News About Properties

Foreclosure auctions not for faint of heart, wallet

Lawyer Paul Ciminelli stands in the corner on the steps of the Monroe County Office Building on a rainy morning. Acting as a referee for the court, he calls out to prospective interested parties for 33 Henry St., with an opening bid of $21,953.76.

No one is present at this 9 a.m. auction, so Ciminelli announces that the property is sold to HSBC, the holder of the mortgage, for the starting price.

Just about every weekday on the steps of the County Office Building downtown, houses are sold at foreclosure auctions. The properties run the gamut from small fixer-uppers to larger single-family houses.

If you’re someone looking for a deal at the auction, you need to be prepared with funds and to be able to make a quick decision, Ciminelli said.

SoMa condo bought with help of federal tax credit, loan and even dad [Northern California]

When you’re spending more than three-quarters of a million dollars on a property, $8,000 worth of income tax credit may seem minuscule.

But for Tony Jarjoura, who paid $756,500 for a two-bedroom, two-bath condo in SoMa Grand (median sale price: $568,000) in December, it was more than welcome.

As it came time for him to close on the sale of his new home, the accountant was relieved when he discovered that the federal $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit had been extended through the end of April.

“The angle I had was: I’m not making a ton of money yet in this industry, and I don’t have a ton of cash reserves, so in relation to the down payment I had, that $8,000 was a substantial amount,” said Jarjoura.

Florida judge tosses GMAC foreclosure

GMAC Mortgage got slammed by a Florida judge this month — and that may be good news for some of the 1,234 New York homeowners hit with a foreclosure action by GMAC since the beginning of 2008.

In that case, Judge Anthony Rondolino voided a GMAC foreclosure win after he found out legal papers filed by the company with the court to steamroll its way over homeowner Debbie Visicaro were faulty. They were filed by an employee of GMAC’s law firm who had no personal knowledge of the faulty mortgage’s position.

In short, they were based entirely on hearsay.

Lawyers familiar with foreclosure actions filed by law firm mills, as was done in this case, say such instances aren’t rare.

Home Front: Condo renter beats bureaucracy to win battle to buy

Happy endings are rare in the midst of a housing meltdown.

But today Donna McCain at last sits in her own home near Sacramento, a condo she rented for five years and tried for 18 months to buy.

“What a gift. What a gift,” she said Tuesday when escrow closed. Wednesday, she fixed tea and tried to relax, thinking about how she might rearrange furniture.

In the best of times, problems with mom and pop sellers can discourage homebuyers. But in these wildest, worst of times, when distant, overwhelmed financial institutions control the housing market, it gets horrific.

Prices falling for small apartment buildings | four, market, buildings [Southern California]

Irwin “Tres” Trester spent more than a year looking for income property before buying a four-plex in Huntington Beach.

“The advantage I was looking for was cash flow. … Going from a (rental) house to a multi-family seemed like the right way to go,” he said. “And the place to go seemed to be Orange County.”

Like Trester, a lot of people are looking to invest in real estate as an alternative to a roller-coaster stock market and low-yield CD’s.

While most bargain-hunters are shopping for houses or condos to use as rentals, some agents advise that investors consider small apartment buildings instead.

Illegal renting results in revenue losses

The atmosphere around Cocoa Beach Towers on a recent sunny day was like a vacation resort. The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer” was blaring from the condo complex next door, sunbathers relaxed on the Towers’ balconies overlooking the beach, families lounged by the pool.

One could hardly tell that the Towers is a residential complex. And that it was 2 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon.

This type of scene is all too common among beachside condominium buildings, according to building and city officials, with much of it centered in the Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral area.

This is the face of illegal renting.