Pernick

Interview with Vida Pernick conducted by Alisa Moeller, December 1, 1992, Miami, FL.

Hurricane Andrew - Shearwall of apartment building literally pealed off by winds. Courtesy National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Adminstration Photo Library:

Moeller: When did you first realize that Hurricane Andrew might hit Miami?

Pernick: The Friday before the Hurricane hit.

Moeller: What preparations did you make? Were there any vacant properties that you were responsible for securing prior to the hurricane? Who is responsible for securing vacant houses?

Pernick: I had no vacant houses available at the time so I was very lucky, but I think that Friday, Saturday actually, was when...actually I don't even think that we started anything on Saturday. I think Sunday, which was a beautiful day...well, Saturday was one of the prettiest days that you can imagine. The skies were blue, not a sign of rain, I remember sitting around the pool and saying to my self that it was almost impossible to think that a hurricane is coming straight at us on such a beautiful day, but that's when I did start taking all of my outdoor furniture and securing it in the house and removing anything that I thought might fly. I don't think that most people thought to be in touch with each other about what to do because the weather was so beautiful and everybody was in denial.

Moeller: What did you think that it would be like before the storm? The storm itself?

Pernick: I thought that it would be like the worst storm that I had ever been in and I had been in some pretty bad storms, but I expected a heavy wind. In my case I was far enough away from the ocean not to expect flooding but I've been in hurricanes before so I expected very high winds.

Moeller: Where were you during Hurricane Andrew?

Pernick: In my house.

Moeller: What was the first thing that you thought about and the first thing that you did after the hurricane?

Pernick: The first thing that I thought about was what was going on outside and the first thing that I did was go outside to see.

Moeller: What was your first week like after the hurricane?

Pernick: It was..the first night I believe was spent here at my home, of course there was no power. Actually, I have a network of people that I'm very friendly with and after the hurricane struck and passed at about six thirty in the morning we all called each other to find out how we were, and we were able to get through, that was the remarkable part, everyone was able to get, of our group, was able to reach each other. One or two of us got hit extremely badly and people who we are very close to were in their hallway, their phone was working but their whole house was blown out and we were able to talk to them. The first night I did spend here and I realized that this is no way to live and I managed to make arrangements with a sister of mine who lives up in North Miami Beach, who never lost power. So I spent the entire four or five days after that with her. Although every morning by six-thirty I was on my way back to my house to see what I could do about repairing it. The first day after the hurricane there were people down here from Ft. Lauderdale who stopped me on the street, I had just gone out to see what was doing. As a matter of fact, my sister who I stayed with came to stay with me the night of the hurricane because she had an apartment, a penthouse apartment on the twenty-somethingth floor of a condominium on Biscayne Blvd. and 182nd and she was afraid that her windows and doors would be blown out because she lives directly facing the ocean. So she said, "I'm coming to stay with you, your house was built in 1926 and it's been through some hurricanes.". Well' when we woke up the next morning all she wanted to do was go back to her place to see what it was like and it was very difficult. When we went outside she got in her car and no trees had come down on it although a tree had come down on my driveway where we were thinking of leaving the car, fortunately she had moved it to another spot as I did, and she got in her car and made four attempts to leave the area, going out in different directions and was thwarted, each way the trees were down. Finally she found a way to get home and she called me about two and an half hours later and her apartment was untouched, she had never lost power. So she had come down here, it's like the old story about appointment in Sumatra. There's this Indian who's heard that he's to meet his death in this village that he's in and he's to meet his fate there and he wants to escape it so he's leaving town and he's running to Sumatra and somebody runs into Death and says to Death "what are your plans, what are you doing?" and Death says " Well, I have to leave now, I have an appointment in Sumatra.". So it was that kind of a thing when she came and stayed with me. The day that I came outside and after my sister had left, a truck from Ft. Lauderdale, two pickup trucks came by with four young men in it, turned out they were British, and they asked me if I would be interested in having the tree that had fallen on my driveway cut back and I said ,"how much?" and they told me and I said," Well, for that will you remove this, this, this and this?", because I had about four other trees down. and they looked around and said that for a little bit more they would cut this, this, this and this, so I was lucky. I had things cut back. So I was around for that first night but then I went to my sisters and was there. Then the trip became too difficult to come down here, the traffic was unbelievable from North Miami Beach, I would be leaving at six in the morning and running into bumper to bumper traffic at what they call the Golden Glades Interchange, which we call the Spaghetti Bowl. It was difficult. Then another friend of mine got her power back, closer to me even though she was a little farther out west. I stayed with her for several days and then another friend in Coral Gables got his power back and I stayed with him. So, ten days later I got my power back, or twelve days, twelve days later. So that's what I did the first week after.

