Celeb Real Estate Broker Goes Broke: Rise and Fall of Carlos Justo

Feb. 16, 2009— -- "Keep your head low," cautioned Carlos Justo as he ran under the whirling blades of a helicopter that landed on a vacant lot on Miami Beach's star-studded Star Island -- some of the most expensive and exclusive real estate in the country.

Within seconds he was onboard and heading for the sky. Justo doesn't miss a beat.

"This is Puff Daddy right here," he said, pointing out the helicopter window at an impressive waterside mansion. "Next home is owned by the Estefans -- I sold that to them. Two doors down is Rosie O'Donnell."

When the Miami real estate market was hot, Justo was red hot, selling $200 million in real estate in one year to multimillionaires and billionaires. He used a helicopter the way most agents use a car.

"Miami is flat," he said, raising his voice in the noisy cabin but clearly reveling in the moment. "Once you get up in the air it changes your whole perspective. That's where the magic happens!"

Justo admits that the helicopter is part of his real estate arsenal. In better times, he chartered helicopters every week to show premium clients prospective homes.

"Typically, whenever I get them in a helicopter, they see it differently. I get them forever. They end up saying, 'This is my thing. This is my guy,'" he said.

Just a few years ago a program called "Million Dollar Agents" on the TLC cable channel celebrated Justo as the biggest fish in Miami's shark-infested pool of real estate agents.

When times were good he toured around town in his chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce. Million-dollar homes weren't his business. He was only interested in multimillion-dollar homes, and the people who owned them or wanted to.

That was then. Today, the Rolls has been replaced by a Land Rover. The high flyer who was worth $20 million in 2005 is now $12 million dollars in debt and declaring bankruptcy.

For a while, Justo's home was a $7 million waterside Miami mansion. But when the market tanked, he could no longer afford the taxes -- $135,000 a year -- and the mortgage.

"I owned this home and we did the renovation and it didn't sell for about six months," he said as he stood on the driveway. Justo says he lost over $2 million on his own home alone.

His story is typical of many speculators -- it's just that the dollar amounts involved are, in his case, so staggeringly high. At the market peak, he owned 12 homes and carried $50 million in mortgages. Seven have been repossessed by the banks, and the remaining five are all facing foreclosure.

It is a story of a spectacular rise and fall.