Living between Austin and Fisher Island: which building fits?

Six Fisher Island, if the second home is meant to be a house with staff rather than an apartment in a tower. The developer publishes ~50 waterfront homes of 3 to 8 bedrooms, three lobbies with full-time concierges, a residential butler and an on-site general manager, and an island with no bridge, so the house is watched whether or not the owner is in it. Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami, From $3,300,000, and Delano Residences, From $760,000, put a hotel's staff under the home instead, which suits an owner who wants a Downtown address, a lower entry and a desk that never closes. The trade is the door: the island is reached by ferry or boat and the Club decides who belongs; the Downtown towers share their lobbies with guests.

Five axes, from the developers' published material only.

Six Fisher Island. Price point: no published entry price; released on request. Delivery: no date in the material on our file. Unit mix: ~50 waterfront homes, 3 to 8 bedrooms, ~3,900 to over ~15,000 square feet, private elevator entry to each. Position: ~650 feet of shoreline in ~6.5 acres of gardens on Fisher Island, views to Miami Beach, Biscayne Bay, the Atlantic and the skyline; no bridge, arrival by ferry, private boat, house car and tender, or the private marina. Operator or brand: Related Group with BH Group and Globe Invest; Kobi Karp, Tara Bernerd interiors; three staffed lobbies, a butler and a general manager; over ~55,000 square feet of amenity private to residents; lifetime Fisher Island Club membership on closing, subject to Club approval.

Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami. Price point: From $3,300,000. Delivery: no date in the material on our file. Unit mix: ~360 branded residences across 100 stories, furnished junior suites and 1 to 4 bedrooms, with hotel guestrooms in the tower. Position: Downtown Miami, views of downtown, Miami Beach and the Atlantic. Operator or brand: Hilton Worldwide under licence of the Waldorf Astoria name; a private residential pool deck and an owners lounge; Savant smart home with concierge access.

Delano Residences & Hotel Miami. Price point: From $760,000. Delivery: no date in the material on our file. Unit mix: ~421 finished residences across ~90 stories with the hotel below; the Delano Collection on floors 20 to 47 carries studio, studio and den, 1 and 2 bedroom lines, furnished suites in select lines. Position: Fourth and Biscayne, Downtown Miami. Operator or brand: Delano under licence with Ennismore and Accor; a Members' Club, Beach Club access at Delano Miami Beach, and the Accor Ownership Benefits Program subject to the annual benefits fee.

Read living between Dubai and Fisher Island, Dallas to Fisher Island or Downtown Miami and which Fisher Island or Downtown Miami condo has the best service.

On the island, the building's own people. Six Fisher Island publishes a butler and a general manager for ~50 homes, which is the ratio a two-city household is really buying: someone who knows the home, has the keys under a written procedure and can meet a contractor on a Tuesday in August. Downtown, the hotel runs the building and the owner buys into its reflexes. Waldorf Astoria publishes Hilton as the manager and a smart home with concierge access; Delano publishes the hotel below with its spa, restaurants and Members' Club. A hotel desk answers at three in the morning, which a butler for 50 homes may not, but it answers for ~360 or ~421 homes and the guests upstairs. In every case the owner reads the same three documents before relying on any of it: the association's rules on entering a closed home, the management agreement, and the form that names who may be let in. Read lock and leave at Six Fisher Island, lock and leave at Delano and can the building enter your Miami condo when you are away.

Differently on each side of the water. Fisher Island has no bridge, so every arrival, the owner's own household staff included, comes by the ferry, a boat or the house car and tender the developer names, and the Club's approval sits behind the owner's own membership. That is the island's privacy and its friction in one sentence. A Texas household that travels with a driver or an assistant asks the sales team how staff are registered, where they park on the mainland and how a guest who arrives at midnight gets across. Downtown, the lobby is the hotel's, and the question becomes which elevators the residences keep for themselves. Waldorf Astoria publishes a private residential pool deck and an owners lounge the hotel does not use; Delano publishes a Members' Club and a public observation deck in the same tower. Read household staff and the service entry at Six Fisher Island, hotel guests and resident spaces at Delano and who can live in your Miami condo besides you.

The building follows its plan and the owner follows the policy. A closed home on the water in a named storm is a question of who shutters, who checks after, and what the owner's policy and the master policy each cover, and those answers live in the association's hurricane procedure and the two insurance documents, not in a brochure. Six Fisher Island's ferry is the island's road, so the owner asks how the island moves people and vendors when it stops. The Downtown towers are run by hotel operators whose own guests have to be moved, and the owner asks where the residences sit in that plan. A buyer who will not be in Florida between June and November asks for the written procedure before the contract and names a local contact on the form. Read closing a Miami condo during hurricane season, what happens to a new Miami condo in a hurricane and who decides and Miami condo insurance.

Six Fisher Island suits the household that wants a staffed house on the water, 3 to 8 bedrooms, and a door that nobody crosses without the island's say. You give up the bridge, a published price and the spontaneity of a city block, and you carry the Club: lifetime membership on closing subject to Club approval, with the initiation fee paid by the developer and the annual dues the owner's cost, read as a line of the yearly budget beside the association fee (club membership obligations at Six Fisher Island). Read the Six Fisher Island dossier and the Fisher Island zone page.

Waldorf Astoria suits the owner who wants Hilton's depth under a Downtown home, From $3,300,000, with rooms the hotel does not share. You give up the lobby to guests and fund a 100 story tower's staff. Read the Waldorf Astoria dossier.

Delano suits the owner who wants the lowest entry of the three, From $760,000, a hotel's reflexes and a beach club across the bay. You give up privacy at the door and pay an annual fee for the brand's benefits. Read the Delano dossier and the Downtown Miami zone page.

Texas and Florida both leave income untaxed at the state level, so the paperwork question is not a tax trade but a homestead one: Florida's exemption follows a primary residence, and a second home does not get it. That is a question for counsel, and does buying a Miami condo make you a Florida resident sets it out. The desk reads the staffing plan, the Club rules and the hurricane procedure with the buyer before the reservation.