The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "realty" ...
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Carbon Monoxide at Cove Village
Even though, three people died of carbon monoxide in their apartment complex, the problem went uncorrected for four years afterwards. Also, even when the emergency calls continued to report carbon monoxide problems and a number of people were brought to the hospital, the government inspectors never stepped in to correct the hazard.
Tags: Essex complex; Wiley family; County Fire Department; toxic; Sawyer Realty; firefighters
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"Meltdown"
After the Eureka Ice and Cold Storage company suddenly closed its doors in 2008, businesses were left scrambling to find a new way to get their ice. The Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services that ordered the company shut its doors, would not discuss the case. HSU journalism students eventually found that before the company closed it had several citations and violations of "public health and safety laws" going back for years.
Tags: Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services; Eureka Ice and Cold Storage; Dennis Hunter; Humboldt Maritime Museum; Cutten Realty
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A Renter's Nightmare
"Banks are illegally evicting Chicago tenants when their landlords foreclose, with the unwitting assistance of the Cook County Sheriff's Office."
Tags: paperwork; fraud; eviction; realty; Realtor; mortgage service;
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Property Tax, Appraisals Explained
When valuing a piece of land the sales price is needed but buyers and sellers of property are required to disclose the price. Appraisal districts must find the information itself but when an outside expert was hired to review the job of the appraisal districts, tens of thousands of errors were found where property values would be up to ten percent off.
Tags: housing; realty; realtor; Dallas County Chief Appraiser; DCAD; property tax; real estate;
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Speculators bear brunt of foreclosures
"Sun analysis of RealtyTrac data found that new foreclosure filings in Southern Nevada have skyrocketed in the past six months. Further analysis found that 74 percent of all single family homes in foreclosures during the past six months were own by investors who did not live in the homes."
Tags: realty; foreclosures; home; investors; family; Nevada; mortgages;
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Who Took Land From Our Churches?
Cook County's District attorney, along with his associates, were found to have taken 60 parcels of land that were owned by 20 churhces, businesses and not-for-profit organizations. They were unaware the land was even pirated from them until the report came out in the Chicago Tribune.
Tags: fraud; realty; land; ownership; property; steal; stolen; acre
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Hillsborough County School District Land Investigation
The ninth largest U.S. school district, Hillsborough County (FL), in 2006 was "growing fast enough to fill five new schools" per year. To meet the demand, Hillsborough county used the services of 4 private real estate brokers, without using bids, in violation of its own regulations. Three of the four brokers have records of criminal, legal and financial problems. Some of those brokers simultaneously represented the sellers, or flipped the land themselves, resulting in land purchases often made substantially above appraisal values. Reporters from the St. Petersburg Times documented swampland purchases, and school sites surrounded by the homes of sexual predators.
Tags: land; school board; school district superintendent; real estate brokers; realtors; swampland; bidding practices; state FOI; land flipping; rezoning applications; condemnation; assessments; appraisals; financial investigations; land records; wetland maps; FBI investigation; Florida Department of Law Enforcement; Excel; Matthew B. Cox; Chester B. Luney; Fred Edmister; National Realty Associates; school planning; Wilson-Miller; Florida Real Estate Commission; 2606 East Caracus Land Trust; Laurence E. Fuentes; Fuentes and Kreischer Title Co.; Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
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Would you pay $840,925 for this house?
Colorado Springs Utilities has spent over $6 million to purchase property for a reservoir that has yet to be granted a federal permit. The purchase prices were much higher than the appraised and market values, while including additional payments for "relocation costs."
Tags: realty; housing; over priced; reservoir; grant; permit; rent; auditor; jimmy camp creek
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Stolen House
Public records revealed that nine months after the death of Morris Rozet, his home had not been probated, but that he had in fact sold his house to Calvin Wynn for $100,000. Interviews with Wynn found that he hadn't paid for the home, or recieved keys to it. He broke in through the back door and began to renovate the property, working with borrowed money for the house he didn't own.
Tags: Morris Rozet; Calvin Wynn; property; realty; renovation
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Empire Zones
Empire Zones is New York's program of business incentives that gives companies hundreds of millions of dollars in tax payers money to start business and increase employment. However, the present business establishment milks some loopholes in the existing law, much to their own lucrative benefits. While some companies are allowed to simply change their names and be treated as new businesses; others eliminate all their state taxes for a decade by doing as little hiring as one person. The series also shows that "some of Syracuse's biggest commercial buildings could get millions in tax relief for doing almost nothing".
Tags: Empire Zone Law; Gov. George Pataki; McAuliffe; Duke's Realty Co.