Asbury Park Press on 10/26/07
Judge approves sale of Foxtons listings
BY MICHAEL L. DIAMOND BUSINESS WRITER
TRENTON — The home listings of Foxtons North America's New Jersey customers will be sold to Maplewood Homebuilders -- the successor to bankrupt Kara Homes Inc. -- and marketed by Century 21 Atlantic Realty under an agreement approved Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
The decision came after Bankruptcy Judge Michael B. Kaplan weighed the wishes of Foxtons and its creditors with more than 30 Foxtons customers who asked to be let out of their listing agreements so they could find new brokers on their own.
In the end, the judge said he was persuaded that the team of Maplewood and Century 21 "can provide the very services that Foxtons wasn't providing.''
The ruling marked a key moment in the case. The West Long Branch-based real estate agency, which touted discounted commissions, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 5, saying the downturn in the housing market made it too difficult to continue. The company reported $488,000 in assets and $40.9 million in liabilities.
To repay creditors, Foxtons sought to sell what it considered its biggest asset -- the listing agreements of about 4,400 customers in New Jersey and New York. It received eight bids at an auction Thursday, ranging from $500 to $110,000, Foxtons attorney Michael Holt said.
The company ran into complaints from customers who said they should have been allowed to choose their own agent, because Foxtons didn't live up to its end of the contract.
Kaplan allowed Foxtons to sell its New Jersey listings to a joint venture formed by Maplewood, which recently acquired bankrupt Kara Homes Inc., and Century 21 for $100,000, plus fees and commissions. And it agreed to sell its New York listings to Fillmore Real Estate for $110,000, plus fees and commissions.
Maplewood also agreed to buy other Foxtons assets, such as its software system for $100,000.
"Foxtons was one of the premier real-estate companies in terms of being able to generate leads, listings, walk-through of houses,'' said Glen Fishman, a Lakewood developer who started Maplewood. "In today's market, where everybody's competing for a limited number of buyers, we wanted to take the best system to move our product.'' |
