Riviera riverfront condos for as little as $145,000

Bargain hunters picked up riverfront condos for as little as $145,000 Saturday during an auction of 62 units at the 27-story Riviera towers.
More than 400 people streamed into Harborside Event Center for the auction. The ones who planned to bid carried a $10,000 check for each unit they hoped to win, needed to qualify as bidder.
Homes for America Inc. held the auction at the request of lenders, to stimulate sales at the Riviera, a three-tower project east of the Caloosahatchee Bridge. Previous sales at the Riviera sold 94 of its 160 units. Prices ranged from $179,000 to $325,000. Units originally sold for $450,000 to $600,000.
Jack and Rise' Gian of the River Forest community in Lee County came to bid for a unit.
"We would be investors," Jack Gian said.
They expected the cost of a unit to exceed their bid.
"The maintenance fees, taxes and holding costs are going to be the downside," Jack Gian said.
Getting tenants into the Riviera will help downtown Fort Myers, where officials have done a "beautiful job" of making improvements, Jack Gian said.
The auction was one of the largest of its kind in Lee County since January 2007, when more than 300 packed into what was then the Holiday Inn Select at the Bell Tower to bid on 120 homes and commercial property.
Property values, which rose sharply in 2005, have slowed dramatically since. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median sales price of an existing home in the first quarter this year was $87,300, down 59 percent from $213,200 in the first quarter of 2008.
The median condo price also fell to $147,000 at around the start of the year, down 24 percent from December 2007.
Lamar Fisher, president and CEO of Fisher Auction Co., Inc. told those at Harborside they had to be the highest bidder in each round of bidding to get a unit. The auction started shortly after 11 a.m. with people seated in a room in front of two big screens. A slide show of the Riviera flashed on the screens. Later, one screen showed bids called in from as far away as Singapore. The other showed the list of units still available.
The first round was won with a bid of $250,000. But bids went down from there until they reached the $140,000 range more than halfway through the event.
Ken and Isa Joseph of Plantation were successful and selected a condo on the 20th floor.
They declined to be specific about their bid, but said it was within their budget.
"Right now it's going to be a weekend kind of place," Isa Joseph said. "Eventually we might move here."
The couple have family in Southwest Florida and enjoy the smaller population of the area compared with their east coast home, they said.
Not all were at the auction to bid.
"This is one of the greatest marketing tools Realtors have if they would use it," said Anthony House of Keller Williams Real Estate in West Palm Beach. "People who come to these auctions come with a check in hand."
House said he often attends auctions, which are becoming more frequent, to see what happens and how successful they are so he can better advise his own clients.


Home ownership has always been considered a residence and an investment in one's future. I am, with any luck within 10 years of retirement.. I can't afford to put out $1500. per month into something that won't pay off. Mortgage companies need to realize that it doesn't make sense. If they won't work with us we have to walk away now. If the mortgage company will accept a fraction of the mortgage on a short sale to a bargain hunter or an investor, why won't they rewrite the mortgage so it is affordable to the current occupant/owner!

wrong. Say a buyer had put up $100k in deposits on a unit with a price of 600k then when the market was falling elected to walk away from the deposit. Same unit goes to auction and they buy it for 250k, they save 150k from what they originally contracted to pay, and still own a great piece of real estate....cha-chang!

if they're paying cash. you walk away from any deal and there are ramifications. sometimes if you are being sued, you can't get a home loan. bottom line, these are super deals. there are condos like these on the dirty ohio river that are still selling for minimum of 500,000 and there is no boat dock or outdoor swimming pool and the location is worse than downtown ft. myers. does anyone know what the sq.ft. of the smallest unit is? also, what are the fees cost? maybe if i were in town, i would have bought one.