These days, another type of vulture hovers over our region: the vulture investor. Like its avian cousin, it soars over large patches of earth and swoops in low to locate the dead and the dying. While these vultures haven’t descended on Sarasota and Manatee counties yet, look up and you just might see one circling soon.

Don’t think it’s fair to compare our local real estate market to an animal carcass rotting in the sun? Let’s look at the numbers. The median sale price is hovering around three-quarters of what it was two years ago. According to RealtyTrac, a distressed property research company, one out of every 192 Sarasota County households was in foreclosure this summer, and one out of every 279 in Manatee. The Sarasota rate is well over twice the national average. Between June 2007 and June 2008, the number of foreclosure filings rose by 157 percent in Sarasota; the increase in Manatee was 133 percent. The current Sarasota foreclosure rate runs around seven times what it was three years ago. Industry insiders estimate that roughly one out of every four sales these days involves a foreclosed property.

Not pretty. Unless, that is, you’re a vulture investor, willing and eager to pick through the crowded inventory for the most profitable bits.

But trying to pin down exactly who vulture investors are—and what they want—can be tough. “They run the gamut from individuals to large corporations, from high-net-worth investors on the Forbes list to hedge funds, private equity firms,” says Jack McCabe, who runs a real estate research and consulting company in Deerfield Beach.

“Different ones have different niches that they’re looking to go after, and different deal sizes,” he adds. But one thing, at least, unites these investors: “Florida is always at the top of everybody’s list.”

Boston’s Matthew Martinez founded Pangea Select, a private real estate investment company, in 1999, and now represents four private equity firms—three from the Northeast, one from the West coast—which are actively shopping for real estate deals in the Sunshine State. With access to a little more than $500 million, he’s thinking big. “We’ll start to look at an opportunity at the $5 million range,” Martinez says, “but if you ask us what our sweet spot is, we’re looking at something between $15 million and $30 million. We’ll buy in cash.”

But putting that kind of money into a shaky market means Martinez must get low prices and large bundles of property.

“We’re buying all institutional-grade properties, of 150 units or more, which is critical. And the more complexes we can buy in the same area, the better,” he says.

Martinez and his investors plan to convert the condos they buy into apartment complexes and maintain them for three to seven years.

His team uses a few major criteria to pinpoint parts of Florida that are attractive. They like regions with natural barriers (such as the ocean) because such obstacles prevent unchecked growth, which leads to too much competitive supply. Regions must also meet specific demographic demands (such as population density) because the investors want to be assured that there are renters out there who will need their product.

Back in June 2005, when Florida lenders began telling Peter Zalewski of Bal Harbour that they were no longer participating in pre-development loans, Zalewksi realized the boom was about to end, and he immediately registered the URL condovultures.com.

Since the Web site launched on January 10, 2007, Zalewski and the company of which he is a principal, Condo Vultures Realty LLC, have seen a tremendous spike in the number of investors calling. As of June, 162 different buyer groups had contacted him, interested in Florida vulture deals.

These days, a lot of Zalewski’s business calls are coming from Europe. With the dollar struggling mightily against the Euro (1€ equaled $1.57 at press time), European investors are entering the market with a serious currency advantage. “Probably the largest group we have is a German pension fund,” Zalewski says.