What we talked about
Paola Marulanda joins the PreVetted Podcast to share how she went from seeing real estate as a “necessary evil” to becoming one of South Florida’s top luxury brokers and founder of Luxury Homes Connect.
Paola grew up watching her mother rebuild their family through real estate after her grandparents’ development business. Though she initially aimed for law or banking with firms like J.P. Morgan, she realized those paths would demand a lifestyle that clashed with her desire for freedom and family time. Real estate, by contrast, offered flexibility and no income ceiling.
Show notes
Paola Marulanda turned down JP Morgan to test a theory: could she make the bankers who were recruiting her into her real estate clients instead? Within a year, she had done exactly that, and built the foundation of a career that would eventually rank her in the top 30 of over 1,500 agents at ONE Sotheby’s International Realty. Three weeks before this recording, she gave birth to her second child.
What we covered
- Paola started in real estate during the 2008 financial crisis without the pressure of needing income, which let her focus purely on being a trusted advisor, connecting distressed clients to the right lawyers, CPAs, and resources rather than chasing commissions. She describes walking into a crisis as the perfect way to start, because “everything is downhill from there.”
- She reached the top 30 under 30 ranking at age 29, a milestone she expected to hit closer to 40. Her strategy for maintaining that rank has never involved watching competitors, she competes only against herself, investing in business coaches, marketing coaches, and ongoing training in negotiation and technology.
- Luxury Homes Connect, her independent brand, exists alongside her Sotheby’s affiliation because she identified services the brokerage couldn’t provide: hyper-personalized relocation support covering schools, doctors, lawyers, CPAs, restaurant reservations, and even concierge drivers for medical appointments. She describes real estate as “so intimate”, she sees her clients’ finances, their marriages, and the gap between how they present publicly and who they really are.
- On Miami’s condo market, she issues a direct warning: if you own a condo and might sell within seven years, “you need to sell it like yesterday.” New construction, rising HOA fees driven by post-Surfside safety codes, and the commodity nature of identical units make the condo sector far more volatile than stocks. Single-family homes, by contrast, are protected by uniqueness, no two houses have the same view, neighbor, or light.
- Her advice for the single-family market is the opposite: buy whenever you’re ready, don’t wait for rates to drop. “You marry the house, you date the rate”, refinancing later is straightforward, but waiting costs you time on a market that historically only trends upward.
- She manages the rhythm of her career around market cycles deliberately: she went hard during the pandemic boom, then slowed down to get married and have her children when the market softened. She was on the phone with clients from the hospital delivery room, with open houses still running, her clients never feel when she steps back.
About Paola
Paola Marulanda is the founder and CEO of Luxury Homes Connect and a top-ranked agent at ONE Sotheby’s International Realty in South Florida, specializing in luxury residential and waterfront properties across Key Biscayne, Coral Gables, Miami Beach, and Bal Harbour.
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/paolamarulanda
- Website: https://onesothebysrealty.com
Episode 80 of the PreVetted Podcast.
Full transcript
Federico Ramallo (00:00) Welcome back to the PreVetted Podcast where we spotlight extraordinary people and remarkable talent reshaping our world. Today we are joined by Paola Marulanda. She’s the founder and CEO of Luxury Homes Connect and one of one’s Southpeace International Realty’s top 30 agents out of more than 1500 across the firm. ⁓ So since 2008, Paola has been an unstoppable force in South Florida real estate.
Paola Marulanda (00:16) Thank
Ciao.
Thank you.
Federico Ramallo (00:29) brokering high-end residential and waterfront properties for a wide range of prominent local and international clients. Known as blue chip realtors since the age of 18, she blends deep market expertise, flawless Spanish. She’s also Argentinian as I am, that means that she’s amazing. And she has a multicultural background.
Paola Marulanda (00:32) Okay.
So. Thank you.
Federico Ramallo (00:52) and she helps families relocate across the Americas, Europe and the So from luxury homes in Key, Biscayne and Coral Gables to resort-style living in Miami Beach and Ball Harbor, has built a reputation as a negotiation expert and true deal optimizer, maximizing sales pricing, minimizing time to market
and closing even the most complex deals. Paola, welcome to the show.
Paola Marulanda (01:18) Thank you so much, Federico.
Federico Ramallo (01:21) It’s great to have you here today.
Paola Marulanda (01:22) Great to be here, thank you.
Federico Ramallo (01:24) So you were recognized as blue chip realtor, right? What does that mean? And what drew you into getting into real estate?
