Miami Real Estate Is Exploding: Where Investors Are Finding Opportunity

SHANNON PETTIFORD (00:00)
And this may be an opportunity for you where you can buy in a new construction. You only have to put down 10% now, right? And then 20% a year later, because these are not going to be delivered to 2028. And what happens a lot of the time is you’re gonna have equity even before you buy your keys. So for young people, I love this, Dylan.

You could buy this place for five hundred thousand dollars in the Wynwood area, and before you even get your keys, you have one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of equity in your property.

Dylan Silver (01:59)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Shannon Pettiford, Florida broker, investor, and syndicator. Shannon, thanks for joining us here today.

SHANNON PETTIFORD (02:08)
Thank you so much for having me, Dylan. Looking forward to being here with you, man. Thank you for the invitation. Absolutely.

Dylan Silver (02:14)
What types of deals are coming across your desk these days?

SHANNON PETTIFORD (02:17)
Wow. So Dylan, we do everything from residential commercial to commercial, but I would say 80% of the things we do is residential. Heavy on the investor side. A lot of investors are looking at what’s going on in the Miami district. Over twelve billion dollars of developments happening, being surrounded about entertainment concepts, art. So I would say most investors are looking in the Miami area, the Fort Lauderdale area, West Palm Beach.

All up and down this eastern corridor, man. Investors are looking. But interesting enough, South Florida’s known as the retirement capital of the world. We’re seeing a lot of young people, lot of influencers are coming to South Florida, man. Really interesting trend, last five, ten years. Absolutely.

Dylan Silver (02:58)
I want to talk about that specifically, Shannon, because you mentioned that in many ways it’s been known as a retirement community. But I’ve seen this from my seat over here. It seems young people are realizing there’s this entrepreneurial energy in South Florida in particular.

Dylan Silver (03:14)
And this kind of chicken or the egg argument, are the entrepreneurs in South Florida because there’s so much momentum down there, or are people building their businesses outside of South Florida and then migrating to South Florida to really get that rocket fuel of the other entrepreneurs already down there as well as just the great environment? What’s your take on that?

SHANNON PETTIFORD (03:34)
An enclave of both. Like you said, traditionally, when I started 22 years ago, South Florida was known as the vacation, the retirement capital of the world. And then people from all around the world literally would come. In the last 10 years, we started seeing these different trends where young people were starting to come to South Florida, Miami, and five years ago, places that traditionally 90%

baby boomers, older generation, 60 plus, are now being infiltrated with influencers, with young people who have this these entrepreneurial endeavors who have started their businesses maybe in other areas in the country, they come down here to really expand. So now we’re seeing a lot of tech companies coming down here. FinTech is coming down here. And of course, this is a great place for influencers to be.

So professional athletes come and train here. So it’s like South Florida is a place now. It’s really transformed the last five years. We see a huge influx of young entrepreneurs. And interesting, Dylan, we’re seeing a lot of millionaires under the age of thirty and thirty-five coming to Florida looking to expand their real estate portfolio. It’s absolutely amazing.

Dylan Silver (04:36)
You touched on something again there, which is that young people in particular are now being drawn to South Florida, Florida in general. And when we look at that trend, it almost looks like it was accelerated by this idea that you can still work maybe in another state but remotely, or you can do business as an investor.

Remotely, are you seeing more people with that belief and understanding that they don’t have to live where they do business in order to be successful?

SHANNON PETTIFORD (05:04)
Dylan, as I think COVID just opened up the heavens for that and just made that a reality that remote working and living is not just possible, but you can actually flourish. It’s interesting. As I’m looking at and thinking about a lot of my young entrepreneurs, I would say about seventy percent of them have occupations or have businesses where they can work anywhere around the world. And have conversations like, Hey Shannon, I’m looking

I may be interested to buy, but hey, can I just rent one of your luxury properties, kind of get a feel for it? And then they wind up liking it, and then they’re purchasing homes because they can live anywhere in the country and still have a very successful life. So there is this youthful energy that’s burning in South Florida where people are just coming from everywhere they’re saying, Man, South Florida, I don’t have to wait till I’m 50 to come to South Florida and to enjoy all it has

to offer. As we know, health is wealth and people are coming here to work out, stay fit, enjoy life. Come on, man, it’s called the Sunshine State. You know what I mean? It’s a beautiful thing.