Moeller: What sort of questions did homeowners and prospective buyers have immediately after the storm? What about now?

Pernick: Those that had damage, now I had things for sale that did get damaged, I was very lucky that the people whose listings I had were not totally destroyed. So one of the houses which was damaged, but livable, I was able to rent to somebody who had lost their house completely about ten blocks away. So they took it off of the market because repairs had to be made and in the meantime I had tenants move right in there and pay them rent, and they were able to move out, this particular woman moved in with her daughter, so repairs are now being made on the house. People wanted to know, first of all, immediately nobody could reach anybody, phones were down and it was difficult to talk to people. Once we did meet with people, I guess the concern was what's going to happen with real estate? and everybody was trying to use Hugo as an example, that the market would be very strong, people would rebuild and then, probably within two years it would go back to normal, to the way that it was, so we were all looking to that. I did find that as time passed that housing became so critical, that rentals, to find a place to rent for those people that were displaced was one of the most impossible things that I have ever run across. I had, I was able to make about four rentals that I had, my own people that I convinced to rent their properties. I had a man who owned a condominium in Kendal, in Promenade, who was in New York and I knew he was interested in buying another one and making arrangements to buy that so I persuaded him to rent his that he was not occupying now. So he was able to rent his to some people so that took care of one unit, and the people who rented it has lost their house in the Country Walk area, they were totally wiped out. They moved into a two bedroom apartment with, it's a couple, a young married couple, she's pregnant, they moved in with her mother and father whose house was also destroyed and I think a sister, so they're in a two bedroom apartment. It worked out okay because the living room had a sleeper couch and the two bedrooms were available for both couples. Then I had another interesting duplex for rent, I had rented it prior to the storm to a young couple who were getting married. They called me after the storm, she called me to tell me that she had been beaten up by her fiancé and had left the area, was in California, or Texas or Colorado or wherever she was and that she was not going to marry him and that she had given this deposit on the property and she said,"This is not the kind of man who I'm going to marry, someone who beats me up while I'm engaged", so she said'" Please, if you can get me back my deposit I would appreciate it, if you can't I understand it." In the meantime, her fiancé called me and said he was here, but he wasn't, she told me later that he was also calling from outside of the Florida area. He was trying to get back with her and apologizing and very sorry about it and said to hold the apartment for him, so I called her again and she said there was no way so she wound up telling me she was really out of the apartment. Well, this was fortuitous for the owners of the apartment because it's now Hurricane Andrew and nobody can find a place to live and there was no damage done. So I put a couple, with a child, who lived in Coral Gables whose house was also destroyed, not totally, but not livable. So they moved in, unfortunately we had a little price gouging here. What they initially agreed to rent the property in Coral Gables for was almost doubled. Basically it was because the people who were renting wanted only to rent for six months because they thought their house would be fixed by then, and the owners of the property did not want to rent for six months, they were looking to rent their duplex for a year.

Moeller: Is that a major problem right now, so many people looking for temporary rentals?

Pernick: Oh yes, that was the problem, people wanted temporary because they could only be assured of being paid by their insurance companies for a certain amount of time, and the people that literally had rental property available wanted yearly leases, so there had to be some accommodations made.

Moeller: Did you provide help to others? How many post-hurricane calls came in shortly after the hurricane, and how were they handled?

