Home sale between family has benefits

Home sale between family has benefits

DEAR BOB: I am buying my first home in the next couple of months from my aunt and mother. They’re inheriting my grandmother’s home, but neither of them wants to keep it. What is the best way to go about this family purchase? –James M.

DEAR JAMES: Your aunt and mother first need to obtain marketable title from your grandmother’s estate. This is very important. The reason is their adjusted cost basis is the home’s market value on the date of grandmother’s death.

If they sell the house to you shortly thereafter, for the same market value, they will owe zero capital gains tax.

Port St. Lucie wrestles with high home prices [South Florida]

Port St. Lucie wrestles with high home prices [South Florida]

With 80 percent of its vast acreage carved up into single-family building lots, Port St. Lucie has served as the affordable-housing mecca for cities from Broward to Indian River counties since it was twinkle in a developer’s eye 46 years ago.

Most of those years, there was no central water and sewer service, only wells and septic tanks that helped keep land prices low. Jobs have always been scarce here, and folks head north or south to find a shopping mall.

So it was a combination of things – both predictable and not – that led to Wednesday’s discussion among city council members: How to help middle-income workers afford homes in a city that former Mayor Bob Minsky once described as a place people moved to when they couldn’t afford to live anywhere else.

Lakeland Facility Sells for $10.4 Mil. [Central Florida]

Lakeland Facility Sells for $10.4 Mil. [Central Florida]

A Houston-based real estate investment trust has acquired a piece of Lakeland Interstate Business Park for $10.4 million.

Weingarten Realty Investors last week finalized its purchase of a 168,400-square-foot distribution facility at the business park, according to a press release. The building, at 2125 Interstate Drive, houses Acuity Brands, Carolina Logistics Services and Sunrise Medical.

The seller, Clearwater’s Meridian Development Group, purchased the facility in August 2005 from Indianapolis-based Duke Realty Corp. for $7.3 million, according to the Lakeland Economic Development Council (LEDC).

“Three million dollars in a year and a half? I’d say that’s a good indicator as far as how real estate values have increased in Lakeland,” said Claudia Tritton, the LEDC’s director of business development.

Rent Now, Sell Later

Rent Now, Sell Later

Local housing market stalled? Consider becoming a temporary landlord.

The slump in home prices coupled with the plethora of For Sale signs add up to a double whammy for anyone who has to sell a home. Richard Rogers, an executive with Travelers Insurance, put his home in Overland Park, Kan., in suburban Kansas City, on the market last summer, when he was transferred to Hartford, Conn. The timing could not have been worse: Home sales were ebbing fast, and his $225,000, four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath house sat for two months with no bites.

That’s when Rogers asked Home Rental Services, a local property-management company, to help him rent the house. Within a few days, the firm had found a doctor who was moving to the city with his family. He signed a two-year lease, with the first year’s rent set at $1,700 per month. Rogers is nearly breaking even on his expenses, including his mortgage payment and the commission the management company charges (10% of the rent). When the lease expires, he will try to sell again.

Vacationers choose homes over hotels

Vacationers choose homes over hotels

More tourists opt for cheaper accommodations in houses and condos.

Some of the hottest vacation accommodations in Central Florida are hiding in plain view, cloaked so completely in the commonplace that they are in a sense invisible.

Thousands of single-family homes, town houses and condominiums clustered in newly built subdivisions near Walt Disney World are in fact vacation homes available for short-term rental. They cater to economy-minded group travelers who can save hundreds of dollars in hotel bills by renting an entire home instead of a number of adjacent rooms.

In the past two decades, vacation rentals have moved from the fringes of the region’s lodging industry to its mainstream. The Central Florida Property Managers Association, which represents rental agencies, estimates that there are now 20,000 to 25,000 rental properties in Polk, Osceola, Orange and Lake counties, most clustered near the theme parks.

Buyers Scarce, Many Condos Are for Rent

Buyers Scarce, Many Condos Are for Rent

David Franco’s illuminated model of a proposed 10-story condominium tower dominates a sales center that, in spite of the “Now Selling” banner still fluttering outside, is conspicuously closed for business.

“We could have waited it out and kept pushing and pushing,” Mr. Franco said about the decision to abandon plans to sell 180 luxury condominiums with floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of the Washington Monument and Capitol Hill. “But it would have taken significantly longer.”

After six weeks of failing to lure more than a couple of dozen buyers, Mr. Franco and his partner, Jeff Blum, joined the builders of nearly 6,000 condominium units in the Washington metropolitan area who have decided in the last three months to recast their projects as rental apartment buildings.