News about properties and real estate
Unsuspecting Internet buyers paying thousands for unbuildable lots Old-time swamp peddling has gone high-tech, thanks to Internet-auction sites such as eBay. The pitch – speculation on near-worthless Florida real estate – is decades old. But today, a new generation eyeing property for investment or retirement is buying land that’s miles from civilization, has no roads …
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Protections failing time share buyers Sales unchecked by complaints, lawsuits South Carolina has more time shares than every U.S. state except Florida, but the agency that regulates the industry has been hamstrung by budget cuts and now only has one person assigned to time share complaints. Despite 32 pages of laws on time shares, South …
Buyers in a bind After struggling home builder Jade Homes suddenly closed its doors last month, buyers of about 75 homes found themselves in difficult straits. Ali Alshalkmi is a Tampa businessman who bought 10 homes at a total cost of about $3 million for himself and members of his extended family. He deposited $200,000 …
Mortgage closing costs are sky-high in Florida State’s fees are behind only New York, Texas, Hawaii and Ohio. For the second year, New York has the highest mortgage-related fees in Bankrate .com’s annual closing-costs-comparison survey. New York’s high title and settlement costs lifted the state well above No. 2 Texas. The Lone Star State was …
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Reaping a Profit, With the City’s Help [New York] Soon after Lovelynn Gwinn moved into her three-story town house in West Harlem six years ago, she received a call from the F.B.I. telling her that a woman had been thrown or had fallen from a nearby building. That wasn’t the only bad news about her …
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‘Like Monopoly, but with real money’ A sluggish real estate market is bringing new life to an old transaction: the swap. Paul Forsberg worried about selling his Punta Gorda waterfront investment house for what he thinks it is worth. He also was keenly interested in postponing a hefty capital gains tax he’d owe on the …