Fox and Friends Interview - News

Richard Swerdlow as interviewed on Fox and Friends, Sunday morning August 19, 2007 - Fox and Friends Interview with Richard Swerdlow on the condo market. Watch the Video

The Real Deal - Debating a rising dollar's effect on South Florida

July 01, 2008

The dollar is coming off its most significant rally in the past several months against the euro.

Still, the long-term prospects for the U.S. dollar are good, as a weak dollar is negatively impacting much of the world's trade and steps are being considered to stimulate the greenback.

How would a rising dollar impact the South Florida real estate market? Real estate professionals have mixed impressions.

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KION AM - Real Estate Overview

May 26, 2008

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GlobeSt.com - Condo.com Forms New Division to Assist Lenders

May 27, 2008

MIAMI-Condo.com, an online marketplace that lists over 600,000 condos, has formed a financial institution brokerage and marketing division in an effort to assist lenders with asset management and dispositions. The site will reach out to institutional owners and lenders through its new institutional services group led by James L. Fried, president of Miami-based Sandstone Realty Advisors.

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The Real Deal - Condo.com launches division to service struggling lenders

May 23, 2008

With South Florida's condominium market in sharp decline, the local industry is looking for a new angle on sales. Condo.com, a condominium marketplace with inventory listings valued at more than $150 billion, is stepping up with a new scheme it hopes will spark new deals in this ailing market.

Condo.com has formed a financial institutional brokerage and marketing division to assist struggling lenders with asset management and dispositions. The new division promises institutional lenders a range of services, including asset preservation, pre-foreclosure evaluations, project repositioning, asset and property management and financial restructuring services.

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Daily Business Review - Community Banks: Foreclosures

May 08, 2008

Richard Swerdlow, founder and chief executive of Condo.com, an online clearinghouse for condominium projects that boasts 500,000 listings, said lenders to troubled condo projects want to see if the contracts are actually going to close and how many people are going to walk away from their deposits. “Then they’ll know, ‘Look, we’ve got a problem on our hands so let’s not continue to extend the loan to the developer, let’s actually foreclose and take the assets back.’”

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Multi Housing News - Q&A with CEO of Condo.com

May 08, 2008

Richard Swerdlow, CEO, founded Condo.com (formerly US Condo Exchange) in 2005 and is responsible for the company's strategic direction and operations. Previously, he founded Everything Wireless, the first consumer cataloger and Internet retailer, which provided national distribution of wireless phones and accessories. The company grew to $100 million in revenues.

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IstockAnalyst - Florida Condos being Snapped Up by the Smart Money

By: Investing From The Right

The Related Group under CEO Jorge Perez has put together a $1b fund to buy South Florida condominiums. Perez isn't alone. Another South Florida-based developer, Sky Development, has launched Sky Real Estate Fund 1, a $300m entity to buy distressed properties in numerous US cities. Yizhak Toledano, founder and CEO of Sky is leveraging personal contacts and overseas investors to participate in his fund. The firm anticipates amassing a portfolio in excess of $1b of commercial and residential properties.

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Entrepreneur.com - 2008 Hot List - Keep Your Eyes On...

These are areas to watch in the future. Boomers heading for the city: If you're seeking an affluent, concentrated market, get ready to embrace the growing number of city slickers. According to Property & Portfolio Research Inc. and Reed Construction Data, urban high-rises and condos are sprouting up all over--this year, there were 18,586 new condos in Miami alone and 10,875 in San Diego--combining luxurious amenities with the convenience of downtown living. Career-minded boomers looking to downsize their living spaces are a natural fit. "The rising cost of fuel, length of commutes and desire to live more efficiently are driving baby boomers to urban centers," says Richard Swerdlow, CEO of Condo.com.

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Inman News - CThe housing market: How bad will it get?

By: Glenn Roberts Jr.

Speculation, rampant building, risky loans, overborrowing and escalating prices propelled the housing market to an unprecedented peak -- and are now counted among its greatest failings.

The "soft landing" that so many analysts and economists had predicted has given way to a record number of foreclosures, an implosion in the subprime lending market, an oversupply of housing, and home-price declines in many market areas. The dreamy days of the housing boom have received a cold slap of reality.

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Big Builder Online - Click to Close: US Condo Exchange

By: Teresa Burney

It was a "You got your peanutbutter in my chocolate" moment, Last summer the Miami Herald's director of classified advertising took a look at US Condo Exchange's Internet portal for selling condominiumsand knew they'd be great partners, somehow.

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Commercial Property News - Condo Marketing Set to Evolve with Cooling Market

By: Colleen Corley

Concessions are being shaved left and right from the apartment market, which had been forced to concede monthly rents and other perks to gain tenants after occupancies shrank because of the condo craze. But it seems that the roles are beginning to reverse, panelists explained during the Marketing Strategies for Success panel at CPN's Condominium Summit in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. yesterday, which was co-presented by sister publication Multi-Housing News.

