News About Properties

Flipped in Florida — Selling in a Housing Bust

There’s something about Florida residential real estate that attracts speculators like an alligator to an easy meal.

Abundant sunshine has been known to distort investors’ perception of the laws of economics from the 1890s to the present. With tens of thousands of properties languishing on the market, the quick profits seem to have evaporated.

The experience of Beth and Fabrizio Faieta, who have bought five homes in the Fort Myers-Naples area over the past few years, provides a tale of what happens when home prices sour.

The Faietas aren’t your typical Florida “flippers” who had hoped to buy and sell properties within six months of purchase, though. They said their holdings were intended to be long-term investments. Yet as the market stalled, buyers were scarce and expenses rose, and they were forced to sell.

Creditors left in the lurch

In the midst of an overheated market — where banks were hungry to make lucrative loan deals and many investors thought there was no direction except up for real estate values — a pair of developers went to work on Manatee County’s barrier islands.

Steve Noriega, 56, and Robert Byrne, 51, had a vision for taking laid-back, beachfront properties to the next level of luxury and sophistication. They convinced more than 30 individuals and 20 banks to help them pull it off.

All told, Noriega and Byrne borrowed $43 million, using $26 million of it to buy two dozen properties from Anna Maria Island to northern Longboat Key. They then submitted plans to build 33 condo units and 15 homes.

Five years later, all they have to show for their grand vision is a partially constructed luxury home, four duplex apartments, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing citing $33 million in unpaid debts and a collection of angry investors.

Staying ahead of home market means going overseas

David Omler is helping to incite a British invasion of a profitable kind.

The owner of Paradise Properties in Satellite Beach, Omler is targeting foreign buyers — particularly sunshine-hungry, palm-starved Brits — for his portfolio of high-end Brevard County properties.

“The market is changing fast, and you have to stay ahead of the market,” Omler said. “With the prices of real estate in Brevard County, you have to be able to go globally to market properties.”

Omler works with Christie’s Great Estates, Mayfair International and Residence International to achieve international exposure for luxury listings, such as his $1,999,000 2007 Parade of Homes winner on Indian River Drive in Cocoa and the $3 million-plus properties he is handling at boat access-only Grant Island in South Brevard.