The preconstruction market in Miami has seen some of the highest investor returns in the United States. "People are seeing 2, 3, 400 percent returns on what they invest in a construction condo — over about a year," Mark Zilbert, a Miami real estate broker, said last year.

"What kind of drives the desirability in the Miami area is where the waterfront locations are," Zilbert said.

It is estimated that at one point, up to 80 percent of condo purchases were purely speculative investments, made by people with no plans to ever live in one of the tens of thousands of new condos transforming the Miami skyline.

Though some people who bought in plush waterfront towers intended to move in, the profit potential became too tempting. That's what happened to condo owner Darryl Randall.

Edwina Baniqued