News About Properties

Frisco soldier who lost house to foreclosure over homeowners dues gets it back

The Frisco soldier and his family who lost their home to foreclosure while he was serving in Iraq will get the house back.

Army National Guard Capt. Michael Clauer and his wife, May, lost their $315,000 southwest Frisco home in May 2008 after falling behind on Heritage Lakes Homeowners Association dues.

The Clauers sued the association and subsequent buyers in federal court. A court-ordered settlement conference led to an agreement this week that gives the house back to the Clauers.

A gag order prevents those involved from sharing details. But the bottom line is that the Clauers once again will own the home in the Heritage Lakes subdivision.

With prices down Marion County investors buy properties cheap and then resell them quickly for a tidy profit [North Florida]

The problems with the local real estate market are well documented: Property values are plummeting, foreclosures are skyrocketing and many homeowners are upside down on their mortgages, meaning they owe more than the property is worth.

Yet in the midst of all this chaos, one group of people continues to mine gold from the local housing market. They are house flippers, who buy properties cheap and then resell them quickly for a tidy profit.

The housing bust, which saw property values drop by more than 40 percent during the past four years, is working to their advantage.

For investors like Amy Agricola, there is no shortage of houses to buy cheap.

Limits on pursuing delinquent condo owners

Q. Are there any restrictions on a management company or board on performing ongoing collection activity on a delinquent unit owner’s account? If the unit owner is in bankruptcy, does this have any affect on collection activity?

A. While a board of directors must be diligent in pursing delinquent accounts, restrictions on the means of communication are governed by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure.

Federal law requires that delinquency notices comply with certain requirements, including an explanation of the calculation of the delinquent amount. The demand for possession required by Illinois law states that an owner must be given 30 days to pay the delinquency.

The proper format of a delinquency assessment notice is to state the amount of the claim, including legal fees, by attaching an account ledger with an itemization of all charges.

Closed Seville Beach Hotel to get new boutique brand

The shuttered Seville Beach Hotel in Miami Beach will come back as a partnership between hip hotelier Ian Schrager and Marriott.

The Miami Beach location, at 2901 Collins Ave., becomes just the second announced U.S. location under the boutique Edition brand. The first is scheduled to open this fall in Waikiki.

Marriott spokesman John Wolf said the South Florida hotel, which sits on nearly three acres of beachfront property, is expected to open in three years after significant renovations.

The hotel company does not expect to be a long-term owner, CFO Carl Berquist said Thursday in a conference call for investors.

Some HOAs sue or foreclose to collect dues

When Helen Burgess fell behind on her bills after being diagnosed with cancer, she was able to work out payment plans on her mortgage, car note, credit card and tax obligations to the Internal Revenue Service.

Her neighbors weren’t so accommodating.

Because Burgess was late on her condo fees, the Magnolia Lane Condominium Association cut off her water soon after she returned home from surgery. That was June 27, 2009.

Since then, Burgess has been hauling water from her niece’s house 10 miles away. The condo group also tried in vain to garnishee the Marietta woman’s pay to collect the dues it’s owed, which, including attorneys’ fees, now totals more than $5,000. Most recently, it banned Burgess or her guests from using the clubhouse and other facilities in the 76-unit Marietta community.

Rich have higher home default rates

The well-off are losing their master suites and saying goodbye to their wine cellars.

The housing slump that began among the working class in remote subdivisions and progressed to the suburban middle class is striking the upper class in privileged enclaves like this one in Silicon Valley.

Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.

More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars is seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic. By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lenders. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.