I do not read broker packages for pleasure. I read them because we publish a page for every pre-construction project we work on, and a page is only worth having if its numbers survive being checked. So over the past few weeks every floor plan that came through this office went into a reader that does one boring thing: it lifts the printed areas off the sheet and asks whether they add up.

526 drawings later, across 15 developments, I have a list of things I did not expect to find. Let me frame it honestly before I start, because the honest read matters here. I do not think anybody is lying. These documents get produced fast, by several different people, under a launch deadline, and almost nobody downstream ever checks one against another. The renderings get four rounds of review. The number in the corner of the drawing gets none. That is the whole story, and it is still worth knowing about before you wire a deposit.

The four checks that catch almost everything

If you read nothing else: add the interior area and the exterior area and see whether they equal the printed total. Convert the square footage yourself and see whether it matches the square metre column printed beside it. Read the rental policy out of the listing's data fields rather than out of its written description. Then divide the price by the square footage and compare that number against the rest of the building. Every problem in this article was caught by one of those four. All four together take about ten minutes, and you can run them yourself on any package you have been sent.

The square metre column that is not a square metre

This is the one that genuinely surprised me. At Ocean Terrace in North Beach, an entire oceanfront block being developed by Witkoff with interiors by Robert A.M. Stern, the floor plan book prints every area twice, once in square feet and once in square metres. On 4 of the 10 residences, the square metre figure is not an area conversion at all. It is a linear one.

Residence 602-1102 prints 1,781 square feet and 543 square metres on the same line. 1,781 square feet is 165 square metres. But 1,781 divided by 3.28084, the number of feet in a metre, is 542.8. Somebody divided an area by a length. A European or Latin American buyer reading that column would believe a two bedroom apartment is more than three times its actual size.

I would not be confident calling that an error rather than some different measurement basis, except that one residence contradicts itself. Each penthouse is drawn on two sheets, a lower level and an upper level, and both sheets repeat the areas for the whole home. PH 22 North prints the same 5,144 square foot interior as 1,568 square metres on one sheet and 478 on the other. 478 is correct. The document disagrees with itself inside one apartment, which settles the question.

Our page for that project publishes square feet only, and says why.

Sometimes the developer tells you the drawing is not final

Still at Ocean Terrace: the building draws 4 penthouses, and the 4 sheets covering two of them, PH 22 North and PH 22 South, which are the two largest homes in the building by interior area, carry a large diagonal DRAFT watermark. It is a graphic rather than text, so it does not come out in a text extraction and no automated process would ever flag it. I only saw it because I built a contact sheet of every drawing and looked at it.

Those are also the sheets with the metric error. And PH 22 North is drawn with 7.5 bathrooms on one of its levels and 7 on the other, on two sheets describing the same house. Everything about those four drawings points the same direction, and the developer said so first. We publish them as supplied, watermark visible, with a note.

When the fact sheet and the drawings disagree, the drawings win

At Cassia in Coral Gables the fact sheet puts the one bedroom plus den at 865 square feet. The plan book draws the only den layout in the building at 715, and the developer's own price sheet independently agrees with the drawing. Two documents against one.

What makes it interesting is that 865 is not invented. It is the drawn size of a completely different plan in the same book, one the developer labels a two bedroom. Somebody put the wrong plan's area on the den row. A buyer comparing that project against another on price per square foot would be working with a home 21 percent larger than the one being sold.

Five sheets in 49 print a total that is not the sum of its own parts

At The Rider in Wynwood, 5 of the 49 drawings print a total area that does not equal the interior plus the exterior printed directly above it. The worst is line 11's Lanai plan: 1,213 interior and 897 exterior, which is 2,110, against a printed total of 2,190. That is 80 square feet, and in Wynwood at today's prices 80 square feet is real money.

Which figure is the wrong one matters, and here the components are the ones that hold. 2,110 square feet converts to 196 square metres and 2,190 converts to 203.5, and when we read that book the metric figure printed on the sheet was the first of those. So the components are right and the addition is wrong. Our page publishes the components, states their sum, and records the printed total as the developer's own arithmetic rather than quietly correcting it.

The same thing shows up elsewhere. At Alhambra Parc in Coral Gables one residence prints an interior and a balcony that fall five feet short of its own printed total. At PALMA in North Beach two drawings share identical areas, 620 interior down to the square foot, while one calls itself a one bedroom and the other calls itself a two bedroom. PALMA also draws two studios, at 421 and 459 square feet, that do not appear anywhere in the developer's own unit mix table.