Dylan Silver (06:03)
I remember I have one South Florida story looking at it from afar that really piqued my interest. I was getting back into running, right? And there were some run clubs in some other parts of the country that I’ve been to, but I wanna say there was one, it might have been Fort Lauderdale or it might have been Brickell Run Club, I forget which one it was, and I’m seeing it on TikTok. All these happy people running, looking like they’re having the best time. I’m like, if that’s what exercise looks like,

I can imagine that everything else is probably pretty good too.

SHANNON PETTIFORD (07:21)
Mm, absolutely. It’s so interesting. So I grew up in New Jersey and I never forget in the winter getting in the car and sitting on that cold seat, having to scrape off the windows. I do not miss that. And that having the just the ability, we do a lot of traveling, and to come from another cold state, especially in December, and to hear the captain say, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Fort Lauderdale with the current temperature is eighty degrees.

That is when I say, welcome back home, Shannon. And I so love it. And I love bringing people into Fort Lauderdale because it’s I mean, it has so much to offer for families, business people, young people. We have some of the best school systems here in South Florida. I mean, it’s the American Caribbean, as I coined it about twenty years ago, man. It has the infrastructure, it has everything, the economy, everything, the security, everything is here, man. It’s really a place

that this is what I’ve been talking about to my clients. The quality of life. When you compare the quality of life, a lot and Montana’s amazing. I love Montana. Los Angeles is amazing. Atlanta, Boston, New York all have different things to offer, man, but it’s only one it’s only one Florida. And South Florida, I get the opportunity to bring people or relocate people to Florida, man. It’s not work for me, it’s fun.

Dylan Silver (08:35)
You mentioned the quality of life. And people sometimes miss this because again, the reputation of retirement community type of thing, but of course that’s changed drastically now. And it’s really this thing now where it feels like all of the certainly the Western hemisphere, I think maybe the world at this point is looking at South Florida in particular. We were talking about this in the green room as maybe one of the best places to live just period from so many standpoints.

But especially because it’s safe, you’ve got the Caribbean weather, amazing place potentially from a school perspective, and so many other ways.

SHANNON PETTIFORD (09:10)
Yes, absolutely. A hundred percent. People come because they want to enjoy life. I mean, Florida’s a place traditionally where you would say, Okay, I’m coming here to retire. I think this younger generation is Wow, why do I have to wait till I’m fifty to start enjoying life? I could enjoy life now. I can still be disciplined, I can do my work, I can build my career, I can build my business and I can really enjoy my daily life. I can go out and run in the middle of December. I can run

365 days out of the year. I can work out 365 days a day. I can play golf. I can play pickleball, which is exploding, Dylan. I don’t know if you play pickleball, but pickleball bit me two years ago. It’s something I do daily, man. And community here, pickleball community, the run, there’s so many different communities because we have access to do these things all year round. It’s absolutely amazing.

Dylan Silver (09:56)
Yeah, you mentioned pickleball. I’m a former tennis player and I was at the US Open, not the Arthur Ashe Stadium, but I was outside of it in Queens yesterday. I believe they call it Fan Week. And I was watching the finals on a big screen with some other people. And I feel like the growth of pickleball has even helped tennis because just Americans are more interested in racket sports. And I also joke about this, but I think there’s some degree of truth to this.

If you start seeing pickleball courts, that’s a harbinger that there’s about to be a multifamily apartment complex coming up somewhere near you because people want that kind of an activity, especially younger people. It’s a great thing to do to build friends and community.

SHANNON PETTIFORD (10:36)
Absolutely. So twenty years ago when I first started, they would build these communities around golf courses, which is still prominent. And now, fast forward twenty years now, building around Padel, pickleball courts. The younger generation, man. It is so exciting. And pickleball courts are exploding around here. You still can play tennis here in South Florida, still can play golf. Now you got pickleball, you got run clubs, you have rowing. I mean, anything you can think of is here.

