News About Properties

Deals on houses are around, but money isn’t

Joseph Kandel is itching to get hold of serious cash so he can take advantage of real estate deals he sees every day as an agent with Horizon Realty in Bradenton.

A 50-year-old entrepreneur who has written a book on dating, Kandel formed a company called 1st & 10 Properties in early 2008 and is trying to raise at least $10 million through a public stock offering.

Kandel wants to use the money to buy as many as 80 luxury homes and mid-range vacation properties at bargain-basement prices and hold those properties until the values appreciate by 50 percent.

“Ultra-luxury homes are expected to increase from $1 million to $1.7 million in the next four to five years, while multi-family properties in the $200,000 range are expected to appreciate to approximately $300,000 within four to five years,” Kandel says in his registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “It is for those reasons, 1st and 10 Properties will purchase as many units in those price ranges as possible.”

Real estate: ‘Timeless’ home exudes Southern charm, grace

Pastels and sea shells have their place in Florida décor, just not at 950 Stratford Place in Suntree Estates.
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The mansion is modeled more after a European country home or a Southern plantation than a tropical Florida home. The site of many a fundraiser, the home has seen lavish entertaining in keeping with its grand scale.

Front rooms exude formal elegance, while rear rooms and upstairs areas provide plenty of space for casual family gathering. That’s thanks, in a way, to the hurricanes of 2004.

Damage after the twin storms required the home to be torn down to its block walls and concrete floors and renovated.

REIT Moves Rub Executives Wrong Way

As if life wasn’t tough enough for chief executives of real-estate companies struggling with the recession, they are also having to cope with price swings in their stocks, which normally are relatively stable.

That is making it harder for them to do deals, raise capital, attract institutional investors and compensate employees.

It is also getting their dander up about a likely culprit: a popular trading strategy involving leveraged funds that investors are using to ride the daily trend in certain market sectors.

“It’s a very alarming, very disconcerting impact on the stock,” Equity Residential Chief Executive David Neithercut says of the funds. “Maybe somebody’s making money, but I think it’s a real problem for our business.”

Foreclosure forces family apart

Elvis Bravo’s American dream is underwater and for sale.

The Mexican-native and his extended family have been living for 2 1/2 years in a house in DeLeon Springs.

But the mortgage holder is foreclosing, and now Bravo is trying to sell the house. It’s the home his 20-month-old son, Bryan, came home to after his birth. Bravo’s brother and his wife also live there with their child, born about two months ago. Bravo’s mother also lives there.

Now a “For Sale” sign has been planted on its lawn on Dundee Avenue. And the hopes and dreams of Elvis and his wife are on hold.

Economic crisis forces people who’ve never needed help to ask

After eviction, Sarah is just grateful for a hot shower. Leilani, once a mortgage-company manager, now can’t afford toilet paper. Eric, who used to buy his children expensive gifts, hasn’t told them that he is staying in a homeless shelter.

Sarah, Leilani and Eric are poignant examples of a new group of people caught up in the rise of homelessness across the Valley.

As foreclosures and unemployment rise, people who have never had to ask for help are turning to homeless shelters and food banks for support. Government and shelter officials expect the needs to increase as those relying on relatives and savings are forced to turn to social services.

“This is a new subgroup of homeless we’ve never seen before,” said Darlene Newsome, who runs United Methodist Outreach Ministries’ New Day Centers. “These are two-head households and white-collar workers who never dreamt they would be in this situation.”

In Hard Times, Houses of God Turn to Chapter 11 in Book of Bankruptcy

The auctioneer told the small crowd huddled outside the Talbot County Courthouse that the property would be sold “as is” — rectory, bell tower, oak pews and rose-tinted stained glass windows included.

“Who gives $700,000, 700, 700?” he called out. One man, a representative for a local bank, raised his finger. The auctioneer tried in vain to nudge the price up. “Sold!” he cried. St. Andrew Anglican Church had just been bought by the bank that had started foreclosure proceedings against it.

“It’s probably good for my soul to be taken down a notch,” said the Right Rev. Joel Marcus Johnson, the rector of St. Andrew, after the auction.

During this holiday season of hard times, not even houses of God have been spared. Some lenders believe more churches than ever have fallen behind on loans or defaulted this year. Some churches, and at least one company that specialized in church lending, have filed for bankruptcy. Church giving is down as much as 15% in some places, pastors and lenders report