Paola Marulanda (01:34) So my background in real estate comes from my mother and her background came from her parents who were developers back in the 80s and early 90s. She’s been in real estate for almost 30 years. So I watched her, you know, build our family from the ground zero with this career. And to be super honest, I did not have a great deal of appreciation for this career.
because it was a lifesaver for us, it seemed to me like it was something that you fell into when you really needed it, because that’s what it was for us. It wasn’t until I got older and I was ready to pick my own career, I was more in line with becoming a lawyer. And as I started evaluating the lifestyles of important and prominent lawyers,
I realized that they were very far off from what I wanted for myself. I felt it was a career that was gonna be very taxing on your family and on your home life. And that it was something that I saw people were very old and working very hard for that age. So I ended up taking a step back from going to law school and I started doing real estate just to help my mom in the summers.
So I already had the background. was very close with my, I am very close with my mom. So I already knew a lot about how the business was done. I knew a lot about the market in Miami just because I was always with her. used to go to showings with her and in the summers I would do open houses for her and everything. had my license. So I fell into it naturally. But I only took it seriously after college when I really saw.
what a beautiful industry it was and how much flexibility you could have. I was interviewed for banking by JP Morgan and these big firms that were trying to recruit me and I decided I would give real estate a shot and I said to myself, okay, I’m gonna try for one year to see if I can make the people from JP Morgan, my clients in real estate so I can make more money.
and not have to be going to an office from nine to five or worse, because banking is worse. And I thought, if I don’t, if I’m not able to make them my clients, then I will take their bid, which will probably only get bigger as the years pass. And that’s exactly what happened. They became my top clients and I started making more money with them as a realtor with, again, my rules and my lifestyle and my time.
and I didn’t have to go work at the bank, which was my second option and also was seeming pretty daunting when I evaluated what that would be like. You I was never an office person, so that was going to be hard and scary for me. And that’s how I fell into real estate and got in from the beginning at a very high level, representing, you know, some really interesting people.
And I saw the value in what it was like to help people find their homes, whether it’s an investment or whether it’s their first home, you know, it became very emotional and very beautiful. And I saw how, you know, exciting and what a smart business it is. And it’s been wonderful.
Federico Ramallo (04:56) Amazing, you went from considering real estate as a necessary evil to loving it because it was now a career that will give you the freedom to work on your own terms. Amazing.
Paola Marulanda (05:11) Yes. And it has no
ceiling, you know, it’s a business that has no ceiling. You can make as much as you want.
Federico Ramallo (05:19) really?
Paola Marulanda (05:21) Absolutely.
Federico Ramallo (05:22) And how do you balance between, you know, family and work, given that, you know, the temptation of, you know, spending a little bit more time, pushing a little bit forward, making a little bit more money. It’s, you know, it’s kind of there, right?
Paola Marulanda (05:38) Absolutely. So I actually just gave birth to my second baby three weeks ago from tomorrow. So I have a newborn and I thank you and I have a 12 month old as well. So I had them back to back and that was a big dream of mine. And I thank my career for the way that I can have this family balance now. For me personally, I was very studious from a very young age. was
Federico Ramallo (05:44) Congratulations!
Paola Marulanda (06:03) hardworking, I always had money, always had, I was always, whether I was selling guacamole or roses or washing cars or babysitting and then doing real estate in the summers or working at my dad’s law firm, I always had, you know, something going on. And I, when I started doing real estate, I didn’t go out on the weekends, I missed all the boat parties. I worked really, really hard to build the machine that
I hoped someday would, you know, as they teach you, you build the machine and then things can take care of themselves and you can start delegating and you could start giving, you know, having more freedom. And that’s exactly what happened. I worked tirelessly for many, many years. The first few years in real estate, it’s not even about the money you make, it’s about, you know, what you plant, know, sembrar las semillas, it’s fertilizing the ground, it’s planting the seeds. And then…
you pick up the fruit. And that’s exactly what happened. I I spent a lot of money on marketing, on conferences, on, you know, learning as much as I could and on setting up a good machine so that I could be knowledgeable and have a good structure for my clients. And eventually now the way that I run my business is based on the market. There’s times that the market is doing really well and I’m
working 13, 14, 15, 16 hours a day. And there’s times that the market slows down. And for some people, a slow market is the land of opportunity. For me, a slow market is the time to take a step back, take that vacation, be with my family, the rest of the people in my team pick up more slack. And that’s how I manage my life with the market. And it’s been wonderful.