And I think it’s attractive to all ages now. And the real estate market is really welcoming all of these buyers, and all these potential people all around the world are coming to South Florida. It’s really exciting.

Dylan Silver (11:13)
I wanna pivot here and ask you about the investing side. So we were talking in the green room about syndication. I know you’re involved there. Are you involved in multifamily commercial? What does your syndication look like?

SHANNON PETTIFORD (12:06)
Multifamily. We really look for those opportunities that great opportunities, great numbers, still in the black, and then we add value to it, and then we have a three to five year exit strategy. So usually multifamilies, but we have actually looked into the industrial side where we purchased a couple of garages and family businesses

that have the clientele, have the good bones, and then we really add value to it and then sell it in three to five years. That’s another thing that’s really exciting the investor side in real estate. Hundred percent. And that’s national. That’s not just specific to South Florida. That’s Kentucky, that’s Tennessee, that’s all the different places in in in our beautiful country. Yep.

Dylan Silver (12:51)
Two other great places for investing, Kentucky and Tennessee for sure. I’ve actually have familiarity in both of those markets to some degree. I wanna ask you about the industrial. So you mentioned industrial. I’ve heard this term small bay industrial. Is that the asset class that you are investing in?

SHANNON PETTIFORD (13:10)
Absolutely a hundred and ten percent. Yes, yeah, those small bay industrial companies. Usually, we’re finding great small family business that’s been very successful for 40 years, but really has not invested money in the marketing or in advertising. And then we, we do, we bring our team together and we just really vamp it up, add value to it, and then eventually sell it.

And our investors love it because we’re seeing tremendous return on investments in very safe economic environments, not a lot of volatility because a lot of these companies, and this is very important, Dylan, are already profitable. They have zero debt, and they have the potential just to two X, three X, five X, and even seven X in some instances. So it’s something that our syndication is very proud of and our investors love.

Dylan Silver (13:56)
Small bay industrial is quite interesting because it’s all around us. And sometimes you drive by and if you’re not in the real estate space, you might not think much of it. But it’s all around us. And there’s been a lot of interest recently from investors in particular who may have felt like, okay, fix and flip is harder now, or they may be pivoting from another asset class and they’re looking at multifamily, but they’ve heard about other types of

plays and small bay industrial seems to have good tenants. It seems to be stable. Especially if you’re working with folks who that are involved in servicing the community around them, even when things aren’t necessarily in the absolute best economic times, people still need an electrician. They still need a plumber. They still need someone who’s gonna fix their car and so forth.

SHANNON PETTIFORD (14:43)
Yes, yes, hundred percent. I don’t know about I don’t know about the rest of the country, but in Florida, man, plumbers are doing very well. Plumbers, these are six figures incomes because we own a property management company, so we’re we’re needing plumbers almost every day. Plumbers, landscapers, electricians, construction. I mean in South Florida, these are high level businesses that can make six figures in some places

if they have an organized system and franchise can make seven figures, hundred percent.

Dylan Silver (15:13)
I want to ask you now about the multifamily side. So I’ve heard a lot of really interesting specific to Florida real estate plays happening. I’ve heard about—and I could be butchering this explanation here—I’ve heard about branded multifamily. You’ll have like very well known brands that people might not immediately associate with real estate come in and be the face of this real estate deal. I’ve also heard that there’s a tremendous amount of

condo development, which is in maybe some contrast to some other areas of the country. As a multifamily operator, are you involved in the value add side? Do you do development? What’s that look like?

SHANNON PETTIFORD (15:50)
Value add side, but I mean South Florida is so beautiful. You have everything from the traditional duplex, right? The traditional duplex. Then you have a hundred doors. And then you have what Grant Cardone is doing, the 10X model that’s right in the heart of Las Olas, where he’s doing the hotel resident model. We started, man, we started vacation rentals 20 years ago, Dylan. And we started before there was an Airbnb, before there was a VRBO.

