Last night shuttle launch

We took this picture last night during an open house at the historical home we have listed on the Indian River in Titusville. It is amazing that during the early 1900’s people used to gather in the back yard to watch riverboats now they gather to watch the shuttle.

No new activity to report in our 3 complexes for the last week.

One of the problems that are facing condo associations in today’s market are short sales and foreclosures. Usually for a successful short sale to occur the owner has to be behind in their mortgage payments, this usually means they have also stopped paying their fees. It goes without saying that when a foreclosure occurs the owners are not paying their fees. I don’t see this problem in our complexes but it is especially prevalent in new complexes bought recently in the escalated market. Of course the south Florida market is overwhelmed with this problem. Locally you are seeing a lot of associations cutting back on services or raising monthly dues. Again I don’t see this happening in our associations.

By Florida law when a lender forecloses on a condominium the lender is responsible for paying the monthly fees. When a foreclosed unit is sold the lender is responsible for the immediate 6 months previous to closing of unpaid dues or 1% of the original mortgage amount whatever is less. Now in real life we are seeing the banks simply not paying so there will have to be an attorney involved.

Florida law also states that the previous owner and the new owner of a sold foreclosed unit are jointly and severally liable for all unpaid fees and liens are allowed to be placed on the unit if the past dues are not paid 30 days after closing. Now I think you would have to look at this in a business point of view. Does the association block the contract and still not have anyone paying the fees or do you go ahead and write off the loss and get someone in the unit who will pay the dues.

Hope this is not too complicated and we should be grateful where we own condos.

Jim Bagwell