So, you know, the pandemic came and it was incredible and there was a ton of fruit to pick up. And then, you know, right after that, when things started getting tricky and the market started getting a little more stagnant, I got married and had my babies. So it was the timing is perfect. And then it’s like, you know, I had a very active first half of this year and that was perfect for my second pregnancy.
Federico Ramallo (07:58) Right.
Paola Marulanda (08:10) And now it’s been a little bit slower, which was perfect for having this new baby. So that’s the way I’ve managed it. I really do manage it based on the market and my lifestyle. And I combine the two to go, go, go when it’s time. And I don’t feel guilty when it’s time to take a step back.
Federico Ramallo (08:28) Right, right. Yeah, it’s kind of like, I think you’re mentioning in the market, it’s kind of like going to the beach. If you fight the waves, you’re going to get tired. But if you go with the waves, then you can have a lot of fun and your effort multiplies. ⁓ And that means building up some momentum, as you mentioned.
Paola Marulanda (08:45) Absolutely.
Federico Ramallo (08:53) prospecting building leads now so you plan the seeds and then they can become clients in the future. the timing to be able to take advantage of when the market is low to have babies, I think that’s amazing. Yeah, because then you can have it all, right?
Paola Marulanda (08:59) that.
Thank you.
That’s how I feel and I’m the type that’s on vacation or in the hospital giving birth and I’m on the phone with my clients. Everyone’s taken care of. No one is ever going to be “perjudicado” (affected) from my lack of my feet on the ground if I need to take a step back in those moments. Right now I have all my open houses running and everything is, my clients will never feel when I need to take a step back.
is something that I feel a difference, not my clients.
Federico Ramallo (09:38) Right, right. And having your team that can help you support them in case you’re out. Amazing.
Paola Marulanda (09:44) Absolutely.
Federico Ramallo (09:46) So you went through the 2008 market crisis, That was interesting. Right. How was that? I mean, how was that experience?
Paola Marulanda (09:51) Yeah. That was when I started.
Honestly,
the good thing about that experience was I wasn’t in the, I didn’t need to be making money, but it was a great time to be planting my seeds. So because I had, you know, a long time reputation among my peers as somebody who was very studious and very responsible and very resourceful and connected in the real estate world through my mother, you know, a lot of people, those are times when the market is in distress.
people really need somebody that they can trust. They really need a voice of reason and they need somebody that’s confident and knows what they’re talking about. So it was the perfect opportunity for me to be there for people emotionally and be there to give good advice and help people out of some tough situations and make some good decisions or have, be connected with the correct lawyers, be connected with the correct support.
correct CPAs, you know, get the right team together to either help them out of a problem or help them capitalize on an opportunity. So it was great to walk into a crisis. If you start with a crisis, everything is downhill from there.
Federico Ramallo (11:09) Right, right, yeah, if you can go through a stressful crisis, then everything becomes easier after that, right?
Paola Marulanda (11:17) Exactly. was a very exciting way to start in the business. And I was still transitioning from high school to college, so I didn’t have to pay rent and I didn’t have any necessities that were stressing me so I could really just provide clean service without it mattering what came from it. There’s no ulterior motive there. There was no…
Federico Ramallo (11:20) Right, right, yeah.
Paola Marulanda (11:43) I was very fortunate that I never had that need that changes the way that you work and the way that you’re able to provide a service, whether you want to or not. If you have some strong needs, it’s going to change the way that you deliver service.
Federico Ramallo (12:01) Yes, yes, because you’re more focused on those needs than, yeah, yeah, you’re looking for survival rather than providing a good quality service, right?
Paola Marulanda (12:04) Collecting. Yeah.
Yeah, you can still do your best. You can provide a good quality service, but it’s some way or another, it’s gonna be affected when you have that need, for sure.
Federico Ramallo (12:22) So what gap did you see in the market that led you to found Luxury Homes Connect?
Paola Marulanda (12:27) I found that people, so I work with Sotheby’s, one of the things I love the most about that is the brand, right? And the brokerages, I think the brokerage can only carry you so far. And basically what I saw is there are things that set me and my team apart from the company and the company is already very well respected worldwide.
