News About Properties

Buddy Johnson’s misspelling and selective memory line his path to financial ruin [Tampa Bay Area, FL]

The unsettling story of Buddy Johnson’s personal finances came out in dribs and drabs: mounting debt, unpaid taxes, foreclosures, and a lawsuit by an elderly couple who say the former Hillsborough elections chief swindled them out of their retirement nest egg.

But now, with new documents and Johnson’s sworn testimony in the lawsuit made public, the story can be told whole.

New details show that Johnson deceived Cecil and Nita Bass, who sold him the 20-acre tract held in their family since the Great Depression.

A newly released internal memo at the Plant City bank that loaned Johnson $400,000 shows he misled officials there, as well. And Johnson’s credit report suggests an answer to the mystery of why his name was misspelled on other loan documents.

Auctions bringing buyers bargains [East Nashville]

A small crowd gathered for the auction of a Shelby Avenue home in East Nashville — one of about 30 properties repossessed by a bank and being sold by Bob Parks Auction Co. in a whirlwind tour this week.
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The historic home’s renovations were nearly complete, including immaculate hardwood floors, exposed brick around the fireplaces, a new kitchen and fresh paint. The county tax appraisal listed the house as worth $297,300.

After the auction, someone walked away with it for $166,000. Even the buyer thought his winning bid seemed too low.

“I’m surprised it didn’t go for more,’’ said Stewart Levine, who won the bid on behalf of a local investor, Lane Wallace. “In this market, things are just down.”

Isleworth sees more ‘for sale’ signs [Central Florida]

Isleworth has reigned as Orlando’s most prestigious address for more than a decade.

The lavish 300-home subdivision on the Butler Chain of Lakes near Windermere is, above all else, known as the place Tiger Woods, other athletes and prominent business executives call home.

But in this real-estate market of unprecedented lows, even the rich and famous are finding it tough to sell.

Sports stars Grant Hill, Mark O’Meara, Stuart Appleby and Ryan Longwell as well as former Hughes Supply Inc. CEO Tom Morgan and the estate of car dealer Bob Dance all have homes up for sale in Isleworth.

Low land prices create buzz to add county parks [Central Florida]

The rain clouds of the real-estate market have a silver lining for those who want more public baseball and soccer fields: cheaper land.

Orange County’s parks and recreation department has been scouting dozens of tracts 20 acres or larger across the county. The idea is to buy land at depressed prices and hold onto it until budgets allow for the development of more community parks with fields for youth sport leagues.

“Now’s the right time to buy land and bank it for later,” said parks director Matt Suedmeyer. Although Orange already has more than 90 parks, “most of them have hit capacity,” he said. “Our county is still growing.”

Real-estate agents say land prices in Central Florida are about 22 percent lower now than they were at the market’s peak in 2005 and 2006.

Mirassou Condo seeks new system to collect owners’ fees [South Florida]

Dealing with an ongoing crisis, the company that manages cash-strapped Mirassou Condominium wants to start a blanket receivership system to collect association fees from deadbeat owners.

Concerned residents and their families gathered at the Northwest Dade condominium’s clubhouse for a board meeting Monday evening. An attorney representing property managers talked about the new legal strategy the company wants to adopt to collect assessments.

As budgets continue to worsen in South Florida condo associations, Mirassou’s situation underscores the consequences communities are facing when unit owners enter foreclosure and discontinue paying association fees. Those fees normally cover flood and hazard insurance, maintenance, utilities and garbage collection.

Hotels Deliver Some ‘Jingle Mail’

‘Jingle mail” isn’t just for homeowners anymore. From San Diego to Dearborn, Mich., an increasing number of hotel owners in the U.S. market are simply walking away from money-losing properties and forfeiting them to lenders.

The rise in hotel forfeitures is the product of the worst hotel market since the early 1990s, with revenue declining by double-digit percentages. That has pushed the value of many hotels to less than the balance on their mortgages. Just like homeowners who mail their house keys back to the bank — so-called jingle mail — hotel owners see no hope in renegotiating their loans.

Distressed noncasino hotel loans now cover more than 1,000 properties with a cumulative loan value of $16.8 billion, according to Real Capital Analytics, a real-estate research company. That figure encompasses delinquencies, foreclosures, bankruptcies and restructurings of securitized mortgages in addition to loans from banks and other institutions.

Among them are a Mondrian boutique hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz.; a St. Regis resort in Dana Point, Calif.; the InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, and a Hyatt Regency in Dearborn — each of which is either in foreclosure or has stopped making payments on its debt. It includes the 680 hotels of the Extended Stay Inc. chain that filed for bankruptcy in June.