Edgefield estate to be put on the auction block [Bluffton SC]

Edgefield estate to be put on the auction block [Bluffton SC]

A prime piece of real estate along Broad Creek on Hilton Head Island will be on the auction block next week with a price tag starting at $9.5 million.

A 16-acre parcel and a 27-unit unfinished condominium building at Edgewater on Broad Creek on Marshland Road are up for sale because the developer of the project has gone bankrupt.

Attempts in November to sell the bankrupt property on the real estate market for $13.5 million failed, said Alex Graham, a senior adviser with Sperry Van Ness Commercial Properties, which is selling the land.

Town records show that the development company, Broad Creek Edgewater LP, received a building permit in September 2005. Construction stopped in 2006, according to Sperry Van Ness. Edgewater filed for bankruptcy in May 2007.

Elder Law: Investors beware deficiency judgment

Banks still want money in foreclosures

Twice a year, Jim Applegate, Certified Financial Planner, organizes 16 financial planners in two shifts to sit from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at The News-Press headquarters in Fort Myers, using its phone lines to randomly rotate financial planning questions called in by our readers.

As I have mentioned in past articles, these volunteers do not solicit your business, but help provide a brief general answer to your question to help educate you about your financial choices. Under the CFP rules of ethics, they cannot provide you with a specific investment recommendation, because they do not know your background, your risk profile, or other specific financial investments you own.

When a caller asks legal questions, the financial planner usually refers the call to either me, in the afternoon, or to attorney Wendy Morris in the morning. Most of the calls I received seem to generate from the poor economy. One caller I spoke to raised an interesting question, which I told her I would try to address in more detail in my next column.

A Way Out of That House

A Way Out of That House

Heading toward Christmas of 2006, Tim Knopf knew he was in trouble on the mortgage he was paying to a long-distance lender.

He had just refinanced his Palmetto home for $279,000, setting himself up with a monthly payment that would start out tough before getting tougher.

Then he lost his job.

That started a yearlong marathon effort to avoid foreclosure by convincing the lender, Option One of Irvine, Calif., to take a loss on the loan it had made to him.

Real Estate Transactions for Non-Profits Can Be Daunting

Real Estate Transactions for Non-Profits Can Be Daunting

The sale of a church building is not like other commercial transactions.

“Although we have to follow the same legal guidelines and regulations as any commercial property for office or industrial use, non-profits also have to have IRS approval. They have to have their 501(c)(3) documentation. The government requires many reports and more data necessary for the sale to be able to go through,” he said.

“There are so many requirements,” said, citing fire department and building and safety issues.

Uncertainty figures into forecast for Denver commercial real estate

Uncertainty figures into forecast for Denver commercial real estate

This year appears to be one of uncertainty for commercial real estate in metro Denver, according to a new report by CB Richard Ellis Inc.’s Denver office.

Volatile capital markets, tougher lending standards and 2008 being a presidential election year are among the trends that will effect real estate this year.

But even though sales of commercial properties won’t be as robust as those of recent years, sales volume “should pick up again, as investors get comfortable with more conservative underwriting and pricing,” the report said.

The metro area’s economic stability, relative to the rest of the country’s, also will be a plus for investors this year. An estimated 100,000 people will be added to the Colorado population in 2008, helping to cause a 1.9 percent boost in non-farm jobs.

Alberta real estate sales increased in 2007 [Canada]

Alberta real estate sales increased in 2007 [Canada]

Alberta ended 2007 with $25.5 billion in residential MLS sales, up 19.9 per cent compared with 2006, according to a report released Monday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The report also said that overall sales were down by 3.9 per cent last year from a year ago to 71,430 units but the average sale price increased by 24.8 per cent to $356,235. New listings also had a 32.9 per cent hike for the year to 124,933.

In December, though, the real estate market dipped in Alberta. Total dollar volume was down 15.6 per cent compared with December 2006 to $1.1 billion and total sales were off 24.3 per cent to 3,049 units. The average sale price, however, increased by 11.5 per cent to $354,290 while new listings also increased by 16.1 per cent to 4,192 units.

CREA said national MLS resale housing activity, new listings, average price and dollar volume all reached their highest annual levels ever in 2007. Annual sales activity totaled 520,747 units in 2007, up 7.6 per cent from 2006 levels. This was the largest annual sales growth since 2002, and the first time transactions via the MLS systems of real estate boards in Canada have surpassed 500,000 units sold in one year.