And specifically our brand over here in South Florida, the one, one Sotheby’s. It’s very well known, very, very beloved brand across the nation. I saw that even from what we offer as a firm, that there were things that I offered personally that I wanted to put a name on and that I wanted to differentiate from my brokerage and other brokerages that really set.
things aside that I realized were delivering a higher quality service that was really setting me apart. So I thought, let me make my own company, let’s put a name on it. And that will be a place for others that work in my firm to also, you know, be able to differentiate themselves. But for me to show my clients, I have Sotheby’s, I have Luxury Homes Connect, and Paola Marulanda 3.
separate entities that are all working together to provide something really special and different.
Federico Ramallo (13:46) Interesting, I sometimes struggle about, because I’m also running multiple brands and multiple projects, sometimes struggle, should I, am I spreading too thin? Should I concentrate less brands? It’s kind of an open question that I haven’t been able to.
figured out exactly, so I sometimes go by ear, right?
So you were ranked among the top 31 Southpeace agents, right? ⁓ Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Paola Marulanda (14:16) Yes.
Well, that was, I started getting ranked when I was, I fell into this category at 29 years old. I’m 35 now. At 29 is the first time I got into the ranks and it was a dream of mine. I really didn’t think that it was something I was going to reach at that age. I thought it was something I would reach closer to 40 years old.
And I got that first award, was top 30 under 30, right when I was 29. So I was like, wow. I made it. And then I had that fear of like, well, am I just being ranked because I’m under 30? And am I going to be able to sustain that ranking as the years pass? And I just did.
Federico Ramallo (14:55) Hahaha
Paola Marulanda (15:09) You know, and I think I always, you know, I don’t compete against other people. I compete against me and I never know what’s going to come from it. I just, I’m thinking of me and how to do more and how to do more. And by doing that, I naturally, you know, was able to sustain my rank. And it’s been very exciting to see, you know, it’s without even focusing on the rest of the world and or the rest of the other agents.
it just, my work just keeps showing me, you know, you’re, you’re doing things right. You’re on the right track. You have a good business. Your machine is working, you know.
Federico Ramallo (15:44) Right, right. Yeah, I think that the competition should be with our inner demons.
Paola Marulanda (15:51) short.
Federico Ramallo (15:51) It’s a fight within us. And then, as a consequence of that, then the results put you on the top.
Paola Marulanda (15:59) for sure and I definitely also put a great deal of investment into everything that I do as I have a business coach, I have a marketing coach. We’re putting in the time and we’re putting in the money to make sure we always have the best market knowledge to make sure that we are getting trained on negotiating and getting trained on technology.
and getting trained on market trends and all of that I think is very valuable and I think it’s what has helped me stay on top. And it’s also what has, know, why for me that label of that Luxury Homes Connect is, that’s not something your brokerage is giving you or helping you with. And that’s not something most agents are doing. But you can bet that the top agents across the board, they’re all doing it.
Federico Ramallo (16:42) Right.
Right.
What other additional services or benefits are you providing to clients through the Luxury Homes Connect?
Paola Marulanda (17:00) Well, we do everything, especially because Miami is a very, there’s so much relocation here. And when you move here, you need so much more than just help finding a home. You need advice and help for schools. You need doctors, you need lawyers, you need CPAs. You wanna know what’s cool and what’s not cool and where’s the cool place to go and where’s not to go.
with the pandemic and just the general restructuring of the city, things have changed a lot. You used to be able, you used to never have to, like I used to go to New York and I thought, it’s so weird, this culture that you have to make a reservation. Like you can’t just go to dinner, you know? And I thought that was so frustrating and bizarre. And now here we are, you can’t go anywhere if you don’t have a reservation now in Miami because we are now a different city.
Federico Ramallo (17:37) Right.
Paola Marulanda (17:50) And that transformation has been really fun to be a part of. And it lets me add value to clients, something that’s so very easy. It’s so easy for me to recommend, to give my colleagues that are in different industries, give them referrals, people that I trust and I know work well to solve all these problems, connect them with my clients, everybody’s happy, there’s some added value to what I do.
Federico Ramallo (18:15) Right, So in Miami, sorry, Miami, I am thinking of Miami, sorry. But in South Florida, you’re having the issue of traffic and longer commutes, those type of things,
Because I’m in Mexico, I’m in Guadalajara, basically, you have the same issue. You have lot of traffic, and basically what you do is you build your bubble. We call it bubbles, but basically, you have school, have house, then everything has to be around five minutes, right? And that way, you don’t feel the traffic, so to speak, right?
