Who Will Buy And Fix These Houses?
Here you have it folks, today’s front page of the Desert Sun. As you probably know, Cindy and I were on the front page of the LA Times last week. The response was overwhelming, but I wish I could say it was all good! It turns out that more than one person perceive what we do as opportunistic taking advantage of people losing their homes. I even received some hate emails.
Well, I am long overdue for getting back into the blog habit, and some of the attitudes of the general public towards house flippers (I don’t even like that word anymore) is something to be desired and was enough to get me back to the keyboard…for the life of me, WHY?? We are not buying from those in foreclosure, but even if we were, would that be wrong if it just prevented the above photo from occurring and the homeowner got a check where instead they would have a Sheriff knocking on the door?
I have one question, if we as investors do not enter the market and scoop up and fix these rotting structures, who will? We are the sole saviours of the housing market, there are so many vacant, non-performing assets out there, and at the same time an actual shortage of clean housing. Are we supposed to wait for families to buy them?…news flash, with the condition of many of these houses, there is a better chance of a 50 degree day in Palm Springs in August than there is of someone getting a loan.
Among the arguments, flippers inflate home prices…huh? If we did that we would wait a long time to get a profit- we fix up these foreclosures and sell them BELOW market so we can get paid!…clean houses that are cheaper.
Here are just a few genius comments: “Nothing against Kurtis and Cindy Squyres, but there’s a term in Wall Street: “Pigs Get Slaughtered”.”, “Buying more than one house for purposes other than occupancy ought to be limited, and heavily taxed. The money from “flipping” should be taxed more than cigarettes”, “Flippers and vultures all very active and gouging honest people”, “Flippers, vultures…I can’t believe these scum are still out there snatching houses from families”, “Kurtis and Cindy Squyres aren’t flippers, they’re floppers”, “when the market collapses, Kurtis and Cindy Squyres will be flipping burgers”.
You get the point…of course most weren’t like that but there were quite enough to get my goat. In the same article an authority states that investors keep the bottom from falling out completely. Again, who is going to take care of this problem? WE ARE, THAT’S WHO THE *@^& IS GOING TO AND WE ARE GOING TO HELP THE ECONOMY, THE BANKS, FAMILIES GET AFFORDABLE HOUSES, AND WE ARE GOING TO GET STINKING RICH DOING IT…WHO IS WITH ME?
…let the whiny babies whine, the ones whose favorite words are “can’t” and “impossible”. Whether you believe it can be done or you believe it cannot be done, you’re right!
Chances are if you read this far you are with us, you believe it is possible to thrive in a recession, that for someone to win doesn’t mean someone has to lose, and what you focus on is what you get…let’s mop up this mess.
Flipping burgers? not yet…Here’s a picture of my family in Maui a couple weeks ago…c’mon guys, the banks need to move ‘em, and investors want ‘em…
….I’m doing a free webinar (online presentation) next week to show you exactly how we find our deals just to thank you for not being one of THOSE people. (if you think buying stinky bank houses at huge discounts and passing on great deals to investors is unethical than you’d best unsubscribe from our blog, and don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya)….otherwise, stick around, you are going to get a TON of free help from us to do this stuff- it’s not rocket science and you CAN do it.
Here’s tthe link to our free presentation that will be July 29th, at 7:00 PM
Just register and then show up at the right time to that page…you call in the phone number given to hear the audio:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/694796523
- Squyres Family In Maui
Be Happy And Prosper,
Kurtis
BTW – (Here is a link to the article in case you haven’t seen it…)
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/inland/la-fi-homesales17-2008jul17,0,6740066,full.story
Tags: Flipping, How To Flip, Learn To Wholesale, Rehab Houses, Wholesale Real Estate
July 21, 2008 at 8:33 pm |
Hi Kurtis. I think what you and Cindy are doing is great. As you stated, you do help MANY by doing what you’re doing…neighborhoods by turning ugly houses nice again, families by providing affordable rentals or home purchases below even current market prices, and VERY importantly you’re helping the crappy economy by helping banks move inventory. For every home a bank holds, they have to count it as an asset against their balance sheet, which means, for those of you uneducated enough to flame the Squyres, that the bank can now NOT lend out 10 to 20 times the value of said home on their asset sheet.
And, no, I’m not a family member or personal friend of the Squyres jumping in to defend them. I’m a well-informed real estate professional and investor who doesn’t see life thru rose-colored glasses. This is how it works people, and there are once in a lifetime opportunities out there right now.
One of the reasons why the people who criticized and sent hate mail in, unfortunately, is because in the past, there have been an unfortunate number of “investors” (not really – scam artists is a better description) who WERE scumbags and took advantage of investments and left them worse off than they were before – I’m using my inspection clause to get out of one such property in Marietta (outside Atlanta) today. But the current markets and lending conditions especially have, thankfully, made it much harder for “scumbag” investors to rape and pillage properties. I first found the Squyres online back around the beginning of the year and was very impressed with their investing and how they’ve built their business and I came across the LA Times article last week, and felt moved to send an email. After reading Kurtis’ blog, I just felt the need to respond. The Kurtis’s look to me to be doing everything right, helping many and making good money in the process. So, Kurtis and Cundy, thank you for what you do.