grace of God, I guess, you know. ⁓ yeah.

Kristen Knapp (11:21)
That’s amazing, a future YouTuber for sure. I mean, it’s impressive

in the matter of a few weeks to gain, you know, to double your following. That’s not nothing. YouTube is very hard to crack. So that’s really impressive.

Raul Santidrian PA (11:32)
know,

it is and the best thing is that I know that she is so charming and when you have time just go watch her video at youtube.com Luxury Seasons Miami. We uploaded that video less than a week ago, I think six days ago and we have over 7,000 views, almost 8,000 views. Obviously it’s not because I’m cute, it’s because she is and actually the project that we were presenting is really impressive.

Kristen Knapp (11:38)
I will, yeah.

Yeah.

Raul Santidrian PA (11:59)
Very impressive.

Kristen Knapp (12:01)
Yeah,

amazing. Yeah, I mean, you have so much going on. You have so much to offer people. Talk to us about, you know, when you’re working with people, how do you make everyone feel like they’re your only client?

Raul Santidrian PA (12:12)
Well, don’t really, my goal is not to make them feel like they’re my only client because you know, the people that I work with, they’re very intelligent, they’re very accomplished. So I never give that information. What I do is I respect their time. When I’m with them, I don’t sit there on the phone texting and all that unless it’s a client reaching out to me. I say, let me call you later. I’m doing a tour and I have it already automated in my phone. So I just have to one click.

But what I do do is as soon as I’m done with that client, I call back whoever’s trying to reach me because I respect the time that I’m with them. And they know I’m not their only client, but they know also that I will do anything I have to do to make sure they’re satisfied. know, answer their calls on time, never leave them hanging. Even if I’m on vacation, hey, how you doing? I’m in Italy or whatever, I’m in New York. When I get back, I’ll take care of it.

And another thing that I do is I offer free concierge service to my clients. Anybody who buys a property from me, chances are it’s their second, third, or fifth home. if they live, like I have clients as far as Istanbul, Turkey, okay? Right now, one of my clients has a property listed with me. Anything he needs besides real estate. know, please, can you go here, back to America, this or whatever. Anything they need, I do for them because they’re my clients and they trusted me.

And I’m not going to betray that trust.

Kristen Knapp (13:35)
Yeah, being available, communicative, that stuff goes a long way.

Raul Santidrian PA (13:38)
That’s the most important thing. The most important thing. They need to know that they can get a hold of you.

Kristen Knapp (13:42)
Absolutely. And playing kind of in this luxury market for someone who’s trying to sell luxury real estate, what’s maybe a misconception or something that, you you have to adjust your strategy to be able to work with these high-end properties.

Raul Santidrian PA (13:56)
Kristen, truth is, I don’t know the answer to that, the concept, because I’m the type of person that I only focus on the positive. I hear a lot of negatives, like, you know, actually, this is a very tussy subject because it can get a little bit political. Miami is sinking. Whenever I say that, sometimes it triggers people to get angry. Okay, no, it’s not. And I’ll tell you something. I remember being 10 years old and going with my next door neighbor.

And his dad fishing, because my next door neighbor was also 10 years old. We all liked fishing. Back then, we didn’t have a boat. Now I have a beautiful boat, and I go out into Miami waterways and all that. But back then, I just had a fishing pole. So I go with my friend and his dad fishing to the area that today we call Edgewater. Well, it was always called Edgewater, but Edgewater is being developed, and they’re building some incredible luxury condos there, high rises.

and we would fish off the walkway there. Well, I’m talking about, I’m disclosing my age basically, 1971, 1972. The water level is still the same.

You remember casting and catching fish and buying back and forth just to pass the time. Here we are 2025, the water level is still the same. mean, this whole thing, it’s…

Kristen Knapp (15:51)
Right.

Raul Santidrian PA (15:54)
I know. I really don’t know what’s behind it. you know, who would, you know, I hear comments sometimes and, know, Instagram and stuff like that. Who would want to buy a condo in Miami Beach? It’s going to sink in five years. Yeah, sure. Yeah. I’ve heard that 20 years ago. heard that 10 years ago. Still here. And it will still be here in 20 years and 25 years. Mark my words.

Kristen Knapp (16:11)
Yeah, I-

Definitely. mean, I think, especially with social media, the internet and all of that, I think it’s easy to throw information around that isn’t necessarily accurate. And I think there is a lot of fear mongering going on with the market right now. Yeah.

Raul Santidrian PA (16:28)
There is a

lot of fear mongering and the most comical one to me is that Miami is going to be underwater in the next 20 years and all that stuff. I go, my God, really? I hear that I’m like, right. Okay. So here we are. A developer going for a $500 million construction loan and sometimes even a billion because at the States of Aqualina, they got a billion dollars.

Kristen Knapp (16:40)
Yeah.

Raul Santidrian PA (16:54)
Filling it with a B-dollar construction loan for a development that is in Sunny Isles Beach. So the banker is sitting there with the underwriters and saying, you know what, let’s approve this loan to this develop, even though we’re going to be underwater in a few years. Does that make any sense? So really smart people are saying BS on that, you know? I call that BS. It’s like, come on. People just talk.

Kristen Knapp (17:11)
Yeah.

Raul Santidrian PA (17:20)
to Everybody’s got an opinion, especially today on Facebook and Instagram. It’s so easy to opine, insult, be negative. I tried to ignore all that. I tried to be good.