Paola Marulanda (18:40) Thank
Sure. That’s definitely something that is happening more with Miami. Miami was a city that you could not afford to have no car in and that you, you know, walking places or being close to places was not really a thing. There were very few neighborhoods that could offer that type of lifestyle. And now more and more you’re seeing neighborhoods pushing for that and it’s happening and it’s wonderful. And that’s where all the money is concentrating for sure.
Federico Ramallo (19:23) Right, right. I understand that there is a big issue with zoning in in general in the US where you have a residential zones that do not mix with commercial as it happens in Europe, right? We have this
you know, little cafes in the corners, right, in the middle of a neighborhood, right, that you don’t have that in, you know, suburbs in the US, right. And that means that if you want to go to a little cafe, you actually have to drive two miles to go to a mall. And then, you know, it’s all car-based, right. ⁓ Your life is car-based. And in Europe, they have this idea of
Paola Marulanda (19:44) Yeah.
store.
Federico Ramallo (20:02) in some places in Europe, right? But this idea of living more around the public transport or using bicycles. You can get with a bicycle to a train station and then go to another city and you can bring your bike with you. And the city is designed around the bicycles, right? ⁓ So it’s a different lifestyle, right? That’s…
Paola Marulanda (20:20) Okay.
Federico Ramallo (20:24) From what I’m hearing, seems that it’s catching on in the US as well.
Paola Marulanda (20:27) Yeah, absolutely. It’s definitely, there’s a big, big push for that. And you’re seeing it happen. They’re just, they’re being able to either, you know, find these, these areas where they’re, where they are able to switch the zoning. And there, you’re seeing more and more walkability and walkable neighborhoods. And again, that’s where the greater wealth is concentrated. You’re not going to find that.
somewhere that people are not paying top dollar for their real estate.
Federico Ramallo (20:56) Right, right. Yeah, because the people, the market wants that, right? They’re looking for that push-press app. Yeah. Yeah.
Paola Marulanda (21:03) Very much. And you’re
seeing a lot of the older malls and commercial centers being remodeled now and completely revamped. it’s just a time where cyclically, because of when Miami was developed and how long things have been, now these places that have been there for so many years are getting redone.
at the perfect time that we have, you know, this huge influx of people coming and this huge influx of wealth coming. So that’s very cool too. You know, we have the malls in Coconut Grove being redone, in Miami Beach being redone, in South Miami being redone. So it’s wonderful.
Federico Ramallo (21:44) Right, right, and the, part of that.
So the walkability means that, I mean, if you’re going to highway, you know, with your car at 50 miles per hour, you feel that, you know, signs and everything, the proportions are kind of okay, right? You don’t feel it, but if you’re walking the same highway, everything is huge, right? And it’s really bad experience, right? There is no sidewalk, there is no, you know, the signs are huge because they’re designed for you to watch them go in 50 miles.
Paola Marulanda (22:15) Thank
Federico Ramallo (22:16) or 60 miles per hour, whatever.
So there is something for you to see at speed. That means that six-lane highways, these huge highways, that breaks the whole neighborhood. And this concept of walkable neighborhoods, they design the environment. So they break this…
the dimension of the thing. So it’s more humane to walk around. Does that make sense? Yeah. So I’ve seen that happening more and more. Yeah, unfortunately here in Mexico, in Guadalajara at least, they’re still centered around the car. So we kind of depend on the cars to go around.
Paola Marulanda (22:48) Yeah, yeah, sure.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (23:05) I understand that there’s been this migration out of California to Florida, Texas, and other states. This happened recently in the last few years. What has been your experience with that? Have you seen a lot of influx from California?
Paola Marulanda (23:21) Absolutely. We have a lot of tech moguls coming here and a lot of people from Silicon Valley and finance and especially in that technology and technology, know, FinTech finance technology. These are spheres that are definitely coming here for tax purposes. And I think it’s
You know, it’s on the whole opposite side of the country, but it’s probably as close of a lifestyle and climate that they can get, you know, compared to California. So they there, these are people that need sun just like we need sun. And, you know, same with New York. We’re also seeing tons of New Yorkers. I would say the New Yorkers, they come and they don’t ever want to go back.
Federico Ramallo (23:58) you
Paola Marulanda (24:09) California, think it’s a little bit harder of a compromise because they’re used to a lot of different climates and different, here’s flatlands. Over there, they have mountains, they have snow, they have desert, they have water, they have everything. But I see a lot of people from California coming here and having a very good life and making big long-term purchases.
