Jacksonville Riverside Flips

[Jack Bobeck]

Back in December 2018, I was part of a group that purchased 2240 Post Street in the 32204 (Riverside) area of Jacksonville. It was a great house that was Victorian and the old woman was a hoarder and had let the house fall down badly. She did not use the 3rd floor or 2nd floor, as she had holes in the roof allowing rain water to further deteriorate the house. So my partners and I purchased it for $150,000 cash. It had been on the market at $200,000 earlier in the fall. The other 6 partners sold it 14 months later, unfinished for $220,000. I left the partnership in May 2019 and walked away from the expenses coming.  Holding costs of money, property taxes, insurance, cost them a lot more than they received. These were 6 inexperienced flippers and it surely cost them a lot of money and taught them some serious lessons on flipping houses. 

The same wholesaler that flipped 2240 Post Street is now pushing 2747 Riverside Ave, and the similarities are striking. Cracked walls, rotten windows. But they are now offering the house at $280,000. A week before they were offering the same house at $320,000. What changed in one week? Did they think they could get someone to buy up by $40,000? I point this out not to rail on wholesalers for making all they can when they can, far from it. I want to make people aware of a bad experience I had with this wholesaler and they are selling another property in the Historic District of Riverside Avondale. If you think its a deal, the wholesaler also does flips, so why is he not choosing to do this flip? He says it has an ARV of $525,000 when finished.

Buyers do your homework and beware. 

[Jack Bobeck]

@Mark Fries What do you do when Life gives you lemons? You make lemonade. Yeah it sucks I helped her build her business to the point where she was the #37 Realtor in Jacksonville in 2018 with 16 million in sales. But she divorced me, so I have moved on. I told her we needed to exit 2240 Post Street in February, I had my RE attorney make up the paperwork to get us out, but she would never sign off. We were supposed to get a loan against our IRA homes to pay for the family money we use, we did it, but she would not sign off on it. In the end, she failed to pay her 1099 taxes for 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 and now I get to pay them as part of the divorce settlement. Karma/Universe will get her. Revenge is for suckers, its not worth the aggravation.

15 years ago I had 15 rental properties and life was going well, we were making a small amount of money and then the "Cash for Keys" program kicked in and my "partners" who were doctors decided to sit on their hands and not fund the business in the shortfalls, the wife was only selling 2-3 million a year and I was making enough to cover our own household. So the banks sold our "loans" guaranteed by the "doctor partners" to a vulcher firm that enforced the terms as bad as they were and would not negotiate. So the doctor partners bought the note at a discount and then turned that into a judgement against us. Now the ex-wife has to pay that note and I get to pay her back taxes. 

Life's not always fair. But we move on and we keep on trucking. We take what we learn and use it, and if we fail, we keep fighting to get it right. As we enter 2020, I will soon be free of all back taxes from my ex, and I will be free. With freedom comes a TON LESS STRESS. So its something to cherish and remember that Stress can be a killer, it almost took me back in the cash for keys days, but we did what we had to, make lots of great relationships and did our own deals to keep it all going.