General

To make a splash, Florida landowner lists island property on eBay

Here’s an item for the “There’s a Better Way to Do That” files: A Volusia County landowner has listed his Intracoastal Waterway island for sale…on eBay. He is asking $459,000 for the 90-acre island, which has about 20 developable acres.

The man who owns the island said he wanted to do something to generate attention about the sale. We are not sure if it worked, because thus far no one has bid on the property.

We understand this was most likely some form of publicity stunt, but the thought of someone attempting to sell a parcel of land in such a cavalier manner does give us pause.

As you no doubt know, real estate is very expensive, so any decision made in regard to real estate needs to be carried out thoughtfully and carefully.

What you may not realize is that there are a great many rights and responsibilities attached to ownership or occupation of real estate. Lawyers often refer to that package of rights as “a bundle of sticks” and spend quite a bit of time teasing apart which parties get which “sticks.”

For example, if you lease a property for an extended period of time, say 50 years, you and the owner of that property must formally set forth who has responsibility for maintenance, structural improvements, cosmetic upkeep, property taxes and other important considerations. Furthermore, as the lessee, you would need to make sure what rights the owner is granting you.

Our point is simply this: real estate is serious business. Because so many of our clients are in the commercial real estate industry, we say that with experience and conviction.

Source: The Orlando Sentinel, “Island in Volusia County offered on eBay,” Mary Shanklin, Jan. 11, 2013

• In our Orlando office, we often work with landlords, tenants, sellers and buyers. If you think more information on that line of our work would be interesting, we invite you to start gathering more information at our Real Estate page.

Fri Jan 11, 4:35pm