Federico Ramallo (24:36) interesting. Yeah, the I heard that people are moving for political and tax purposes. Yeah.
Paola Marulanda (24:42) Yeah, the political environments
are bringing everyone to Florida. It’s very real. People are very, very, very tired of what they’re getting over there, for sure.
Federico Ramallo (24:46) Right.
Yeah,
yeah. I mean, I’ve seen it in Argentina, know, the present state kind of, you know, increases taxes and then, you know, people flee. That’s how I left Argentina 17 years ago. Yeah. And they were going to put, you know, taxes for exporting software services.
Paola Marulanda (25:06) Yep.
Federico Ramallo (25:14) and they were going to take 30 % out of my income and I was like, nope, I gotta get out of here and I left.
Paola Marulanda (25:21) Yeah, it’s crazy.
Federico Ramallo (25:23) Yeah, but and then after that, know, like weather and everything else you can kind of get used to, right? yeah. So the you specialize in relocations and referrals, right? Across America, Europe and the Middle East, right?
So what are the common concerns international families have when they are deciding to whether anchor in Miami?
Paola Marulanda (25:47) They all pretty much have the same concern and it’s just, am I gonna like my community? That’s the thing. Am I gonna like my neighbors? Am I gonna like my neighborhood? So, you know, sometimes we have clients that are like, you know what, let’s rent first and see. And then you have people who are really the finance, the people in finance, they’re wonderful clients because they’re very smart.
And they come with a great deal of capital and they’re not, if you invest in the stock market and you’re willing to take that type of volatility and stomach that type of volatility, then coming in and purchasing real estate is a no-brainer. It’s a no-brainer. Especially somewhere like Miami, where it has always trended up. Now condos, that’s whole other monster. But I’m talking single family homes.
land, you know, that’s a no-brainer. Whether they’re scared or not about the neighborhood, that’s where how much they trust you will come into play. And that’s where I see that the people that we mesh well with that really trust us to get to know them. And that’s why it’s very important to know your clients, understand what they’re looking from, where they come from and where they’re going to be more comfortable. That’s where it’s not about the house and it’s not about the price point. It’s about really understanding.
who they are, where they come from, what their goals are, what their vision is for their family, for their lifestyle. Are they single and looking for someone? Are they single and looking to be away? Are they coming with their 10 kids? Are they empty nesters? Are they about to be empty nesters? Do they like to go out? Do they like to be home? Do they like to go shopping? What their values are? Do they rather be close to the doctors or do they rather be close to the bars and restaurants?
You really want to get to know them. And if they can trust you, then you’re going to place them and they’re going to purchase. And whether they decide to stay in Miami long-term or not, they made a great investment that they can leverage whenever they’re ready to leave. If they don’t want to stay, you have options. You rent your asset or you sell your asset or you hold your asset. again, purchasing real estate is an investment. It’s an asset. And there’s a lot of options for you to make that.
a very valuable play for your family.
Federico Ramallo (28:10) Yeah, and as you mentioned, real estate is always less volatile than the stock market. And usually always goes up, except 08. But usually, yeah.
Paola Marulanda (28:17) Absolutely.
Absolutely.
⁓ But again,
that was a financing crisis, which again, we’re starting to see some similar things happen. We’re starting to see some similar things happening, but I think it’s much different in the condo market than in the single family home market.
Federico Ramallo (28:30) Yes.
really?
Right. Right. And I don’t know.
said this, this idea of if a house or a stock loses value, it’s not like you’re losing money because it’s just you haven’t capitalized yet. So if you hold it, eventually it’s going to go up. The crisis is eventually going to get over and the market is going to balance it out. Now the question is, can you hold? Can you wait?
Paola Marulanda (29:12) Right,
for sure.
Federico Ramallo (29:14) What are things that do you do with your team to support families coming from other countries while they’re doing the relocation?
Paola Marulanda (29:22) We help them with whatever they need. We help them find the right staff for their home. We help them get into the schools. We help, or at least point them in the right direction and teach them about the different schools. We help connect them to the right doctors. mean, you wouldn’t believe, mean, no, you would believe everybody comes and really there’s always some kind of health issue or crisis or situation or something happening.
with people they need different specialists. It could be for health, could be for a financial situation, it could be that they’re getting sued and they need lawyers or they want to sue someone and they need lawyers. It could be that they want to build and then you want to introduce them to different builders, which are so different. There’s tons of different price points and commission rates that get paid for someone that’s building or different contractors.
know, houses come with all kinds of issues that need attention. We’re just, we are white glove service, you know, we’re here for every, we’re for everything. You end up being, you know, you’re everything person for your clients. And especially when you’re dealing with high net worth, you know, that I think one of the biggest things in my career was transitioning from I’m everybody’s everything to.
