Not trying to get political- How we are perceived as real estate investors

[Paul Choate]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418907/eliza...

(Disclaimer- I know this is a partisan website) Article about Elizabeth Warren and her husband flipping houses in Oklahoma in the 90's and early 2000's. After spending all day showing a flip and working on turning a rental unit, I am happy to hear about all of the real estate investors making the easy money with no work! 

My two favorite points- 

1. I like how the reporter just used the gross numbers from the county records.

2. The family quotes are awesome. I guess she did not read the grand kids the story of the little red hen when they were growing up.

[Matt Miller]

To bad there is not a place to leave a comment on that article.  Thanks for sharing.

[Aaron Montague]

@Paul Choate

Rough article for putting light on flippers.

Obviously the point of the article is to crap on Elizabeth Warren as a greedy house flipper but it paints a rather poor picture of flippers in general. "The only reason you do that is for profit" - a local HUD supervisors... well duh.

And the numbers obviously didn't get their fair share of the story here.  Any of those deals may have been awesome, solid, or terrible deals.  The portrait here is that Warren is a greedy flipper with no consideration for the history of the houses.  A good part of the flipping world is taking advantage of situations along these lines.  Not all these stories come with happy ending for the original homeowners.

I don't have the book, and I couldn't find a list of the "myths" cited in the article.  I wouldn't recommend flipping houses to too many folks that I know.  I takes a serious understanding of your market just to get started.  I wonder if the authors did any research on exactly how difficult the process actually is.

[James Birdsall]

Originally posted by @Aaron Montague:

@Paul Choate

  I wonder if the authors did any research on exactly how difficult the process actually is.
Reporters doing research? That would be new.

[Deborah Burian]

There is so much ignorance in the world about the amount of work it takes to run an effective real estate business.  We are buy-and-hold landlords and even my banker makes jokes about "mailbox money."  Really?  Let me know when that cash is going to just start rolling in and all I have to do is go to the mailbox to collect.

[Steven J.]

This is annoying to read. Its like watching political commercials when they bash on their opponents but don't ever say what they are trying to say. I didn't even finish reading the article.

[David Dachtera]

If you go by the State of Illinois, we're viewed as barely a step up from pond scum. In this state there are some very narrow windows during which you can even think about evicting anyone due to summer heat or winter cold. We have "professional tenants" who pay the first and last month, maybe a deposit, and then they live in your rental unit for free for up to two years or more while you try to get them out. Vetting potential tenants is practically a science here.

Good ol' Lisa Madigan... (IL Atty Gen'l)

[Jonathan Taylor Smith]

True, this article does not portray house flipping in a positive or even truthful light (or at least not the part of it that I actually read) - but I also think an attempt of the article was to point out or to at least suggest the hypocrisy of those in politics that speak ill of (evil) PROFIT when they themselves got rich from the very same practice they now decry and seek to prevent the rest of us from benefiting from. As PROFIT becomes a bad word in the USA and all those seeking it deemed to be greedy if not outright evil for doing so, where is the line forming of all the people willing to work, create, invent, invest, produce, etc… FOR FREE?

It is unlikely for flippers to be shown in a positive light or otherwise get credit for things like neighborhood improvement because those who see profit and think greed cannot grasp the concept that the primary reason any person does anything is self-interest of which PROFIT is the target outcome.