News About Properties

More S. Florida office buildings being converted to condos

As the conversion of apartments to condominiums continues at a frenetic pace in South Florida, a new trend is on the horizon that looks to be just as popular with local developers. Now, office buildings are being sought out by developers planning to convert them to office condominiums.

“The office-condo revolution is enabling building owners to sell out at prices that are too good to be true,” said Scott Sime, managing director for CBRE in Miami-Dade County. “It’s stimulating the office sales market.”

With a Little Estate Planning, Your House Can Stay in the Family – New York Times

CAUTION: Reading this article may provoke self-inflicted slaps to the head and utterances of “Why didn’t I do this five years ago?”

In 1999, Farhad Aghdami, a trust lawyer in Richmond, Va., suggested to Jim and Yolonda Roberts that they put their home in a Qualified Personal Residence Trust to shelter it from looming estate taxes.

Piedmont Lodge, the Robertses’ white clapboard house with six portico columns sitting on 53 acres near Keswick, Va., was worth about $1.6 million back then. The trust lets them give the property to their four children for about a third of what it was valued at in 1999. The couple, now 75 years old, can live in the home for the 10-year term of the trust. When the trust expires in three years, the house belongs to the children.

Renters at 360-apartment Naples complex ordered to move out

Add this number to Collier County’s affordable housing nightmare: 360 apartments on the border of Golden Gate Estates and North Naples will be off the market within three months.

Owners contend the apartment complex isn’t going condo, but this week renters in 360 Bermuda Island units got brief letters telling them their annual leases won’t be renewed.

Some of the leases expire this spring, but some sooner.

Good in Deed: Bids at auction have property appraiser’s office processors working overtime

It was standing room only at Tuesday’s tax deed auction.

Deputy Clerk of Courts Kenny Downs estimated that about 75-85 people bid on tax deeds, some of which went for 10 times their listed price.

Tuesday’s auction is another example the fervor and intensity of Putnam County’s red-hot real estate market. Although land prices in Putnam have risen dramatically in recent years, they are still considered a bargain, compared to the rest of the state.

Local home builders say that slump has arrived

Southwest Florida home builders, subcontractors and suppliers are beginning to fret about the state of their industry.

Many have seen sales drop in the past three months. If that trend continues, the regional economy could be in for a rough year.

Whether inflated prices, rising interest rates, fear of hurricanes or a pullback by speculators are to blame, all eyes are fixed on what will happen during the next two months — a time considered the high season for the sales.

Financial promoter, wife plead not guilty: Judge grants request from Wade Cook for public defender

Well-known financial promoter Wade B. Cook and his wife pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges of concealing nearly $8.9 million from the Internal Revenue Service.

Cook, 56, and his wife Laura, 52, who own a home near Fall City, were charged in federal court last month.

Throughout the 1990s Wade Cook established himself as an author and speaker on investing. He has written dozens of books and conducted hundreds of seminars on asset protection, stock market investing, real estate acquisition and avoidance of income tax.