Federico Ramallo (30:28) Right.
Paola Marulanda (30:37) You know, I’m taking 10 clients at a time and not more, and they’re my VIPs, and I’m not spending time below a certain threshold, and I’m not, you know, running around like a chicken with my head cut off, you know, taking care of little things for people. I am the person that takes care of important things for important people.
Federico Ramallo (30:57) Right, and coordinating for, you know, because they are high net worth people appreciate. They value their time more than the money, so.
Paola Marulanda (31:06) mean,
like yesterday, I got a call from one of my best clients and a lot of my clients end up turning into my best friends or my best friends end up being my best clients. you know, they called me and they said, hey, listen, my husband is getting a colonoscopy. It’s by your where you live. My nanny’s mother died. can’t, the colonoscopy is running late. I can’t be, I live in Miami Beach. My daughter goes to school over here.
I can’t pick up my daughter from school and my husband from the colonoscopy and I can’t send an Uber because they have to go upstairs and pick him up. Do you have a driver that you know that can help us? And I said, of course. I sent her, you know, a VIP concierge driver that I have. I said, call him right now. Maybe he’s available. She said, she said, you know, Carlos was so nice.
He went upstairs, he picked up my husband and he brought him home and I was able to go get my daughter from school.
Federico Ramallo (32:03) Wow, there is such a level of trust and it’s personal, right? It’s so close.
Paola Marulanda (32:10) That’s the thing and you think real estate is just it’s real estate is so intimate It’s so intimate because to get To do a sale You you’re gonna learn everything about your clients You’re gonna learn how their marriage is because there’s more than if there’s if they’re married you need both of their signatures So you’re gonna talk to both of them. They’re both gonna have opinions. You’re gonna see if they’re going through difficult things or not
Federico Ramallo (32:15) Right.
Paola Marulanda (32:38) they’re gonna involve you in all the things that are going on in their lives. You’re gonna see their finances. You’re gonna see the truth about how they portray themselves to the public and how they are for real. And that puts them in a very vulnerable place and they trust you to handle that very delicately. And they, you know, put their hearts in your hands and it’s very intimate. It’s very intimate.
Federico Ramallo (33:02) Right, right. And it’s a life changing, you know, when they’re relocating, when they’re buying a new home, it’s a life changing transaction, right? So.
Paola Marulanda (33:10) And correct and whether
it’s relocating or finding their home or even if it’s just an investment. When you’re investing in real estate, this is not small change. It’s a big piece of everything that you have that you’re putting to work. You know, so it’s very intimate.
Federico Ramallo (33:21) Right. Right.
And there’s so many things that could go wrong, right, in the process. And having your support to help them through the process to the problems that arise, right? yeah, the emotional roller coaster must be very intense.
Paola Marulanda (33:31) They sure do, and they do. And they do.
It’s very intense and not every client is the same. Some clients are more grateful than others. So a lot of times you’re in the lion’s mouth and they need somewhere to blame their stress and you’re the thing that they blame.
Federico Ramallo (33:55) Right. Right.
Right, right. Eventually you end up playing the psychologist as well, right?
Paola Marulanda (34:10) Always.
Federico Ramallo (34:10) You mentioned something about condos and single family units being different, right? Can you expand a little bit more on why that happens?
Paola Marulanda (34:17) Absolutely.
Yeah, of course. Well, it’s definitely a supply and demand issue. know, with condos, there’s huge construction booms and they happen to be very cyclical. So when one starts building, there’s 50 that start building and they all start chasing each other and they all start populating at the same time. And when those new construction comes, they have competitive prices so that they immediately affect all the older, you know, all the older buildings.
and all the older apartments. So, you know, when you have a condo and you have also a market like ours that is so dense with international buyers, what you have is that any individual can go through a big crisis, whether it’s because of the political circumstance in their country or it’s just something personal, and then they need to sell their condo at, you know,
a fraction of what they paid for it, they screwed everything up for everyone. And it’s very different if you have a single family home and you have somebody who really needs to liquidate their property, that one sale of that house is not going to affect the single family home market as much as when the same thing happens in a condo, because in a condo, you have a ton of the same exact unit. So it’s very hard to argue with somebody.