Pernick: Most of it was rental, most of it was people looking for rent. I was diluged, I mean I couldn't move. I have a portable phone and everywhere I went my phone was ringing. One agent after another calling me because they had heard that I had a duplex for rent. Then I had a friend who had a bed and breakfast place who's renting some rooms there, so I let..It's a network here, I've been a real estate agent for fourteen or fifteen years and almost everybody whose been in the business for a while knows me, so when you get a rental there's no time even to put it in the newspaper, nor do we expect that we're going to try and protect our own interests in it by advertising it ourselves and renting it; so I would call the larger companies around, Kohler Banker, Esslinger, and those companies that I knew would also be diluged with people looking for properties and I told these various agents that I have an availability, I have a rental available. You couldn't turn around for the phone ringing, it was unbelievable, people looking for housing.

Moeller: Was there any system of handling these rentals that you've seen that you would like to recommend for future crisis'?

Pernick: That's a good point, that's a very good point. What Esslinger did was they had two people manning the phones at all times just for rentals, which was very sensible. The smaller agencies didn't have that opportunity, they just didn't. They had more independent real estate agents. I'm not sure that Kohler Banker did, but it's possible, yes, whoever was on floor at the time. I would call the office and get the person on the floor and I would say," I'm Vida Pernick with Earnest and Steward, please advise anyone looking for rentals that I have a two bedroom, two bath duplex in Coral Gables, and this is how much the rental is.". There were no commissions involved in some of these and in some there were because there were people looking to rent anyway and I would have been renting it for them. Having a central system, I don't think it would work because it really was word of mouth, it was all word of mouth and nobody could find anything by going to the newspapers. I do know of an associate in my office who owns a duplex in South Miami, off Dixie Highway and 104th, east of the highway. He had been advertising his place for rent before the storm and he rented it before the storm, just before the storm, a woman came up to him, knocked on his door and said she has knocked on every door, every door, has knocked on it, the duplexes, to see if there was something for rent. She had not been able to find anything for her and her family and her house was destroyed, probably in the Homestead / Perrine area. She said," We have no place to live." , and obviously she had money to spend on a rental and couldn't find a rental.

Moeller: Has the hurricane significantly changed your plans for the future? If so, how?

Pernick: Well, what it did after the first two and an half weeks, I was so stressed out that I had to get out of the area. I just did, I couldn't handle it myself. My own problems with my own house and then trying to help so many people, so I left the area. I was gone for about a month, and when I came back I found the situation very interesting. The houses that were available, that were for sale in the market now are being snapped up at almost full price. In some cases people are offering more than full price. If it's a decent house, it hits the market and it's gone within a week. It's what we call a seller's market, which was not, as I remember, back in seventy nine or eighty, we had a seller's market. We used to go to open houses in the early eighties when it was a seller's market. We would go to an open house with a contract in our suitcase, in our traveling kit, and there would be people waiting for you when you got out to the open house making offers on it. That was an unbelievable market and that's what it is now. This morning I just had a contract on a property that was damaged in Hurricane Andrew, so I brought the buyer in, we'll come to that later I'm sure.

Moeller: Have you seen any people who are deciding to sell and move out because of the hurricane?

Pernick: Oh yes, yes, there are many people. What's happening, especially down in the Andrew area, not Andrew, in the Homestead area where Country Walk was, people who have received their insurance money are turning around and selling the houses at land value, those that had been destroyed. They're selling them at land value because what they do is they get their insurance money, they're paying off their mortgage, they have money left over, and they're relocating. So, just to tell you how it works, supposing they bought the house at $70,000 , eight years ago, ten years ago, $80,000 , in that range. They got a mortgage at the time for maybe $60,000 just for example. They've paid it down to where it's maybe $30,000 - $40,000 in that range. The house now is insured for $ 160,000 because that's what it would take to replace it. It would take at least $160,000, so they get $160,000 from their insurance company, they pay off their mortgage which is maybe $40,000 or $50,000. Let's make it round numbers, let's say that they get $150,000 from their insurance company and the mortgage is $50,000. They now have $100,000 in their pocket. They now turn around and sell the property for land value which is, was right after the hurricane going for $18,000 - $25,000 for a building site. To now it's gone up a little, I did see one still advertised for $18,000 , $18,500 I think, but they're more going for $25,000 - $40,000 , so the prices have gone up. So that person who had their house destroyed and got $150,000 in insurance money, paid off $50,000 of their mortgage, still has $100,000 left in their pocket, they sell off their land for land value and let's say they get $30,000 so now they have $130,000 cash in their pocket that they're going to move either up Dade North or to Broward or over to the West coast where they have a windfall, they have a lot of cash in their pocket. They can go and buy a house that's worth $160,000 and either pay it all off in cash or get financing and put it into their pocket. So yes, are there going to be people moving out? A lot of them.

