R-G Crown sorts out mess over developer [Central Florida]

R-G Crown sorts out mess over developer [Central Florida]

The Casselberry-based thrift lent millions to Barrington Homes’ would-be home buyers.

R-G Crown Bank, one of the region’s fastest-growing financial institutions, has become ensnared by the problems of an Orlando home-building company whose former chief executive faces money-laundering charges.

The Casselberry-based thrift has loaned millions of dollars during the past year to would-be home buyers who hired Barrington Homes Inc. to build houses for them in three subdivisions the company was developing in the Apopka area.

Do Your Numbers and Think… Should I Buy a Miami Beach Condominium to Flip It?

Do Your Numbers and Think… Should I Buy a Miami Beach Condominium to Flip It?

Question: Should I buy a condominium to flip in a couple years?

Pre-building cost of a unit $300,000. Down payment is 10% or $30,000. If the unit is not completed for 6 months and the $30,000 was in a 3-month certificate of deposit earning 4%, the cost for resting the $30,000 with the developer is $600.00.

So here comes the closing and the developer has a restriction that you cannot flip the unit until a certain percentage of new units are sold or perhaps for 24 months following the closing.

Why you should (and shouldn’t) pay off your mortgage

Why you should (and shouldn’t) pay off your mortgage

The question comes to investment adviser Jim Miller in various guises, but it comes frequently and it boils down to this: Is money better used to pay down debts or to build an investment nest egg?

Most often the inquiry involves a home mortgage. The other day, Mr. Miller says, it involved a pickup truck.

Old loan, new interest

Old loan, new interest

Driven by capital-gains rules and soaring home appreciation, the appeal is growing for ‘owner- carry’ mortgages.

Seller financing, once used to attract buyers forced out of the market by high interest rates on conventional loans, may be making a comeback thanks to California’s handsomely appreciated market and the ceiling on tax-free home-sale profits.

“Owner-carry loans” or “take-back loans” — in which the seller holds the mortgage for an agreed-upon interest rate and period of time — gained popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s when rates were in the double digits.

Buy now, pay later

Buy now, pay later

Mortgage lenders are offering all sorts of exotic mortgages that can help lower monthly payments, but might prove risky if home prices fall and interest rates rise.

There’s probably a mortgage out there to meet the needs of anyone who is looking to buy a house.

Want a low monthly payment? There are mortgages that allow you to pay only the interest on the loan for the first few years. For some loans, you don’t have to make a down payment or prove your income.

Why 50-year mortgages are a ‘Stupid Investment’

Why 50-year mortgages are a ‘Stupid Investment’

Take the worst problems of one stupid investment and mix it with the biggest concerns of another and you wind up with a Stupid Investment of the Week to the second power.

And that’s precisely what you will get if you fall for a 50-year mortgage, a relatively new product that is starting to make in-roads in the mortgage market, particularly in hot real estate markets like California.

Stupid Investment of the Week highlights the problems that make an investment less than ideal for the average consumer, in the hope that pointing out trouble spots in one situation will make them easier to find elsewhere. While obviously not a purchase recommendation, neither is this column meant to be an automatic sell signal, as there are times when getting out of a worrisome situation simply compounds the problem.