News About Properties

Angry retiree says Marco Island deals ruined him [South Florida]

One night in 30 years working at a car shop in a rough-and-tumble section of Queens, N.Y., is seared in Lothar Schaarschmidt’s memory.

Thugs slipped into the garage just after closing. One held a knife to Schaarschmidt’s throat, while another pointed a gun at his brother Werner’s head. The crooks fled with hundreds of dollars in cash.

That terror is eclipsed in Schaarschmidt’s mind by the abiding anguish over the hundreds of thousands of dollars he and his brother said they lost in a pair of Marco Island real estate deals.

“In Queens, we learned to live with the threat of a gun barrel. That was just part of it,” Lothar Schaarschmidt, 68, said in his broken German accent. “Getting cheated out of our property hurt 10 times worse. I lost everything I had.”

Foreclosure may sock Hollywood in its wallet [South Florida]

Project’s collapse could cost public $1.6 million

Two cornerstone buildings in a project aimed at turning Young Circle into a center of art and culture have gone into foreclosure, leaving taxpayers on the hook for at least $1.6 million in mortgages.

The Young Circle Garage, bought with an $800,000 loan from the city three years ago, goes on the auction block May 17, and the Hollywood Bread Building is being foreclosed while owing at least $800,000 to the city, according to court records. The city never obtained first mortgages, meaning Hollywood is last to be paid if any money remains when the properties are sold.

Drawing down equity on home frees assets, carries downside risk

Before getting a reverse mortgage, Jo Ann Miller and her husband, Carl, were living modestly on Social Security and carefully watching their spending.

They had no pensions to fall back on and weren’t able to save much while they were working. But they had equity in their San Mateo townhouse.

Since the Millers obtained a reverse mortgage, which allows them to draw money from the equity in their home, they feel like they have some breathing room to live better.

With the extra money, they bought a hybrid car they wanted in order to help the environment, and they’re extremely excited about a monthlong vacation they’re taking this summer to Australia.

Trailer-Park Sales Leave Residents With Single-Wides and Few Options [Long Island]

In the middle of Long Island’s Gold Coast, where home prices easily reach $1 million, sits the Syosset Mobile Home Park, where a trailer can be had for under $50,000 and the monthly fee for taxes, water and sewage runs about $500. The children growing up in the park’s 80 narrow homes attend Syosset schools, reputed to be among the best in the country.

But fliers stuffed in the mailboxes next to the decorated trailer hitches and propane tanks on April 9 brought bad news: The park had been sold. It was left to the affable handyman to expand on the single-sentence announcement, explaining that the new owners had told him they planned to replace the 250 working-class residents’ single-wide slice of the American dream with luxury housing.

Builder left homes undone; CEO faces arrest [South Florida]

Alisha Buckingham just wanted a two-story home. At the time, only two home builders in the city offered models with that specification.

Contracting with Avalon Homes, she and dozens of other families learned, was a costly decision.

Avalon collapsed last fall, leaving 50 homes unfinished and dozens of home buyers like Buckingham saddled with mortgages for homes they may never be able to finish building.

“I have no more money. It’s all gone,” said Buckingham, a 32-year-old waitress.

Builder’s sales on track despite cancellations [Central Florida]

Steve O’Dowd, 53, president of Engineered Homes of Orlando Inc., an employee-owned production home-building company based in Winter Park. O’Dowd spoke with staff writer Jerry W. Jackson.

Question: Late last year, you were fairly confident about local home building for 2007. Has the extent of the slowdown surprised you?

Answer: I’m still very confident in what I see happening in the marketplace. What really surprised me more were the amount of people who canceled contracts. It appears the amount of sales we expected to take place continued to run the way we expected. But we had higher cancellation rates.