The rental policy is often two different answers on one listing

This is the one that costs actual money, and it is the easiest for a buyer to check.

I pulled the live MIAMI MLS records for Seventeen Gables in Coral Gables this morning. Both active listings carry, in their structured data fields, a minimum lease of 365 days and one lease per year. The written description on those same two listings says, in plain English, "Rental policy allows a 30-day minimum." One listing, one brokerage, two opposite answers, and the difference decides whether an investment case works at all.

Seven Park Residences in Hallandale Beach is the same shape and larger. All 6 active listings describe the building in prose as having no rental restrictions, one of them adding that short term, long term and seasonal are all permitted. In the data fields, 2 of those 6 carry a 180 day minimum, twice a year. That is not a mild restriction, it is close to the strictest policy a Florida association writes. A third listing claims a 30 day minimum and 180 leases per year, which would need 5,400 days in a calendar year.

And the pattern is not limited to projects we publish. House of Wellness in Brickell has 9 active listings today, all from one brokerage, carrying three different completion years (2025, 2026 and 2029) and three different rental minimums (15, 30 and 365 days) at the same address.

If you take one habit from this article, take this one: the written description is typed prose and the data fields are data. When they disagree, believe the fields, then go and read the declaration yourself.

Price per foot is the tell

Back at Seven Park, one unit is entered at 1,647 square feet for $763,900. That works out to $464 a foot in a building where every other active listing runs between $691 and $1,207. It is not a bargain. The developer's own availability list puts that residence at 1,106 square feet, which prices it at $691 a foot, right in line with its neighbours. The square footage in the listing is simply wrong by 541 feet.

I like this check because it needs no documents at all. A price per square foot far away from the rest of its own building is almost never a deal. It is a typo. It works in both directions, and it is how I have caught most of the data entry errors I have found this year.

What the marketing says, and what the same developer's legal text says

The pattern I find hardest to be relaxed about is when two sentences from the same company contradict each other, because both are deliberate.

PALMA's fact sheet says "No Minimum Rental Restrictions," twice. The legal block printed on every one of its floor plans says a short term rental may require each owner to obtain a certificate of use, that it is subject to the discretion of the City of Miami Beach, and that there is no guarantee such rentals will always be permitted. Miami Beach enforces short term rental rules harder than anywhere else in this market. Both sentences are the developer's, and our page prints them side by side rather than picking the flattering one.

Vista Harbor on the Miami River is marketed on 650 feet of river frontage and a private marina. The legal disclaimer on its own fact sheet says the condominium "may offer water views; however, it is not a waterfront property." Again, both are the developer's.

At Ocean Terrace the developer's legal paragraph names Ocean Terrace Holdings, LLC as the Developer and then, in the very next sentence, says neither Witkoff nor Ocean Terrace Holdings is the Developer. I have no idea how to resolve that one, so the page quotes both sentences and leaves them there.

What I would actually ask for

None of this makes pre-construction a bad buy. I sell it, I believe in it, and the 2026 pipeline has some of the best product Miami has ever built. It does mean the package you are handed is a marketing document with some engineering attached, and the engineering has not been proofread. So:

And if the answer to any of those is a shrug, that is information too. The projects with the tightest documents in my experience are the ones with the most disciplined developers, and that correlation has held up better than any brochure.

Frequently asked

How do I check a Miami pre-construction floor plan myself?

Add the printed interior area to the printed exterior area and see whether the sum equals the printed total. Then convert the square footage to square metres yourself, multiplying by 0.0929, and compare it against the metric figure printed beside it. Those two checks found every arithmetic problem in a set of 526 drawings across 15 Miami developments, and both take under a minute per sheet.

Why do the square metre figures on some floor plans look far too large?

Because on some sheets the metric figure is a linear conversion rather than an area conversion. Somebody divided the square footage by 3.28, the number of feet in a metre, instead of multiplying by 0.0929. It makes the apartment look roughly 3.3 times larger than it is. We found this on 4 of the 10 residences in one Miami Beach floor plan book, including a 1,781 square foot home printed as 543 square metres when the true figure is 165.

The listing description and the listing data disagree on the rental policy. Which is right?

Trust the structured data fields over the written description, then verify against the condominium declaration before you rely on either. The description is prose typed by a person and the fields are data entered against a defined schema. We found two Coral Gables listings whose fields say a 365 day minimum with one lease per year while their own written remarks say a 30 day minimum, and six Hallandale Beach listings described as having no rental restrictions where two carry a 180 day minimum in the fields.

