Texas Rangers Owner Tom Hicks Sells House in Aspen Area

Texas Rangers Owner Tom Hicks Sells House in Aspen Area

Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks, whose Hicks Sports Group is in default on $525 million of debt, sold his three-acre, Aspen-area estate to Howard M. Jenkins, the former head of the Southeastern Publix Super Markets chain, for $18.5 million.

Besides the baseball team, which Mr. Hicks is in the process of selling to an investor group, his Sports Group owns the NHL’s Dallas Stars. Separately, he owns England’s Liverpool Football Club. The Snowmass Village, Colo., property, with an original $20 million asking price, has a main house and a guest house totaling 11,000 square feet. Mr. Hicks sold the contemporary homes furnished. The ski-in, ski-out property also has a pool, and the two homes share a driveway. The 58-year-old Mr. Jenkins, who has a home for sale in the area, said he plans to use the property as a getaway for his family and friends.

Mr. Hicks bought the property in 1995 for $1.03 million and says he’s selling because his family has been vacationing elsewhere in recent years. Mr. Jenkins, a son of Publix founder George W. Jenkins, still sits on the board of Publix. Chris Lewis of Chaffin Light Real Estate represented Mr. Hicks and George Huggins, also of Chaffin Light, Mr. Jenkins.

Loan-modification hassles frustrate Oregon homeowners

Loan-modification hassles frustrate Oregon homeowners

Lost paperwork, unreturned messages and conflicting information are magnifying the misery of homeowners in distress.

Requests to modify home loans and reduce mortgage payments, relatively uncommon a few years ago, have surged as borrowers struggle to avoid foreclosure. Many people requesting changes in their home loans say they’re getting the runaround from loan servicers — often national banks, who make the day-to-day decisions about modifying loans.

“Most housing counselors and advocates for borrowers will tell you they are submitting documents three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times, and they’re getting lost,” said Diane Thompson, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, a national consumer group.

The slipshod handling of loan modification requests by loan servicers is “endemic across the country,” Thompson said.

Renting out your home for Super Bowl is no sure win

Renting out your home for Super Bowl is no sure win

Renting out your home, timeshare or yacht for the Super Bowl may sound like a way to make a quick buck, but property owners beware: it’s not as easy as it might appear.

Besides advertising on Web sites or elsewhere, owners face a host of tasks: ensuring their condo board or homeowners association allows short-term rentals, screening renters, obtaining a security deposit, removing personal items from the home, stocking up with goods that renters need, setting conditions for use and checking those conditions are met, among others.

“It’s not like lending the house to friends or relatives for a few days,” said Hollywood resident Valerie Galsky, who works year-round on vacation rentals and is offering two properties for the days around the Feb. 7 championship football game. “This is a business.”

About 120,000 visitors are expected in South Florida for the Super Bowl this year, but business conditions have changed radically since the last time the area hosted the game in booming 2007.

Former Naples Realtor sentenced to probation in mortgage scam [South Florida]

Former Naples Realtor sentenced to probation in mortgage scam [South Florida]

A former Naples Realtor has been sentenced to three years of probation and has been ordered to pay nearly $2.4 million in restitution for her role in an $11 million multi-state mortgage scam.

Margaret Giresi, 70, pleaded guilty to conspiracy on Sept. 14 in Vermont. Her sentencing was Monday.

“I wished they would have put her in jail,” said Ron Barakett, a Realtor at Sun Realty in Naples. “I think they need to make an example of her.”

The scheme involved the purchase of at least 50 properties in California, Florida, Kentucky and Vermont. Many of those properties were homes in gated, golf communities off Davis Boulevard in Collier County, including Cedar Hammock and Glen Eagle.

Homeowners responsible for property damages if sinkholes occur

Homeowners responsible for property damages if sinkholes occur

Residents with sinkholes on their property should be aware of several key factors as they seek to recoup their losses, state officials said.

Because of Florida’s geology, more sinkholes form here than in any other state, so a homeowner’s insurance policy covering sinkhole damage is recommended.

And if a sinkhole appears on private property—even if the formation was triggered by outside factors such as drought, new construction, heavy rain or heavy ground-water pumping—the property owner is responsible for the damages and repair, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

State law does not require insurance companies to include sinkhole coverage on new homeowners’ insurance policies, according to the state Department of Financial Services. Insurance companies are required to inform clients that sinkhole coverage is extra, at an additional premium.

Palm Bay Towers residents at war over windows [South Florida]

Palm Bay Towers residents at war over windows [South Florida]

Shortly before the Christmas holidays, residents of Miami’s landmark Palm Bay Towers condo — a bastion of privilege where the monthly maintenance fee exceeds most folks’ mortgage payment — found a letter taped to their doors outlining what one unit owner later called “extremely unpleasant” news:

The city had condemned the building. Water and power would be cut Jan. 3, and the building would be torn down.

“I never had such a fright in my life,” said classical music impresaria Judy Drucker, whose Palm Bay living room holds a Steinway grand concert piano at which stars like Plácido Domingo and Pinchas Zukerman have performed and rehearsed.

The building hasn’t been shut down, though it took an emergency court order and the unusual intervention of the City Commission to override, temporarily, the actions of its own chief building official, who declared the ultra-posh tower unsafe under a law typically used to condemn blighted properties.