News About Properties

Condo bulk buyers enliven market [South Florida]

As the year starts winding down, real-estate investors have begun closing on large blocks of South Florida condominium units — known as “bulk deals” — at a quickening pace.

The burst of new activity indicates investors — mostly seasoned real-estate professionals from other markets and abroad — perceive the new construction market is nearing bottom, according to analysts.

Since the end of October, investors have closed on five bulk transactions totaling 518 units and 710,500 square feet throughout Miami-Dade County.

The combined purchase price for four of the five deals was $43 million.

The Real Estate Wonk: Careful whom you call for mortgage help

If someone offers to help modify your mortgage for the low-low upfront fee of $3,500, run for the hills. That was the state of Maryland’s advice Tuesday as it issued cease-and-desist orders to five loan-modification companies, firms it alleges took that sort of money from hundreds of cash-strapped homeowners and then did absolutely nothing.

The orders were part of a continuing nationwide effort to crack down on loan-mod scams, which have flourished like mold in a damp basement as the housing-market crash worsened in the last two years.

Cease-and-desist orders went to Equity Recovery Services LLC, U.S. Equity Solutions LLC, Save My Home USA Co. Inc., GIAN Inc. and Help Modify Now Inc., along with affiliates and arms operating under other names. The orders were among 118 legal actions across the nation, the Federal Trade Commission said. (Here’s a post about a previous wave of legal actions in July.)

Among the online complaints from consumers is this one: “Save My Home USA LOST my home!”

Go Ahead and Yell. He’s Everyone’s Punching Bag.

Norman J. Radow brings out the worst in some people. They scream at him. They sue him. He has even been punched in the face.

What has he done to deserve this? In a word: workouts.

As founder of Radco Development Solutions, Mr. Radow is on the firing line in the continuing battle over failed residential real estate deals. Banks hire him to resurrect developments gone awry, particularly those half-empty condominium towers and gated communities that sprang up like weeds during the boom and are now in foreclosure.

View of home as investment needs to change, expert says [Southern California]

Kajal and Vishal Dharod paid $559,000 in 2006 for a new four-bedroom house built in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Today, it’s worth about $360,000.

“We don’t know how we can come back from a loss like that,” said Kajal Dharod, 29, a first-time homeowner with a $4,200-a-month mortgage. “Buying the house was a mistake.”

American homeownership, once considered a path to wealth, is now leading to disillusionment.

A Toxic Drywall Antidote

The company that used chlorine dioxide gas to eradicate anthrax from government buildings and mold from hospitals and houses in New Orleans said it can solve the problem of corrosive and stinky Chinese drywall without physically removing it.

Sabre Technical Services said it has successfully neutralized the troublesome reduced sulfur gases and killed organisms in Chinese drywall that may be producing foul gases in more than a dozen houses in Southwest Florida.

“When we treat a house for Chinese drywall, it is fixed,” said Karen Cavanagh, COO and general counsel for the Slingerlands, N.Y.-based Sabre.

Chinese drywall: Florida hasn’t committed to using federal money for repairs [South Florida]

The Louisiana Legislature passed a law that allows the state to use $5 million in federal grants to repair homes with tainted Chinese drywall. So far, Florida lawmakers have failed to follow suit.

“If Louisiana can do it, why can’t we?” asked Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, at a state drywall symposium in Tampa this month.

In October, Nelson wrote to the Florida Legislature, asking it to determine if the state has unspent disaster block grant money that affected residents could use for home repairs. Nelson said he’s still waiting for a response.

Also in October, Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, toured homes west of Boynton Beach that were built with Chinese drywall. Donovan mentioned then the use of block grants as a possible solution for homeowners.