What does a DRAFT watermark on a floor plan mean for a buyer?

It means the developer has not treated that drawing as final, and it is usually a graphic rather than text, so it will not show up in any document search. Read it as a signal to ask when the sheet will be finalised and what could still change, particularly on penthouses and combined units where layouts move latest.

Is a very low price per square foot in a pre-construction building a good deal?

Usually it is a data entry error rather than a deal. We found one Hallandale Beach residence listed at $464 a square foot in a building where everything else runs $691 to $1,207. The developer’s own availability list showed the square footage was overstated by 541 feet. Comparing price per foot against the rest of the same building is the fastest way to spot it.

What documents should I ask for before signing a pre-construction contract in Miami?

The floor plan for your specific line rather than the typical plan, the price list with the date it was issued printed on it, the deposit schedule showing whether payments are tied to dates or to construction milestones, the condominium declaration for the rental and pet rules, and confirmation of which area the price per square foot is calculated on. If any of those cannot be produced, that is useful information about the project.

No leo los paquetes de corretaje por placer. Los leo porque publicamos una página para cada proyecto de preconstrucción con el que trabajamos, y una página solo vale la pena si sus números resisten una verificación. Así que en las últimas semanas cada plano que pasó por esta oficina entró en un lector que hace una sola cosa aburrida: levanta las áreas impresas de la lámina y pregunta si suman.

526 planos después, en 15 desarrollos, tengo una lista de cosas que no esperaba encontrar. Lo enmarco con honestidad antes de empezar. No creo que nadie esté mintiendo. Estos documentos se producen rápido, por varias personas distintas, contra una fecha de lanzamiento, y casi nadie los coteja entre sí. Los renders reciben cuatro rondas de revisión. El número en la esquina del plano no recibe ninguna.

Las cuatro comprobaciones que atrapan casi todo

Sume el área interior y la exterior y vea si igualan el total impreso. Convierta usted mismo los pies cuadrados y vea si coinciden con la columna de metros cuadrados impresa al lado. Lea la política de alquiler en los campos de datos del listado, no en su descripción escrita. Y divida el precio entre los pies cuadrados y compare ese número con el resto del edificio. Cada problema de este artículo se detectó con una de esas cuatro, y las cuatro juntas toman unos diez minutos.

La columna de metros cuadrados que no es de metros cuadrados

En Ocean Terrace en North Beach, una manzana entera frente al mar desarrollada por Witkoff con interiores de Robert A.M. Stern, el libro de planos imprime cada área dos veces, en pies y en metros. En 4 de las 10 residencias, la cifra en metros no es una conversión de área. Es una conversión lineal.

La residencia 602-1102 imprime 1,781 pies cuadrados y 543 metros cuadrados en la misma línea. 1,781 pies cuadrados son 165 metros cuadrados. Pero 1,781 dividido entre 3.28084 da 542.8. Alguien dividió un área entre una longitud. Un comprador europeo o latinoamericano leyendo esa columna creería que un apartamento de dos dormitorios es más de tres veces su tamaño real.

Lo que lo confirma es que una residencia se contradice a sí misma. PH 22 North imprime el mismo interior de 5,144 pies como 1,568 metros en una lámina y como 478 en la otra. 478 es la correcta.

A veces el desarrollador le avisa que el plano no es final

Las 4 láminas de los dos penthouses de Ocean Terrace llevan una marca diagonal grande que dice DRAFT. Es un gráfico, no texto, así que ningún proceso automático la detectaría. Solo la vi porque armé una hoja de contactos con todos los planos y la miré. Son también las láminas con el error métrico, y PH 22 North está dibujado con 7.5 baños en un nivel y 7 en el otro.

Cuando la ficha técnica y los planos no coinciden, ganan los planos

En Cassia en Coral Gables la ficha pone el un dormitorio con den en 865 pies. El libro de planos dibuja la única tipología con den en 715, y la hoja de precios del desarrollador coincide con el plano. Dos documentos contra uno. Y 865 es el tamaño dibujado de otro plano del mismo libro que el desarrollador etiqueta como de dos dormitorios.

Cinco láminas de 49 imprimen un total que no es la suma de sus partes

En The Rider en Wynwood, 5 de 49 planos imprimen un total que no iguala el interior más el exterior impresos justo encima. El peor: 1,213 interior y 897 exterior, que son 2,110, contra un total impreso de 2,190. Son 80 pies cuadrados.