Kristen Knapp (17:28)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

absolutely. like, tell us more about just the market in general. What’s your perspective on it?

Raul Santidrian PA (17:36)
The market in general, think 2025 is a transitional year because there was a, I mean, I don’t need to repeat this and I’m not being political by any means because I tried not to do that with my clients or in public. You know, we had a new president and then interest rates are high and then a lot of people were scared about how this whole tariffs things were gonna.

Kristen Knapp (17:38)
Yeah.

Raul Santidrian PA (18:01)
going to play out. The stock market took a dump in April. Now it’s back up higher than ever. So that is fueling more confidence. So we had a slow period in the last four months, but the last 30 days, I’m seeing an uptick in interest and a lot of people wanting to come down to Miami and look again, but that’s normal. Real estate has always had a cycle. And the one thing that scares people the most is uncertainty.

So when you have uncertainty as to the directions of the interest rate, how are these tariffs going to affect the economy and this and that? Sometimes it gives pause. So yes, the last six months have been challenging, but nothing new to me. I’ve been here, done that. You know, after 21 years in the real estate industry, I’ve seen it all. Nothing new. Actually, the worst, worst event that I experienced back in 2008, I don’t need to mention it. Anybody who was around knows what happened.

At that time, I was more of a listing agent. I wasn’t really in the ultra luxury business. had 104 listings and nothing was selling because all the banks that people were using went out of business. But that’s the past. I don’t want to talk about negative stuff. We’re not even close to anything like that here because the quality of the buyers that have been buying in Miami are totally different than the buyers that bought in 2008. Back then,

Kristen Knapp (19:10)
Yeah. ⁓

Right.

Raul Santidrian PA (19:25)
If you had a pulse and you were a homo sapien, you qualify for a loan. You know, so, so you had people buying two or three homes with zero money out of their pocket and stuff like that. was, was for lack of a better word, it was a joke. And, ⁓ at the, at the time I was pretty new in the industry, so I didn’t really realize that until after the fact. I go, wow. But

Kristen Knapp (19:29)
Yeah.

Raul Santidrian PA (19:45)
Here we have a lot of people that are buying homes either cash or with 50 % down. Like the pre-construction buyers, they have to have at least 50 % down by the time the project is completed because they pay installments, you know, like 20 % a contract, 10 % when a certain level of construction. So they got skin in the game. Nobody’s walking away from 50 % equity. So that debacle that happened back in 2008 is not…

possible now. yeah, I don’t buy into all the doom and gloom. Miami’s prices keep going up. They keep going up.

Kristen Knapp (20:17)
I love that. I love to hear optimism about the market for sure because there is a lot of negative news being pushed to everybody.

Raul Santidrian PA (20:23)
There is, ⁓ but it’s more about area specific. ⁓ But let me reverse that. ⁓ Miami is almost like an exception to the rest of the country. And again, a lot of people say, what is he talking about? There’s a lot of inventory in Miami. Yeah, there is a lot of inventory in certain sectors. Those are not the sectors that I fish in. In other words,

Kristen Knapp (20:28)
Totally.

Raul Santidrian PA (20:47)
My sector is very healthy, which is the ultra luxury. There’s still people selling 30, 40, 50 million out of homes. My market is more between 3 million and 10 million, but I’m trying to get into the 30 and 50 million myself, of course. the over inventory is in areas that are definitely not the prime areas of Miami, where people actually want to buy. So it’s like everything else.

real estate is very area driven.

Kristen Knapp (21:14)
Absolutely, absolutely. It’s not a one size fits all.

Raul Santidrian PA (21:17)
Right. Location, location, location.

Kristen Knapp (21:18)
And

to kind of wrap this up, what’s a piece of advice that you wish you knew at the beginning of your real estate journey?

Raul Santidrian PA (21:25)
Ah, persistence removes resistance. Follow up, follow up, follow up. know, sometimes you have a good lead, you have a good prospect that eventually will become a buyer, but they reached out to you and maybe they’re not quite ready yet. Maybe they’re a buyer in a year or two years. Don’t just forget about them and dismiss them. You know, just once in a while call and say hello and say, hey, I’m still here. By the way, a new project came out. You might want to take a look at it. Oh yeah, I’ll be ready next year, but.

Don’t dismiss them, keep them in your database.

Kristen Knapp (21:54)
Absolutely, think that’s great

I remind people again where they can find you.

Raul Santidrian PA (22:00)
Well they can find me at Preconstruction305.com if they want to buy a pre-construction but even if they don’t know my information is there. For single family home buyers, luxurylistingsmiami.com.

Kristen Knapp (22:12)
Amazing. And then your YouTube one more time.

Raul Santidrian PA (22:14)
My YouTube channel is YouTube at Luxury Listings Miami.

Kristen Knapp (22:18)
Amazing. Well, I’m so happy, you know, for you to get this YouTube started because I think it’s going to be great.

Raul Santidrian PA (22:24)
Just keep an eye on it and you’re gonna see I’m gonna hit a hundred thousand followers. Very subscribers. I should say yeah Within them within the next year. That’s my goal

Kristen Knapp (22:26)
Absolutely, you’re gonna have

I mean, I believe it.

I totally believe it. Well, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.

Raul Santidrian PA (22:37)
Thank you, Kristen. You’ve been wonderful.

Kristen Knapp (22:39)
Awesome, and thank you everyone for listening and we will see you back next time. Bye.

Raul Santidrian PA (22:43)
Okay, excellent, bye.