News About Properties

Professional investors move into flipping foreclosed homes

Hoping there are big profits to be made in the aftermath of California’s housing collapse, professional investors are flocking to the business of buying foreclosed homes at distressed prices.

The investors, primarily private equity funds and groups of wealthy individuals, purchase the homes at public auctions, which are held daily on the steps of local courthouses. They refurbish the properties and try to sell them for quick profits.

Not long ago, the typical home flipper was an amateur tapping a home equity line or savings for an investment property. But professionals have rushed in, partly because of sparse investment opportunities elsewhere.

Pinnacle’s real estate fallout

When Pinnacle Financial Partners got started 10 years ago, the bank’s executives, who had survived many a past real estate collapse, pledged to focus lending on business and industry — not real estate development.

Now, the bank is beset by loan problems linked to real estate and homebuilding plans gone awry across Middle Tennessee, quite the opposite of its original goals.

This much seems clear: A series of acquisitions of suburban banks in the past few years shifted a larger concentration of the bank’s loans into real estate development in fast-growing areas around Nashville, leading to questions about how smart its bank purchases truly were.

The fallout has been severe.

Developer’s Money Woes Evident in Bartow Foreclosure Sale [Central Florida]

An anchor building in downtown Bartow is going on the auction block Tuesday in a foreclosure sale, reflecting the financial nightmare plaguing Lakeland developer Jose Reynoso.

He paid $380,000 for the Berkowitz building at 415 E. Main St. in 2006, and spent thousands of dollars renovating it for offices and retail shops.

He bought four more downtown buildings soon after that and funneled more money into those renovations.

As recently as December, he bought two acres of vacant land along U.S. 17 south of Hooker Street in East Bartow for $195,000, and he signed leases with options to purchase two more downtown buildings.

Property tax appeals: South Florida property tax appeals on a blistering pace

The annual tax notices going out this month will bring a double whammy of bad news for many Florida property owners — lower values and higher taxes.

But a small minority will get a break by challenging the county’s value of their homes, businesses and land.

Tax appeals have been pouring into government offices throughout Florida, fueled by the real estate boom and crash and a highly profitable cottage industry of tax representatives. So far this year, Broward and Palm Beach counties have reduced property values by more than $2.5 billion as a result of appeals.

Condo Buying Checklist

A condominium is not homeownership in the truest sense. When you buy a condo, you own only what is inside the walls of your unit. Outside of those walls, the residents of the complex share ownership in a cooperative bound by a contract. That cooperative can be an advantage of buying into a condo. But, there are areas you must explore to your satisfaction before you make your purchase.

When you buy a condo, you buy into an investment shared by all of the residents of the complex. That relationship is cemented by the CC&R–the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions. The CC&R governs just about everything in the complex, including whether you can have pets, whether you can paint your condo different colors and when you can have parties. Every condo complex has a group that enforces the CC&Rs, so it’s a good idea to review the document thoroughly before signing it. Once you do, there’s no turning back. You’re bound by that document.

Lee County first in line for housing help [South Florida]

Three housing counseling agencies have been chosen to implement the pilot Florida Hardest-Hit program being offered in Lee County - $23 million is available to help about 1,200 homeowners.

County residents will have first crack at assistance because of the pilot program, according to a release from the Florida Housing Finance Corp., which is coordinating Hardest-Hit statewide.

Lee residents will be able to get help for 90 days starting Aug. 23 and the rest of the state will have access after that.

But homeowners having trouble with their mortgages don’t have to wait for the program to start, said Eddie Felton, executive director of the Fort Myers-based Home Ownership Resource Center, one of the three agencies providing help locally.