En PALMA en North Beach dos planos comparten áreas idénticas, 620 pies interiores, mientras uno se llama de un dormitorio y el otro de dos. PALMA también dibuja dos estudios, de 421 y 459 pies, que no aparecen en la tabla de mezcla del propio desarrollador.

La política de alquiler suele ser dos respuestas distintas en un mismo listado

Esta es la que cuesta dinero de verdad. Consulté los registros del MLS de MIAMI para Seventeen Gables esta mañana. Ambos listados activos llevan, en sus campos de datos, un mínimo de 365 días y un alquiler por año. La descripción escrita de esos mismos listados dice que la política permite un mínimo de 30 días.

Seven Park Residences es el mismo caso a mayor escala. Los 6 listados activos describen el edificio como sin restricciones de alquiler. En los campos de datos, 2 de esos 6 llevan un mínimo de 180 días, dos veces al año. House of Wellness en Brickell tiene hoy 9 listados activos de una sola correduría con tres años de entrega distintos y tres mínimos de alquiler distintos en la misma dirección.

La descripción es prosa escrita a mano y los campos son datos. Cuando se contradicen, créale a los campos y luego lea la declaración de condominio.

El precio por pie es la señal

En Seven Park una unidad está registrada en 1,647 pies por $763,900, o sea $464 por pie, en un edificio donde el resto va de $691 a $1,207. No es una ganga. La lista del desarrollador dice 1,106 pies, lo que da $691. Un precio por pie muy alejado del resto de su propio edificio casi nunca es una oportunidad. Es un error de tipeo.

Lo que dice el marketing y lo que dice el texto legal del mismo desarrollador

La ficha de PALMA dice "Sin Restricciones Mínimas de Alquiler", dos veces. El bloque legal impreso en cada uno de sus planos dice que un alquiler de corto plazo puede requerir que cada propietario obtenga un certificado de uso, sujeto a la discreción de la Ciudad de Miami Beach, y que no hay garantía de que siempre se permitan.

Vista Harbor se comercializa con 650 pies de frente al río y una marina privada. El descargo legal de su propia ficha dice que el condominio "puede ofrecer vistas al agua; sin embargo, no es una propiedad frente al agua."

Lo que yo pediría

Nada de esto hace que la preconstrucción sea una mala compra. La vendo y creo en ella. Sí significa que el paquete que le entregan es un documento de marketing con algo de ingeniería adjunta, y que esa ingeniería no fue revisada. Así que:

Preguntas frecuentes

¿Cómo verifico yo mismo un plano de preconstrucción en Miami?

Sume el área interior impresa y la exterior y vea si igualan el total impreso. Luego convierta usted mismo los pies a metros, multiplicando por 0.0929, y compare con la cifra métrica impresa al lado. Esas dos comprobaciones detectaron todos los problemas aritméticos en 526 planos de 15 desarrollos de Miami.

¿Por qué algunas cifras en metros cuadrados parecen demasiado grandes?

Porque en algunas láminas la cifra métrica es una conversión lineal y no de área. Alguien dividió los pies entre 3.28 en lugar de multiplicar por 0.0929, lo que hace que el apartamento parezca unas 3.3 veces más grande. Lo encontramos en 4 de 10 residencias de un libro de planos en Miami Beach.

La descripción del listado y sus datos no coinciden sobre el alquiler. ¿Cuál es correcta?

Créale a los campos de datos antes que a la descripción escrita, y luego verifique contra la declaración de condominio. La descripción es prosa escrita por una persona; los campos son datos. Encontramos dos listados en Coral Gables cuyos campos dicen un mínimo de 365 días mientras su propio texto dice 30.

¿Qué significa una marca DRAFT en un plano?

Significa que el desarrollador no considera final ese dibujo, y suele ser un gráfico y no texto, así que no aparece en ninguna búsqueda del documento. Tómelo como señal para preguntar cuándo se finalizará y qué puede cambiar.

¿Un precio por pie muy bajo en preconstrucción es una buena oportunidad?

Normalmente es un error de captura y no una oportunidad. Encontramos una residencia en Hallandale Beach listada a $464 por pie en un edificio donde el resto va de $691 a $1,207. La lista del desarrollador mostraba que los pies estaban sobreestimados.

¿Qué documentos debo pedir antes de firmar en preconstrucción en Miami?

El plano de su línea específica y no el plano tipo, la lista de precios con su fecha impresa, el calendario de depósitos indicando si los pagos van por fechas o por hitos de construcción, la declaración de condominio para las reglas de alquiler, y sobre qué área se calcula el precio por pie.