The Great Condo Escape Clause

The Great Condo Escape Clause

Rather than close on condos that are worth less than the purchase price, some investor are turning to the courts to get out of their contracts.

Destin real estate attorney Craig Tingle told The Log that while he has seen some local efforts to get out of condo purchases with a lawsuit, “there’s significantly less than it has been in South Florida, particularly Miami, where they had a huge condominium boom. Most of the condominiums didn’t go through (and) in some cases that down payment had already been spent.”

Florida condominium prices have dropped 22 percent since 2005, according to the Wall Street Journal, and haven’t bottomed out yet.

That gives buyers — particular investors who hoped to profit from a quick resale — an incentive to wriggle out of the deal rather than close on the condo or walk away from their deposit. The Journal says the courts haven’t been sympathetic.

Celebrities among those bilked by Houston lawyer’s scam

Celebrities among those bilked by Houston lawyer’s scam

A case including celebrities such as Tiger Woods and Chuck Norris, plus a $29,000 Rolex watch and the complexity of consolidated subprime mortgage investments ended in Houston on Tuesday with a 22-count guilty verdict against a Houston lawyer.

Ted Russell Schwartz Murray, owner of Premiere Holdings real estate investments, was found guilty by a jury in U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore’s court of conspiracy, fraud and filing false tax returns.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cedric Joubert told jurors that Murray and his two co-defendants, who entered into plea bargains and testified against him, stole $67 million from wealthy investors including Norris, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, retired baseball player Vince Coleman and others.

Murray and his co-conspirators promised investors high interest, low fees and quick cashouts, but instead stole most of their money, the prosecutor said.

Trashed homes part of foreclosure crisis

Trashed homes part of foreclosure crisis

Mounting foreclosures have created a cottage industry in Lee County: the trashout business.

Here’s how it works:

When a lender takes back a home in foreclosure, or a landlord kicks out a recalcitrant tenant, the trashout specialists are called in to clean up their mess.
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Jillian Miller, a real estate agent with Century 21 Sunbelt in Cape Coral, said when a lender retains her to sell a house, she typically has 48 hours to change the lock and a week to get an estimate on what the house would sell for in 30 days or less.

Strategy to stave off foreclosure falls short

Strategy to stave off foreclosure falls short

More than 7,000 homeowners facing foreclosure in the Valley are trying to sell their homes through a process known as a short sale, according to Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service data.

But less than 5 percent manage to sell before lenders seize their houses.

The failure by banks and homeowners to agree to a short sale – to sell a home for less than the amount still owed on the mortgage – is adding to the Valley’s growing foreclosure problem.

And the government’s recent financial-bailout package to help alleviate the nation’s housing crisis will do little to address the problem of short

Vultures in Miami’s Real Estate Market [South Florida]

Vultures in Miami’s Real Estate Market [South Florida]

On the 79th Street Causeway that connects inner Miami to the city’s beaches, a colony of giant turkey vultures sits ominously on a radio tower, staring at the downtown skyline. Migratory scavengers, they’re drawn to tall buildings.

Across the bay, vulture investors, that other breed of migratory scavenger, are feasting. South Florida is in the throes of a truly hellish real estate bust. Home prices are down 24% in the past year, with many places changing hands for less than half their height-of-bubble values. The region has seen foreclosures on more than $14.2 billion worth of property this year—a record. Developers can’t sell enough units to pay construction loans. Condo boards are trying to keep the stairwells of their half-empty buildings clear of vagrants. Landlords are renting out units at daily rates to makers of porn films.

The bleak tableau is exactly what vulture investors have been waiting for. Having sat out the bubble, they’re flocking to the Magic City to make lowball, often all-cash offers for numerous properties at once. Some members of this motley assortment of foreign professionals, U.S. money managers, and retired corporate executives learned how to prey by picking through the detritus of the U.S. savings and loan bust. Others earned their stripes in emerging- market financial crises. They differ in their tactics; what unites them is their absolute insistence on paying bottom dollar.