BRADENTON - Joseph Kandel is itching to get hold of serious cash so he can take advantage of real estate deals he sees every day as an agent with Horizon Realty in Bradenton.

A 50-year-old entrepreneur who has written a book on dating, Kandel formed a company called 1st & 10 Properties in early 2008 and is trying to raise at least $10 million through a public stock offering.

Kandel wants to use the money to buy as many as 80 luxury homes and mid-range vacation properties at bargain-basement prices and hold those properties until the values appreciate by 50 percent.

"Ultra-luxury homes are expected to increase from $1 million to $1.7 million in the next four to five years, while multi-family properties in the $200,000 range are expected to appreciate to approximately $300,000 within four to five years," Kandel says in his registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "It is for those reasons, 1st and 10 Properties will purchase as many units in those price ranges as possible."

Throughout the 51-page document, Kandel expresses what a lot of investors and market watchers are feeling right now -- that this truly is the right time to buy.

The problem is that turmoil in global financial markets is making it difficult for investors like Kandel to raise money and is prompting others with cash to hold back for fear the economy will deteriorate further.

"There were a lot of players that were looking last year, but the prices were not right," said Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach-based real estate consultant who correctly called the housing downturn. "This year, a lot of players have fallen by the wayside due to the economic crisis, but others are coming out of retirement for what should be one of the greatest buying opportunities for distressed properties in a generation.

"I would say 2009 really will be that year."

Big dreams, big obstacle

In 2007, another Joe appeared on the Southwest Florida real estate investment scene.

Joe Long, a New Jersey entrepreneur who built a New York elevator company into one of the biggest in the country, tried to raise $700 million to buy 1,500 homes from Southwest Florida builders and developers for about 70 cents on the dollar. But Long was unable to raise to the cash from hedge funds and other institutional investors. He got in the game much too early and was offering too much money for properties, real estate experts say.

Hedge funds and other larger institutional investors are no longer the primary actors in the vulture game, said Peter Zalewski, founder of a Miami-based consulting firm that caters to vulture investors. These big players, which deal in the hundreds of millions of dollars, prefer to let smaller players take the lead.

"Institutions are reminding us that the first settlers usually get the arrows and the second ones get the land," Zalewski said. "That's why we haven't seen them pull the trigger."

The result is that smaller players will be the ones that dominate the market in the short term, Zalewski said.

In Southwest Florida, it is people like Elizabeth and Michael Thrasher, Michael Averbuch and Peter Arguelles who have started buying.

The Thrashers have spent $11.6 million to buy seven properties on Anna Maria Island since April. Averbuch spent hundreds of thousands more to buy condos and raw land in North Port and Sarasota. Arguelles has paid $1.6 million to buy 19 houses in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

"If you can buy houses where the cash flow more than covers the operating costs, why wouldn't you buy?" Arguelles said. "We are able to do this now. We can buy houses for less than the freakin' cost of nails and wood. If you can buy dollars for dimes, then you should buy all you can."

Realtors say investors like these are rare and the growing financial crisis has made them more uncertain about parting with their cash.

"The whole Wall Street thing has unnerved people," said Jo Rutstein, an agent with Premier Properties of Southwest Florida. "We had three investors ready to buy, but when they saw their stock portfolios drop 25 to 30 percent, they decided to hold on."

Everybody is frightened, agreed Steve DuToit, an agent with Keller Williams in Sarasota.

"They don't know what is going to happen, whether this thing has bottomed out," he said. "But once they realize that this is a great time to buy, they will come alive again."

Opportunities abound

Kandel is eager to buy. The real estate firm he works for -- Horizon Realty -- is seeing investors and end users close on 35 bank-owned properties every month and another 25 short sales, in which buyers negotiate with banks to buy properties for less than what banks are owed by the former owners.

Kandel's problem is money.

Though he bought and sold five properties for $440,000 more than he paid during the boom, his fortunes changed in the bust. He has defaulted on four loans totaling $2.4 million since the beginning of the year.

But that apparently is not stopping him from going ahead with his public offering.

"I was flipping and made a nice living for while, but I got caught with my pants down like everyone else," Kandel said. "The problem now is there is just too much inventory and not enough end users. So the same investors who were buying up properties during the boom are needed to help with the resurrection."

The model for his new company is different than the model he operated under during the boom, Kandel said. Then, it was all about flipping properties for ever higher amounts. Now, it is about buying and holding for four or five years.

"Each property we buy will be self-sustaining," Kandel said. "It will generate enough rent to cover the carrying costs."

Unable to borrow from banks because of his worsening credit, Kandel hopes to persuade investors to buy shares that may one day be traded on the over-the-counter penny stock exchange, or pink sheets, in which stock generally trades for less than $5 per share.

"I know there is a lot of money out there," Kandel said. "Unfortunately we're running into resistance from spineless people who have money but no vision."

A history of failure

In his effort to sell stock in a fledgling company that has no profits or operating history, Kandel has called on the experience of Kenneth Brand, a Sarasota entrepreneur who spent 2002 through 2006 as the chief executive of Central Wireless, a perpetually money-losing cell tower builder that also traded on the over-the-counter exchange.

Central Wireless built a total of 12 cell towers at $30,000 each and ended up accumulating more than $5.5 million in losses. Brand is now one of four directors, including Kandel's sister, who sit on the board of 1st & 10.

In his registration statement, Kandel does not oversell his company's prospects. He clearly points out there is a good chance 1st & 10 will have to punt.

"Since the incorporation of 1st & 10 Properties, we have not generated revenues. With limited financial resources, we may not be able to continue as a going concern," the registration statement says.

Despite those very strong negatives, Kandel remains optimistic. "We're at the bottom," he said. "Anyone who knows real estate knows this is a great time to get in."

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