Moeller: Please describe the role that your company has played and continues to play in rebuilding the community.

Pernick: In my particular offices I don't think that there has been any significant program that addressed itself with that. I think that each of us as individual agents tried the best that we could to assist those people that we were dealing with at the time, so I think it was just individual effort.

Moeller: What are the long term effects that you would predict in regards to property value?

Pernick: Okay, let me begin with short term. Right now prices have scooted up without question and availability is very limited and it's always a market where the market rises and falls with availability. I do believe that those people who are going in to those areas that were destroyed, who are picking up the properties from the former owners, will rebuild; and I think that once they do, and I see that two years down the road, we'll probably have a lot of properties on the market and I think prices certainly will stabilize and probably, depending on influxes back down to this area again, I don't think that we're going to see prices rising like they are today, I think they will certainly level out. If anybody wants to sell a house, now is the time to sell it, if they are really motivated to sell. Maybe three of four or five months it might still be available, the price that they're looking for, but I think that as people start rebuilding and as more properties come on line again it's going to be demand, and demand always makes the market go up or down. So I do think we're going to stabiles it in two years.

Moeller: Are there any other interesting stories that you would like to relate?

Pernick:Well, I think that something that we should touch on right now is the people that are buying houses that are livable or that do have slight damage. A couple of those I have sold already, as a matter of fact one is coming up for closing next week and another one will probably close, not until February. What we're doing is writing contracts two different ways, actually they can be written about three or four different ways. Either the buyer takes the property as is, knowing that there is damage that has been revealed to them and they are buying it at a much lower price. For example in Coconut Grove, in the area that was close to the Bay where we had a heavy surge, a house that would normally sell for $200,000 I know recently went for $195,000 as is. The buyers knew that it would take about $100,000 to make improvements on it, but they were looking to take a house and improve it anyway, so they're going to be knocking down walls and making improvements and they were able buy at a very low price to accommodate all of the work that they would do to make the house what they wanted it to be. So in that case, where a house has been damaged in Coconut Grove by the surge, prices came down. Now, prices are coming down on houses that were damaged in the Southwest as well. So, obviously things that have a great deal of damage are losing their value, but those that had very limited damage have increased in value, and that of course is going to level out as the market takes place. People who are living with their families are looking to get out because I guess they're getting on each other's nerves and they're looking for their own places because they are used to living alone and they can't go back to their family. I have friends of course, that had one situation. I had sold this woman a house on South Prospect, just less than half a block from the Bay. She was the street that actually is closest to the Bay. She had heard that the Hurricane was coming in of course, like we all did, and she determined that it was not going to be what everyone said it was because we've been through so many scares. She wound up staying with her house, she and her dog. She was going to stay the night at the house. Well, that area was all evacuated but she stayed with her house. She woke up I guess about two-thirty in the morning due to the noise and swung her feet off of the bed and she was in water up to her ankles. Her bedroom happens to face her pool, her house was built around her pool. She looked out and the glass sliding doors that led to the pool had water about three or four feet high on the sliding glass doors. As she got up and started moving, the doors burst open and the water came pouring in. Now I'm not talking about clear ocean water, I'm talking about the surge from the Bay that brought the muck up from the bottom, I'm talking about black, it came in through her master bedroom. She went to her front door, that also burst in, she had water pouring into her house and she had a little schnauzer. She was told by somebody if that should happen, go to your garage and get on top of your car. So she went to her garage and she was able to lift her garage door a bit, well she had a flashlight with her, she held the dog's mouth closed and held the dog under her