Before there was a Booking.com, and we started just knocking on doors and we created a serious portfolio for high-end luxury vacation rentals. But that multifamily aspect is very it’s so diverse in Florida where you have the traditional duplex all the way up to the branded two thousand door

multifamily opportunities. But it’s interesting. Most of our multifamily investments are not in Florida because insurance is very high in Florida, as flood insurance and it’s made it it’s not impossible, but it’s made it a big challenge to get substantial profits. But in Kentucky, amazing profits. Minnesota great profits. Tennessee great profits. Some places in Georgia and Texas. But in Florida

not so much in that traditional multifamily space, but there are other there’s so many things to do here in that multifamily space, yes.

Dylan Silver (17:14)
I want to ask you about some of these other markets. I’m a Texas realtor. I’ve done some deals in Kentucky. If my memory isn’t failing me, I believe Bowling Green. That’s in Kentucky, right? Bowling Green, and then in the greater Nashville area in Tennessee. When folks are looking at investing across state lines, out of state, maybe in areas that they’re unfamiliar with, I’ve heard this said so often. You have to have boots on the ground.

You have to have an operator who that is their backyard so that you’re not going in blind. What’s your approach to investing in other markets?

SHANNON PETTIFORD (17:49)
We’ve been blessed, especially in those states that we talked about, that we do have boots on the ground. We have over five hundred transactions that we’ve done, Dylan. So we have a whole team, we have a whole infrastructure. Everything is set up. We’re not trying to piece it together. Logistically, it’s stable, it’s I mean, it’s well proven. I mean, we’ve been doing this for over the last seven to eight years and you have the landscapers, we have

the property management companies. We have a good relationship with the with the cities and everything. So it makes it a lot easier for us because we’re not building from scratch. We have influence in those areas. We have successful businesses in the bank. The banks love us because they see in our product. They see what the before and the after. So we have an advantage there because with most investors, you have to build trust. Okay, and then the traditional investors like, man, I want to this is what I used to hear:

Man, but I want to touch the investment. I want to be able to walk over and see it. But it’s a different mindset in the time that we’re living in, because we can do things remotely. That old school thinking of, man, I gotta go see it, I gotta go check on it. You can still check on it, but you don’t have to do it physically. We have all types of surveillance and security, but the beauty of it is even though you do have those things available for us, we have

people, property managers right there on site, boots on the ground that actually live on the property, which brings a super sense of security for our investors that we are totally committed and invested, pun intended. Yes.

Dylan Silver (19:22)
I wanna ask you specifically about the management side. You mentioned you have boots on the ground who are living at the property. What’s interesting is property management in particular seems to be a sticking point for a lot of syndicators, multifamily investors, especially in the value add side. Property management can be a source of distress. They can come in and they could see the property itself actually is not so bad or it’s good, but the property management has been lacking. What’s y’all’s approach to determining what to do with property management?

SHANNON PETTIFORD (19:56)
I think one of the things that we’ve learned, Dylan, is that we invest in people. I think in eighty percent of the situations, the property manager that we’ve dealt with, they can be retained. They can be educated, they can be trained, they can be upgraded, if you will, to be able to effectively bring that property from where it was

to where we’re gonna project it and take it. I think one of our focuses is investing in people. I think if you invest in the people, the property will take care of itself. Customer service is lacking so much. So what does that say, training is lacking, right? Actually helping people. You know, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. If you take time with an individual and actually if they’re teachable, you could actually use that same person who was running that mom and pops and help them to really three X, four X, five X and beyond that actual property with value add. 100%.

Dylan Silver (20:59)
Yeah, and that’s a good point because that individual who is the property management or that group that is a property manager, they may have and likely do have more information about that property than just about anybody else. So then if you go in and you switch, one of the big bottlenecks that you face is there may actually be information that was locked with those managers, such as who to call, et cetera. And you don’t want to be having to deal with that on the fly.

I’d like to pivot though and go to the single family side. We were talking in the green room, you mentioned a large percentage of your business—I think you said 80%—is the single family side. When people think when I think about Florida, I think about these beautiful homes that you might see. But also, there’s a whole community outside of the ultra uber, you could call it wealthy, that we should talk about as well. And I’d like to dive in there.

