Property-tax certificates sell fast on Internet [Central Florida]

Property-tax certificates sell fast on Internet [Central Florida]

More than $14 million worth of unpaid property taxes — the most ever for Lake County — were sold off Friday to investors from across the country.

Lake County Tax Collector Bob McKee auctioned off tax certificates for nearly 6,000 properties that did not make the April 1 deadline. It is the third year that McKee has held the sale on the Internet — a high-tech way to make sure the county gets the money it is owed.

The process is simple. When property owners do not pay taxes, the county sells their tax debt to investors, who charge the owners a percentage of interest until the debt is paid. If the debt is not paid off after two years, the investor can request the property be put up for tax sale.

“It’s an extremely efficient methodology,” McKee said.

An $8 Million Dollar Mess

An $8 Million Dollar Mess

When 94-year-old Theresa Campora Donlon died of natural causes on June 24, 2006, little could she have known that her multimillion-dollar estate would stir up so much drama and whodunit intrigue.

The wide-ranging case touches on allegations of theft, homicide and a deathbed revelation.

Although the estate remains in judicial limbo, Santa Fe First Judicial District Court Judge James Hall last month approved a “partial distribution” of $750,000 from the estate to both the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society and the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis. The two organizations are the chief and equal beneficiaries of Donlon’s estate. Still, both the shelter and the cathedral have been dragged into the controversy.

Renters, too, face mortgage fallout

State: Renters, too, face mortgage fallout

To a family from the concrete canyons of the Bronx, it seemed ideal: a spacious Tampa home with a big back yard for the kids. And it was available for rent with immediate occupancy.

Two months ago, Nikki DuFore and her husband paid the owner $3,000 and settled into the house with their three boys. But their stay may be short-lived. On May 19, they were served with notice that the bank seeks to foreclose because the owner is months behind in his mortgage payments.

“It was a shock,” DuFore said. “We had just moved in, and now we’re already having to look for another place. It’s a big expense right now.”

It used to be that tenants got all the scrutiny, with landlords demanding references, proof of employment and other assurances the rent would be paid.

Hallandale condo worker got hush money, cops say [South Florida]

Hallandale condo worker got hush money, cops say [South Florida]

Three of the men accused of bilking $1.4 million from Hallandale Beach condominium owners paid a building employee $86,000 to keep quiet about the fraud, according to police.

One place allegedly used as a payoff site: the parking lot of a Miami-Dade Wal-Mart.

Valerie Davis, 45, worked for several years as an assistant condo manager at Parker Plaza Estates, 2030 S. Ocean Dr.

Then, according to police, she discovered her boss, Robert Hittner, 59, and three other men were scheming to inflate bids for work and keep the overpayments.

No housing slump in Hamptons

No housing slump in Hamptons

Ron Baron, founder of the investment company bearing his name, didn’t hesitate to pay $103 million for a 40-acre parcel in East Hampton, N.Y. It is the record for a residential property in the U.S. and just a little less than double the annual compensation of some of his neighbors.

House prices in the beach retreat that Steven Spielberg shares with billionaire investor Thomas H. Lee rose 14 percent during the first quarter, even as the national median fell. The Hamptons, former potato farms where seagull cries now mix with the sounds of well-tuned Ferraris, is boosted by salaries on Wall Street, 40 minutes away by helicopter, said Diane Saatchi, a broker at Corcoran Group in East Hampton.

“People have made an incredible amount of money on Wall Street over the last few years,” said Saatchi, who started selling real estate in the Hamptons 19 years ago. “For them, spending millions on a summer home to be near their friends isn’t a big deal.”

Wealthy New Yorkers trade their Manhattan apartments for summertime houses in the dozen hamlets of East Hampton and Southampton to maintain their social standing, said George Simpson, president of Suffolk Research Service Inc., a real estate records company based in Southampton.

Tampa tower loses Trump

Tampa tower loses Trump

Trump Tower Tampa has lost its biggest asset: the Trump name itself.

New York tycoon Donald Trump has terminated his contract with SimDag, the Tampa development team behind the proposed $300-million condo tower long touted as west Florida’s tallest and most luxurious.

Trump’s defection could be fatal to a project launched with fanfare in February 2005 but pelted with construction liens and lawsuits as the housing market soured.

Trump-branded towers are under construction or already built in cities ranging from Chicago and New York to Miami and Las Vegas, but in the end Tampa apparently didn’t have the right stuff.