arm and closed her eyes and went under the garage door, and she was now swept halfway up the block by the surge coming in, bobbing, and this woman is only about five feet tall. She had a friend that lived a block and an half away on Battersee? just at the crest of the rise, there's a bluff there. It took her an hour and an half to get to her friend's house. When she got there she was cut and bruised and battered and almost hysterical and this is a judge, she's a judge or she's in the judicial system in our courts here, and this is a woman who really was in trauma, she had to take off a couple months and leave the area. So that was a terrifying story. Human interest stories, this is one of the things that I told Gene, I was so pleased, I think that on the Friday or Thursday, I can't remember, maybe it was two days after the hurricane, I left my door open because I have a bell to announce when somebody is here and it's not at my front door, it's at a courtyard area. So of course I had to leave the courtyard open if anybody wanted to get through to me and I looked up and in my courtyard, walking towards my front door is Gene and his wife Asteri? and I was so pleased to see them, because what the hurricane did is it brought people together. I mean I would not see Gene and Asteri unless I guess they would call me an make an appointment to come over for drinks or whatever and I look up and there they are! And how are you doing? So, when I spoke with Gene I told him a very interesting story that I had read in the Miami Herald recently about this girl and her sister who moved to..they left the Dade area and they moved to some very rural area to see how that was going to be. Since they were two single women, two sisters, apparently where they were, their closest neighbor was probably five miles away and somehow word got out that there were these young, single women who had rented this house for the winter or the year or whatever, and the bachelors in the redneck country that started calling on them was incredible, people would just like, drop in and so it became a very interesting year for her and she said that they got so used to the people dropping in and that's how you saw people and they were all bachelors looking to get married and one of them was not even a bachelor, he was married, he just liked the girls so much he liked to stop in. Well, they eventually gave up the rental and they moved back to Broward and of course they were living probably on a 50 by 75 foot lot and now that they're back here they've never been so lonely. Their neighbors are right next door but they don't speak to them. So that's what happened, the community did come together. The lines, what do I remember? Specifically the lines right outside the Royal Ice Factory, on South Dixie Highway and Coconut Grove, the people that were lined up four abreast about three city blocks just waiting to get ice. That was the most incredible sight. Since I spent a lot of time up in North Miami Beach and returned here every morning by seven-thirty, eight o'clock, I was able to shop up there where they weren't hit so badly, so for me, I would come down with ice and something to eat that day. I had neighbors right behind me who are probably in their eighties or nineties so I would try and bring things back for them so that they wouldn't suffer either. It's just something I don't ever want to go through again, I will always respect the idea that a hurricane is coming. I'm still suffering the stress of people calling, I have one rental available right now that will not be available until January first, we are now in the end of November, November twenty second, the tenants who are in it right now don't leave it until the middle of December, towards the end of December. At the landlord's request I already listed it on my listing, I have not advertised it, just put it in multiple listing in the computer, and my phone has rung off of the hook. Every ten minutes I'm getting a phone call from another agent who says it's impossible to find anything to rent. Now, were talking how many months after the hurricane? It was August? September, October, three months after the hurricane, people still can't find rentals, they'll do anything for a rental. Unbelievable. One agent called me yesterday and said," Do you know there is nothing available, yours is the only property still available for rent?". That to me is incredible.

Moeller: Is that just within the South area of Dade or is that true throughout Dade?

Pernick: This is on the multiple listing computer system for MLS Dade Regional Multiple Listing Service, everything from N.W. Seventh Street south. Everybody that belongs to this multiple listing service has access to the rental availability, we have a separate division that you can plug into on the computer that says what's available for rent, and apparently I have just about the only rental that there is in the entire area. Which is reasonable, so my phones are ringing off of the hook.