When people are looking at you could say middle class or upper middle class homes, what are some markets maybe in South Florida that they should be looking at if they’re looking for something quote unquote more middle class?

SHANNON PETTIFORD (22:00)
Absolutely. It all depends, I guess, where you’re coming from. If you’re coming from California, you’re coming from New York, Chicago, South Florida’s a steal. But traditionally, if you’re looking at it from the rest of the nation, I live in Broward County. We service, like I said, Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade counties, which is 146 miles of of real estate. And what I’ve found is that

in Broward that the average single family home is $700,000. Okay. So I guess middle class would be relative, all depending on where you’re coming from, right? But there are affordable places here in Fort Lauderdale. Now, if you want to live with the ultra wealthy, you’re talking about the beach, right? If you go further west, there are little pockets like all around Fort Lauderdale, still within a 10 mile radius.

Places like West Park, Hollywood. Fun fact, Fort Lauderdale International Airport is not in Fort Lauderdale. It’s actually in Hollywood. You probably heard it. The Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale International Airport, airport code FLL. But there’s so many places: Sunrise, Plantation, Davie. You can still, there’s some places you can get a lot for your money and still be within that fifteen twenty minute radius of

Fort Lauderdale International Airport. Now, if you want some really good steals, Lehigh is a place that there’s a lot of development going. You can get a duplex. So you can get a new construction duplex. We actually have some builders over there now. You can get a new construction duplex for that $500,000 price point. Man, Dylan’s like, really? Ha ha. Yeah, I mean, so there’s opportunities there. But

one of the things South Florida, we live in this bubble, Dylan, where even when we took that hit in 2008, we had a dip, but I think our rebound is a lot faster than the other states because it’s such a place where the world comes to retire and live. So I say all that to say there’s still a lot of pockets around Miami.

Even areas in Miami where you can live and still have a nice house and still be close enough to downtown. So I wanna change that narrative that you don’t have to be a millionaire to come to South Florida. You don’t have to be to be able to buy a seven bedroom, seven bathroom, two acre property on the water. No, but there’s still properties and homes available for new families, young professionals.

I’m actually working on a program with the city to try to help young professionals be able to afford South Florida. So there are still affordable places in the South Florida area, but come to Fort Lauderdale knowing—can I just say something real quick, Dylan, about investors? Especially young investors, because I really want to encourage young people to come to Florida.

Don’t buy a single family home first. Buy a duplex. Stay in that duplex. We have programs that are available where you can buy a duplex and you will get assistance. You buy that duplex. You have to stay there for a year, rent out the the other side. And then the mortgage takes care of that mortgage and half of your mortgage for your next house. But there’s a lot of opportunities and you still can get a duplex in Fort Lauderdale, prime areas of Fort Lauderdale $400,000, $500,000.

So there’s still a lot of opportunities here, the prices are going up. Don’t take your time.

Dylan Silver (25:19)
As you’re talking about Fort Lauderdale, I’m actually remembering being in Fort Lauderdale on a layover at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. And I forget where I was staying. It might have been an Airbnb or it might have been a hotel nearby. And I’m going for a walk, and yeah, you’ll see the ultra high end homes that you think about. But then if you went for a longer walk—I don’t know how long it was, maybe it was a mile, right?—

you start to see what I would think are more conventionally middle class homes. And then I would say, this is interesting because to your point, as I’m walking, it started to almost give me more optimism and hope. That’s when I started getting to say, I could move out here. This is something that I could do. And I think generally speaking, people may not be aware, especially if they’re out of state, that there are these opportunities for them to buy

within a very commutable distance to anywhere in South Florida and not at this million dollar price point.

SHANNON PETTIFORD (26:16)
Correct. 125%. The Florida Department of Transportation has a huge—it’s called design and build. This it’s been going on for the last eight years where they’re really expanding the highways here because 40,000 people come through this main corridor in Miami. It’s where 395, it’s where 836 and 95 come together.

