News About Properties

Escrow Bomb ticking in S. Florida

You’d be smart to keep a close eye on that escrow account attached to your mortgage. There’s a good chance many Florida property owners won’t have enough money squirreled away this year.

Escrow is money held for future obligations. Every month most homeowners pay principal and interest due on their mortgage plus an additional amount that is put into escrow. When annual property tax bills come due at year’s end and when homeowners insurance premiums need to be paid, your mortgage lender uses escrowed funds to pay the bills.

Citizens deficit to cost all homeowners [Florida]

All Floridians with homeowner insurance policies will have a one-time charge tacked on their annual premiums to help cover Citizens Property Insurance Corp.’s $1.7 billion deficit from 2005, officials with the state-backed insurer decided Thursday.

And Citizens’ board will meet next month to consider another extra charge for all of the state’s homeowners to shore up the state’s home insurer of last resort and now its biggest property insurer.

The extra charge approved Thursday will be $20.70 for every $1,000 of annual premium paid and will be in addition to the rate hikes that consumers already are paying to insure their homes.

Taxpayers strain to swallow hikes [South Florida]

When Patrick Moriarity opened his tax bill this year and saw a 35 percent increase in the amount of money he owed on his two commercial rental properties in Venice, he was more than outraged.

He was disgusted.

Moriarity and new homeowners, owners of second homes and owners of commercial and rental properties have felt the pain of sharply rising taxes in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Developer makes the old new

What embattled entrepreneur and race car driver Eric Schwartz said he enjoyed most about the restaurant business were the openings, especially designing, refurbishing and decorating a new restaurant. He didn’t like the chronic financial struggle to stay in business in a highly competitive industry.

Schwartz, 49, who founded Upstairs Downstairs Deli with a partner at age 19 and has owned several other Madison restaurants, now runs Sara Investment Real Estate, where he does refurbishing and decorating without worrying about the food service.

The company is named for Schwartz’s wife, who he said always supported him even during the most difficult times. They have four children ages 9 to 16.

Dreams ruined, he walks mortgage plank

Finally able to speak, he apologized profusely through his tears, saying it had just sneaked up on him, that he hadn’t done such a thing in a long time. I told him to forget it.

His is among the heart- rending stories being told often in Colorado these days. Good-intentioned people are unwittingly getting in over their heads with home mortgages or they’re outright being fleeced by the unscrupulous at mortgage-signing time.

According to a report Wednesday, Colorado ranked first nationally in the number of home foreclosures filed in August – one new foreclosure filing for every 301 households – up 53 percent from a year earlier and the sixth month in a row the state has ranked first.

How to buy … investment real estate

Investing in real estate most likely won’t produce the get-rich-quick results promised by many a late-night infomercial. But for investors willing to do some homework, make a good purchase and properly manage a piece of property, the rewards can be substantial.

Various strategies can be used on the road to real estate wealth. In one, investors “flip” properties by buying a house, renovating it in short order and selling for a profit. In another, investors purchase the property with the intent to hold it for many years.

A common approach is to purchase an income-producing property such as a single-family home, an apartment building, an office or retail building or farmland with the intent to rent the property or units within it. By having tenants, investors benefit from not only any appreciation over time, but also the rental cash flow. There’s also some inflation protection because as operating costs increase, rents can increase as well.