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Information Week - Capital Ideas From The Internet

By: Eric Chabrow

Dozens of financiers seeking to profit from new technology ventures crowd into a sun-drenched suite at the law firm of Morrison & Foerster 39 floors above midtown Manhattan. Standing behind a lectern in front of the room, pointing to a PowerPoint presentation partially washed out by the sun's glare, James Haft has just 15 minutes to persuade these investors to fund his nascent venture. The fact that the core business of the startup--U.S. Condo Exchange, or USCondex--is selling condos doesn't seem to bother the crowd of angel investors and venture capitalists looking to make money off of IT.

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Business Wire - USCONDEX Condos Now Showcased on Leading British Online Real Estate Site

The U.S. Condo Exchange ("USCONDEX"), http://www.uscondex.com, the online marketplace where condos can be researched, negotiated and purchased in real time 24-hours a day from anywhere in the world, today announced that its condos will now be featured on http://www.primelocation.com, the UK's leading property website. Primelocation will showcase USCONDEX listings to its 850,000 potential buyers each month, simultaneously with the condos' listings on USCONDEX.

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All Business - U.S. Condo Exchange makes letting information Real Simple.

The U.S. Condo Exchange announced that in its quest to provide every conceivable type of condo information to potential buyers and sellers of condominiums, it has added Real Simple Syndication technology to its website. The technology, one of the hottest features overtaking the Internet lately, allows for USCONDEX to be an aggregator of "all things condo" in the news, taking condo...

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Inman News - Online condo marketplace expands in Florida

By: Inman News

U.S. Condo Exchange has added more than $1.5 billion of Orlando and Tampa Bay condominiums to its online condo marketplace, the company said today.

The addition marks the second phase of the company's national rollout.

The exchangeis dedicated to condominium sales and purchases in the United States. It brings together buyers, sellers, brokers and developers in a central marketplace where condos can be researched, negotiated and purchased online.

The exchange launched this past summer with an initial focus on South Florida. The Orlando and Tampa/St. Petersburg areas represent the next phase of the exchange's nationwide rollout. More than 5,000 condo listings in those regions can now be purchased via the site.

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MSNBC - Condo craze moving online

By: Scott Wapner

U.S. Condo Exchange, another recently launched real estate Web site, bills itself as real estate’s version of Ebay. The Web site is more than a listing service — you can purchase a condo online — and it already has a handful of listings. It costs $150 a month to post properties on the site.

U.S. Condo Exchange CEO Richard Swerdlow, a real estate developer, says the Web site was designed as a transparent marketplace where buyers, sellers, brokers and developers can transact business. And it will work no matter what the housing market does.

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Palm Beach Post - New Web site claims corner on South Fla. condo market

A new Web site that bills itself as the "eBay of the condominium market" has been launched with about $5 billion in South Florida inventory, including listings in West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach.

The U.S. Condo Exchange at www.uscondex.com is operated by Coconut Grove developer Swerdlow Group and New York-based Pacific Alliance, a merchant bank that specializes in technology.

Listings include more than 100 condo units for sale in Palm Beach County, from a $50,000 one-bedroom one-bath unit in Century Village to luxury waterfront condos costing millions of dollars.

The Web site intends to be "disruptive to existing real estate channels," company execs say, by giving individual buyers and sellers access to each other without an intermediary.

The site lets buyers search by city, ZIP code or condominium name, and will add rentals soon. Other parts of the site let developers market entire properties. Fees are based on a sliding scale, with individual condo listings costing under $500 and entire buildings costing about $10 per unit.

The exchange plans to expand to Las Vegas soon, followed by 10 other U.S. markets, including New York and Southern California. The Condo Exchange also is looking for partners in Europe, Asia and Latin America, Chief Executive Richard Swerdlow said.

Condo Living: You Can Get it For Fees

By: Lynn Thorne

CORY PORTER WAS FED UP with writing rent checks every month. The 30-year-old public relations professional at Sage Communications in Vienna, Va., decided he was ready to buy a condo.

But when he mentioned his plan to friends and co-workers, they reminded him about one of the most important things to consider when thinking of going condo: How much are the monthly fees, and what will they get you?

"Initially, they weren't even on my radar," says Porter. He ended up searching for 14 months before buying a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in the Rhapsody building near the U Street corridor in D.C. in January 2007. Part of what motivated him were reasonable — by local standards — dues of $350 per month, which include some utilities, building upkeep, a rooftop deck, an on-site gym and other niceties.

"I have to admit I was taken aback by the amount people paid in fees overall," Porter says. During his hunt, he looked at condos with dues ranging from $285 per month for a one-bedroom condo near Eastern Market to another unit that demanded a whopping $600 per month, which had a comparable asking price and was located only a few blocks away from the abode he ultimately settled on.

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