News about properties and real estate
Orange is the only Central Florida county handling foreclosure-auction paperwork in a way that can allow sale prices to be artificially inflated, resulting in higher profits for investors while misleading new buyers and lenders. Officials on Friday were still trying to determine what was in it for the investors, who paid more documentary-stamp taxes on …
Continue reading “Orange foreclosure sales: inflated sales prices”
A South Florida homeowner who alleges the mortgage foreclosure action against him was tainted by fraudulent paperwork will have his case reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court, in a closely watched action that could reshape state law. The 4th District Court of Appeal had asked the state’s high court to decide the case as matter …
Continue reading “Homeowner’s foreclosure case alleging fraud heads to state’s high court”
Like Bird Key in Sarasota Bay, Country Club Shores on Longboat Key was a planned community. Developed during the 1960s by the Arvida Corp. to provide more homes on the water, it was built on dredged land in five phases. There are no through streets, so the neighborhood is quiet — an obvious plus to …
One recent morning, Shannon Moore raced through a musty pink house — three bedrooms, two baths — that was advertised as having “good bones” and “primed for renovation.” As in many recently foreclosed homes in Florida, the appliances and air-conditioner were missing from this one, either taken by the previous residents or stolen. ”It’s not …
Continue reading “A Niche in the Wreckage of Florida Real Estate”
Terry Dykhouse is a tax guy who knows the rules, so based on the first set of rules that rolled out of Washington, he did all he could to close on the purchase of his newly constructed home in Rochester Hills, Mich., by Dec. 31, 2008. He got his tax credit. But if he had …
House prices are still tanking in many parts of the country, mortgage rates are inching up, and job growth is subpar. So what are some homebuyers doing? They’re buying even more home—as in two-, three- and four-family homes—and playing a risky, but potentially lucrative, game of real estate investor and live-in landlord at the same …