So there’s this $802 million expansion program. Because here’s another fun fact: man, from Jupiter to Key Largo, we have 150 to 200 people moving to the South Florida area per day. So, yes, there are opportunities for you to come and buy, and you don’t have to spend a million dollars, and it can be affordable. But the good thing about South Florida real estate is it is continually increasing.

I mean we just bought a property my wife and I three years ago for five twenty five. That property’s like seven right now.

Dylan Silver (27:09)
And thirty.

SHANNON PETTIFORD (27:10)
That was a main house and then had a cottage in the back. So we Airbnb’d it, we did short term rentals, midterm rentals, long term rentals. That’s another strategy that we use in our property management company. We have the ability to be able to use short term, midterm, or long term. So

profitability here. And it’s always something going on in Fort Lauderdale, Dylan, from the boat show to the Food & Wine Festival, to the Super Bowl, to the boat show, International Boat Show. So many things happening here, man. It’s a happening place.

Dylan Silver (27:44)
I know it. I was telling you a story in the green room about how I was in Fort Lauderdale on a Tuesday and I was just walking down Las Olas Boulevard and it was conversation after conversation, friendly person—and I was like, look at all these friendly people on this Tuesday in the middle of February. What’s it like out here in May? This was so mind blowing to me. And then every time I’m there—quite often in Fort Lauderdale in particular, like five or six times a year—

every time that I’m down there, I’m like, this is the best place. Someone will have to convince me, have a strong argument why there is a better place to be spending the time here. On that note, Shannon, we are coming up on time. Any new projects or activities that you’re working on, also anything you’d like to mention directly to our audience?

SHANNON PETTIFORD (28:25)
Yeah, man. Miami and that Miami Brickell City Centre area is exploding. They’re calling it the Dubai of America, the Dubai of America, D-U-B-A-I, United Arab Emirates. I mean, it is amazing. Twelve over fifteen billion dollars worth of development happening there. I just did a YouTube video. Please go to my Life in Lauderdale channel to check out

the top condominiums for investors in Miami. It is crazy what’s happening there, Dylan.

And this may be an opportunity for you where you can buy in a new construction. You only have to put down 10% now, right? And then 20% a year later, because these are not going to be delivered to 2028. And what happens a lot of the time is you’re gonna have equity even before you buy your keys. So for young people, I love this, Dylan.

You could buy this place for five hundred thousand dollars in the Wynwood area, and before you even get your keys, you have one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of equity in your property.

And they have so many different concepts. They’re building condos around entertainment concepts, around hospitality concepts. I mean, there’s everything from the 11 condo. I mean, we have so much information that I’m so excited about. Miami is it’s young, it’s sexy,

it’s a place where everybody likes to come. So I’m really doing a lot of work. As a matter of fact, when I leave, come off the podcast, we’re going down to Miami. There’s so much movement happening there. Please go to our channel. Yes, YouTube channel, Life in Lauderdale. You can that’s the name of the YouTube channel, or you can go to our website, lifeinlauderdale.com. Dylan, it’s so much happening down there’s so many buildings I can talk about. There’s the 11 building.

There’s the Elser building. There’s the new Frida building. There’s the 10 Condominium. You know what? Thank you. There’s something for everybody. Don’t get discouraged when you see signs that say starting at two million, because you will see that in Miami, there’s still nice places available for 300,000. You can still buy condos in Fort Lauderdale for 200,000, Dylan. Yeah, like don’t let the excitement of the Uber

and ultra luxurious person or market sway you away. There’s a place for everybody here. $200,000. You still can get a nice condo right across the street from the beach in Fort Lauderdale. Now, is it gonna be built in 2026? No, but you gotta start somewhere. So if I were to say something to my young investors, start small, guys. You can still get something for $300,000, be careful. That’s another, that’s another podcast. Be careful

with those monthly maintenance fees and HOAs cause they could jump up. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (31:05)
That’s true. I have heard about that. Shannon, thank you so, so much for joining us today. Thank you for your time.

SHANNON PETTIFORD (31:11)
Thank you. Thank you so much, Dylan.