If 80% of condo owners in Arizona vote to sell a building (and one owner buys the majority of units), the other 20% can be booted from a home they own. How is that OK?The American Dream is a pretty vague concept.Depending on whom you ask, it includes the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and the “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence.It also suggests that, with a little hard work, every citizen can buy a place of their own. Even a new immigrant.That dream became reality for Jie Cao and Haining Xia, two Chinese citizens who moved to the United States in the 1980s, earned law degrees and settled in the Valley of the Sun.When their son was headed to the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University, they purchased a condominium for him to live in just a 10-minute walk from campus.With a rental, perhaps a landlord could sell off the whole block of apartments, leaving their child without a place to stay. But this was a condo; a home that belonged to them.Or not.Obscure law can boot condo ownersA private equity real estate investment firm out of San Diego bought 90 of the 96 condo units, allowing them to exploit a little-known provision in Arizona law.As it turns out, if 80% of unit owners vote to sell the entire condo complex, it can be sold. If 20% opposes the decision, they’ll get kicked out of the property they own.Since the firm, Pathfinder Partners, owned the lion’s share, they voted to sell. The six owners of the remaining units voted against it, but the sale proceeded anyway.Cao and Xia, both a …
See the full Home Prices article, or, read more Arizona real estate investing news. Go ahead. You know you want to.
