Internet flippers.

An estimated 65,000 new condo units are currently in various stages of planning and construction in the greater Miami area. Of these units, as many as 80% are in the hands of speculative investors who plan to resell them prior to the project's completion.

With the abundance of new units coming on line over the next few years, traditional means of advertising and marketing won't be adequate enough to facilitate the volume of transactions necessary to "flip" these condos from investors to end-users, according to Mark Zilbert, president and general broker of Miami Beach-based Zilbert Realty Group.

To facilitate sales of these properties, Zilbert developed Condo Flip (www.CondoFlip.com), a patent-pending, web-based marketplace that will bring together buyers, sellers, brokers and developers from around the world to "flip" sales contracts prior to closing.

"While many Americans worry about a possible national real estate bubble, Miami may in fact turn out to be a case study for successful condo development," Zilbert said. "The most important factor that will affect our condo industry is identifying the end-user buyers. Miami, fortunately, has many distinct sources of end users."

Zilbert sees three distinct buyer demographics: South Florida locals, newcomers to the region and second homebuyers.

"There is a 'suburban flight' trend emerging here, whereby residents of Miami-Dade county are looking to move back into the urban core and away from the suburbs. To fill every condo under construction, a mere 2.6% of the current county population would have to buy a condo," Zilbert explained.

With Florida's population growing by an estimated 1,100 residents per day (about 200 of them moving to Miami-Dade county alone), Florida is about to overtake New York as the third most populous state in the country. As an aging population moves south to warmer climates, this trend is expected to continue.

Second homebuyers are also fueling the extraordinary growth. Thousands of condos in the South Florida area are purchased as second or vacation residences, with these buyers coming from all parts of the globe, especially Latin America and Europe, where the local currencies have strong buying power here.

"Miami has an almost-unlimited source of buyers. As long as the city has its favorable climate and highly regarded lifestyle, we should expect second homebuyers to continually seek condos here," Zilbert said.