That unit is exactly like this one. As a matter of fact, that unit is on a higher floor than mine and it just sold so cheap. So that unit is exactly the same, but technically better because it’s up higher and it has a little bit higher of a ceiling and they just sold it so cheap. So now all the units in that line are everyone that’s buying is saying, well, I want to pay what they paid. But when you have a single family home, the argument is,
There is no house that is just like the other. There is no house that has the same view as the other, that has the same neighbor as the other. It could have a very similar or even an exact layout, but it doesn’t have the same yard. It’s not gonna have the same neighbor. It’s not gonna have the same view. It’s not gonna have the same light because of a tree that’s there or that is not there. So there’s a lot more to protect your price in a single family market. Whereas in the condos,
They start, one person does something and then you see how just like the whole valuation of the property really becomes affected. Then you have all these other new, like I said, you you have these, a ton of new product, very comparable, most likely superior, you know, brand new everything, more views, more windows, more amenities, lower HOA fees. I mean, the condo market is in constant flux and we’ve seen, you know, big market crashes.
You’ve never heard of Miami ever experiencing a massive market crash in the single-family specter, sphere, scepter. Whereas the condos have definitely experienced like major across the board, know, ups and downs. So that’s a market that I am, you know, I am a lot more cautious in the way I advise on. And like, for example, right now,
Right now, way more interesting to look at new construction projects, and especially with all the new codes, like look at what happened in Surfside that everything came, started, you know, the building collapsed and now there’s so much, you know, so much caution with the different assessments that are happening in the buildings and how they need to take care of the association and, you know, all these new regulations.
So you want to buy new, you want to buy new. You don’t want to be paying top dollar for an old building that’s going to have an assessment that is killing people. It’s driving people out of the condos. The HOA fees are going up like crazy to pay for all these projects that they need to do to make these properties be up to code. so right now is a time where I’m telling my clients, if you own a condo right now and you’re even thinking about selling in the near future.
You need to sell it like yesterday, like you’re already late, like sell it yesterday. And if you, unless you’re willing to hold at least seven years, like we’ve been, we were up here in prices with the pandemic. We reached the highest levels in history. We’re going down, period. There’s nothing else to think about. The condo market is going down and it’s going to keep going down for at least
It’s going to, by the time just to get back where we are today, I don’t see it happening in less than seven years. So if you’re thinking of, you know, selling your condo in less than seven years, then you need to sell it. now.
Federico Ramallo (39:05) Right.
Paola Marulanda (39:06) In the
single family home market, my perspective is there’s never, you don’t have to think so much about when it’s time to buy. If you’re ready to buy and you have the capital, then the sooner you buy the better. You don’t need to be thinking about waiting or not waiting or whatever. The cycles aren’t gonna affect that that much. It’s gonna be a pretty steady trend upward.
If you’re worried about rates, when the rates drop in the future, you refinance. It’s not a big deal. You don’t marry there, you date the rate. You marry the house, you date the rate.
Federico Ramallo (39:33) So the difference is that single house units are a one-off. there are some things to compare, but it’s a one-off, right? So it’s unique, whereas condos are a commodity and the price is based on the particular market of that condo building, right? And… ⁓
Paola Marulanda (39:50) Yep.
Federico Ramallo (39:51) and it’s a race to the bottom, right? If the one guy or woman that is willing to sell it low, it affects everybody else. And yeah, and then that pushes the price down.
Paola Marulanda (40:00) Right. The volatility is
the volatility of the condo market is much like the stock market. You know, they see the market starts feeling that something is happening and people are selling, then everybody starts selling and then everything went to shit. Sorry. It’s kind of like that. So that’s not something we see with houses. Houses, solid investment any day of the week.
Federico Ramallo (40:08) Right.
Hahaha!
we’re running out of time, so I’ll close with this remark. first I truly appreciate Paola to join us today. I remember Miami because of in the 90s, I don’t know if you remember this, that in Argentina they were saying, you know, oh.
Dos por uno, two for one. People would go from Buenos Aires to Miami to buy two TVs because it was so cheap. we had a lot of buying power at that time. And then everything went down on one.
So that’s how I remember Miami, right? So it’s interesting to learn from you a different perspective of the city, right? So thank you very much, Paola, for joining us today. Any final remarks before we wrap it up?
Paola Marulanda (41:08) No, thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.
Federico Ramallo (41:11) Thank you.
Paola Marulanda (41:12) Thank you.