CBS is coming to Panama City Beach

Bay County television viewers have never had a local CBS station. The cable and satellite providers use CBS affiliates from NYC or Dothan to complete their lineup of over the air stations. The new station will be on Channel 18 with call letters of WECP and available this September.

Gray Television is adding CBS affiliates in Harrisonburg, Parkersburg and Panama City. Gray already owns the channel 7 WJHG NBC affiliate and they will share studios at 8195 Front Beach Road, Panama City Beach.

Details at:
http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/CBS_Television_Station_Coming_to_Panama_City_Market_162730006.html

#610 Sets Record Low Asking Price

Remember unit #610?  That is the old David Ellingson unit.  A 3/2, 2nd floor end unit with a courtyard view.  (MLS#: 506123)

It was put up for sale by BAC HOME LOANS SERVICING for $74,900 which was pretty much expected for a foreclosed unit as they have been selling between 40-50% of their original sale prices.

So $74,900, with the O.S.P. of $178,200 purchased on 11/21/06 wasn't all that bad, even though Ellingson probably overpiad initially by about 10k. 

Well it didn't sell after 84 days, so now the price has been reduced a further 14%, to $64,000 and that is a record setting 35.9% of the original sale price. 

Original Owners who want to sell out have no chance against those foreclosed units that are going so cheaply.  No Owner would want to sell their unit for 35% of what they paid but the banks and mortgage companies just don't want to keep these units and will take the loss just to get them off the books.  Good news for the new Owner (it will sell quickly) but bad news for those of us who would just like to sell and leave.

Price History

DATE	DAYS AGO	EVENT	NEW PRICE
Jul 25, 2012	0 days ago	Price Reduced: -$10,900 (-14.55%)	$64,000
May 2, 2012	84 days ago	New on market	$74,900

GEORGEKOPOULOS' units at NCC

It isn't much of a surprise that the 5 Georgekopoulos units have popped up on the 'For Sale' list, at least not considering the serious legal problems that they found themselves in back in Ohio. 
For Ohio arrest information see:   http://georgekopoulos.blogspot.com  The units available are:  #106 $113,500, #205 $99,500, #210 $103,000, #502 $95,000 and #513 at $95,000.  All are considerably overpriced considering the depressed market here at NCC. 

For instance #515 has just been acquired from BOA for $67,000 so asking $95,000 for the two 2/2's from the Georgekopoulos' is not going to result in any quick sales.

I suspect that they will knock them down over the next few weeks so as to get them sold before the Feds grab them.  Bond for each is $350,000.

Previously posted info:  Georgekopolus Media reports from Ohio are: 
"Four Akron-area men are among 10 indicted Thursday in Cuyahoga ... by George Georgekopoulos, 37, of Hinckley; Pete Georgekopoulos, 39, ... " details at:  http://georgekopoulos.blogspot.com/ and
http://tinyurl.com/6q84wbn and http://tinyurl.com/86b5o5j
5 Recent NCC purchases at by the Georgekopolus's are below, now all are for sale as is a house in Lynn Haven:

502 (2/2) purchased by Ted G for $65,000 on 5/06/11 (orig price $160,000 7/07)
205 (3/2) purchased by Ted G for $69,500 on 1/18/12 (orig price $159,900 11/06)
106 (4/3) purchased by Ted G for $83,500 on 2/16/12 (orig price $193,900 11/06)
210 (3/2) purchased by George G $73,000 on 5/6/11 (orig price $179,900 5/07)
513 (2/2) purchased by Elite Enterprises Pete G for $65,000 on 3/20/12 (orig price $152,900 2/07

Also for sale is: 401 Missouri Avenue, Lynn Haven, FL 32444 Ted G MLS #:506998 $139,900
(the bulk of the purchases are for Freddy and Fanny foreclosures) )

What has sold so far this year?

SOLD:  #403 for 80K and #405 for 87K.  

Both are 4/3 foreclosures.  Info on buyers is known but will be available on site when Bay County publishes the new owner info, usually that takes 6 weeks from time the documents are signed.  Both new Owners got the usual good deals available when buying foreclosures.  Sales of non-foreclosed units are nil and probably will remain so as long as foreclosures can be picked up for 40-50% or original sale prices.

307 Lighthouse Rd (was Cahours, then Fannie Mae)
bedrooms:  3,  bathrooms:  3
(Sold for  $101,803)

403 Cape Cod Dr (was Diniz, now HSBC Bank - short sale)
bedrooms: 4, bathrooms: 3
MLS: #505887, Priced $180,000 on 4/24, Priced now: $90,000 down from $105,000
(SOLD $80K)

405 Cape Cod Dr (was Kennedy, now Fannie Mae)
bedrooms: 4, bathrooms, 3
MLS: #xxxxx, Price $80,000 as of 5/15/12 ( SOLD 87K)

Q) How many Owners actually live on the property?
A) Not many (about 16%).
As of 4/9/12 of the 168 units only 27 have Homestead Exemptions (HE's) so the stats on that show an Owner Occupancy figure to be 16%. 

This isn't absolute of course, there are 2 Owners showing with a HE that are being foreclosed on and are gone from the property but balancing it out with other 'new' Owners whose HE's haven't had time to come into effect.  So 16% Owner occupancy is probably pretty close to correct.

We are about 80% rentals, 16% Owner Occupied and 4% empty (mostly foreclosed and awaiting sale).

Note:  of the 80% rentals, 33% are accounted for by the 56 Developer units and the other 47% are rentals by Owners.

There is a growing trend for buyers to pick up bank foreclosures/short sales at rock bottom prices and then rent them out as income producing properties.  This works out fine if you purchase at 45-50% of the original sale price and you can make some money renting out such units.  It dosen't work out nearly as well for those owners who paid full price before the housing bubble burst.  The $800-1,000 they bring in monthly might not even be enough to pay the mortgage each month, let alone the condo fees, taxes and insurance.

So those who purchased here thinking they would be living in a community of other owners and enjoying retirement have found that they are owners in an apartment complex.  Not really what they had in mind in 2005-08 when they decided to buy here.  New owners will continue to replace old owners and the complex will probably continue to be about 80% rentals. 

NCC Fining Information FYI:

On May 30th a 5 page letter went out and much of it had to do with association fines against Owners.  This can be a complex issue and Owners may wish to do some research on the topic, plus of course, consulting our own documents on the topic (ie:  Declaration of Condominium at p. 37 "Fines" http://tinyurl.com/7mkbshl and By-Laws at 5.(m)). 

Generally outside courts will not interfere with such condo fining if the Owner has had benefit of 'due process' (something else for you to look up!). 
See Letter at: http://tinyurl.com/66zdaor  

Below is a small extract from the site  which has additional information you might want to consult or bookmark in case you need it later: http://tinyurl.com/786h3h4

"If the board indeed has the power to impose fines, it must establish a separate (fining) committee.

The committee must consist of at least 3 owners who are not board members, not related to board members and do not live in the same household as a board member. Then, before any fine may be imposed, the Board must provide the offending owner with reasonable advance notice (i.e. 14 days) of the date, time and location for the owner to appear before the fining committee.

The offending owner must be given the opportunity to explain to the committee why a fine should not be levied. If the fining committee determines not to impose a fine, no fine may be imposed. The Board cannot overrule the fining committee and levy a fine where the committee votes not to impose a fine.

Even if the committee votes to fine an offending owner, the fine cannot exceed $100.00 per day for a continuing violation and no fine in a condominium may exceed $1,000.00 for any single violation."