The new Historic Neighborhood "investor"

[Springfield Chicken]

Okay, there are close to 20 Watson offices in the Jacksonville area, and this agent is not associated with me or my office.  And to be clear, Watson did not buy ANY SRG inventory.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  We did list the remaining inventory houses he had left and I think we sold the last one today.  We also have a lot of SRG lots listed as well as some commercial parcels.

I have no idea what this agent's plans are with the house.  I looked today in the tax records and that didn't explain anything.  I see that the signs are down so maybe he already flipped it.  Got no idea.  I'm in the dark on this one too.

[JaxResident]

Some of this stuff does appear to call into question what exactly is going on with many of the properties in Springfield and throughout Jax.

The realty sign out front of this property was removed last week and the overgrown grass cut.

The house was sold from Suntrust MTG to Corner Lot Properties LLC and they sold it to another buyer (Kyle Passkiewicz). It just seems strange that the person who bought the property just happens to be the same individual (in this case a Realtor) whose name and phone number were out hanging from a Watson Realty sign in front of the house less than a week ago.

Corner Lot Properties LLC paid $30K for the property. The Realtor paid $33K for it from Corner Lot.

Time will tell if the house will end back up on the RE market at a higher list price as a flip or if the new owner will renovate, fix or restore the property. 

The focus should be in continuing to make Springfield a desirable and affordable neighborhood. It has so much to offer as an intricate part of Jacksonville as a whole. Appreciation and respect of Springfield's incredible history and fantastic architecture should be a priority for the leaders and residents' of our city. Much emphasis should be directed to Springfield by city leaders as a place to live, invest in home ownership and the starting of new businesses.

[CS Foltz]

Springfield Chicken..........I am confused! Word that I had was SRG had a fire sale due to financial issue's and that some Watson Realty office bought them (refering to the renovated/newly rebuilt & new) I was told basically the same thing by 3 different people.............one was a realator, the other two were not connected with real estate, but the City. I do know that SRG is not in operation at the pace they were before they kinda left Springfield, do know they are still around.............I personnaly saw an SRG vehicle, towing an SRG Box Trailer and they disappeared crossing Walnut and going south on Ionia to somewhere. I do know there are still SRG lots available in a two block radius  from Three Layers and there are others available also! I hope Mr Passkiewicz is planning on renovating but don't know much of anything for sure!

[uptowngirl]

Suntrust got ripped off.

[Miss Fixit]

Suntrust got ripped off.

Yes, they did, which means their individual shareholders were ripped off and - given the bank bailouts (although I'm not sure how much $ Suntrust received, if any) so did all of us.

I am going to contact Suntrust's REO department and ask them to take a look at this transaction and consider hiring a more ethical (and competent) realtor - someone like Springfield Chicken!

[sheclown]

^good idea.

[iloveionia]

CS.
The box truck you saw cares for the empty lots, lawn equipment is inside.  The gentleman who mows, does so for 140 lots.  So he told me when I asked in August.

[Springfield Girl]

Nicole is right about the lawn care. The numbers are too high though. SRG has less than 100 lots. There is a map at the SRG office and model home showing the properties they own if anyone wants to look.

[Springfield Chicken]

This is a tough market for builders right now.  Costs to build have not dropped.  Labor and materials still cost a lot.  Unless you are a volume builder like some of the national ones, it is difficult to build and able to turn a profit.  When we listed the inventory of SRG homes several months ago none of us knew the market would continue to drop as much as it has.  So SRG has made the decision to sell the homes it had in inventory for prices that the current market dictates.  They have no current plans to build anything new in Springfield right now so like everyone else they are tightening their belts and riding out this economy.

[iloveionia]

And thankfully, they are responsibily tending to their empty lots. 

[samiam]

The buying of houses by investors and reselling them without doing anything to them has been going on in springfield for years (pre 2005) There was a house close to mine that was selling in 2005 for $160,000 then purchased by anouther investor it was $240,000 in 2008. The investor lost the house and it was $16,000 in 2009. new investor purchased and it was $24,000. so on and so on. In all this time no work has been done on the house.

[CS Foltz]

samiam.......Historical Districts appear to draw investors like flies! Everyone wants to make a buck and could care less about the fabric of any neighborhood and what the heck happens to people who live in that area! Buy cheap and sell high is the mantra and I can understand that, don't have to agree with it though! I do agree with SRG taking care of their empty lots............should be real quick to do, but if not I'm sure Code Enforcement will get that phone call.............after all, turnabout is fair play!

[uptowngirl]

The buying of houses by investors and reselling them without doing anything to them has been going on in springfield for years (pre 2005) There was a house close to mine that was selling in 2005 for $160,000 then purchased by anouther investor it was $240,000 in 2008. The investor lost the house and it was $16,000 in 2009. new investor purchased and it was $24,000. so on and so on. In all this time no work has been done on the house.

And ther eis not much anyone can do in the legal sense, except what some have mentioned here- contacting the offices of said realtors to make it clear we are watching, contact the licensing board to complain about "fishy sales", and contact banks who are gettign ripped off (as Ms. Fixit so clearly stated this is our money too!). Make it at least uncomfortable to do this type of business in our neighborhood!

[iloveionia]

A Realtor can be subject to fines and license revocation is found to break their fiduciary duties.