Aurora city government buying homes to rehab and sell.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by Luke9686

That is exactly what they did. The Government has taken over private property. These homes were owned by a bank, which is (or was) private.

It actually doesn't sound like too bad an idea, if done correctly. The problem is the gov't rarely does anything correctly. If bought right, and not overly rehabbed (beyond what the market can bare), this could clean these areas up.

I think it's good that they let the private sector have most of the control.

if it is HUD homes they are buying up, they are already government owned. HUD is a division of the government. I do agree that the federal and state level government rarely does anything correctly, but local city and town governments it is harder for them to do bad, because the power is much closer to the people. If they are HUD homes, then I say go for it, they usually get trashed by upset former owners, which is a HUGE hurdle for anyone wanting to get into a home cheap to overcome.

[steveindenver]

Let's see, creating jobs, repairing houses that are empty and a blight on the neighborhood, creating affordable housing for deserving people that meet strict qualifications. I'm not seeing the downside.

The zipcode they are talking about here is 80010. I'm very familiar with the area and spend a good bit of time over there at a place a friend purchased fairly recently as a bank owned. There is quite a bit of inventory in the 80-110 range and bank owned properties in the 65-80 range.

The thing is, most people can't afford to buy the house at 65k bank owned AND make it habitable. Take some time to tour some of these places. Almost every one of them is rotten for multiple reasons and will take an investment of 10k or more to make safe and liveable. Banks generally don't offer concessions to the buyer so things like the water damage from pipes freezing in an unheated house that sat with broken windows all winter? Your problem. The water heater that doesn't meet code or really even work? Your problem. That roof that has about a dozen holes in it? Yep your problem.

Add to this the reality that banks are simply too busy to respond in a timely manner to offers and real estate agents involved in this side of the business are generally the noobs in the business with 75 other similar properties they are asked to represent and it makes for a tiring and often discouraging process to even get those homes that are rotting away into the hands of someone who will repair them.

[tryin2makalivin]

I think everyone on here is missing the point...The point is the government has taken over something that the private sector has been doing and it is actually how a lot of us make a living. The government has no place in the real estate business. Before this program started you could actually buy bank sales in Aurora at a bargin price (as it should be) and then fix them up and make a little profit while fixing up the neighborhood and RAISING property values, this is how the cycle of neighborhood revitalization works. The city is doing bare minimum repairs and selling properties at cost...private investors can not compete with a municipality to purchase the homes and can not sell at cost therefore property values will actually be hurt by this. Furthermore, watch and see if the properties arent in the exact same condition in 5 years as they are now.

[steveindenver]

There are tons of bank owned properties in that zip still at affordable prices so that gripe remains baseless.

The city rehabbing 20 something properties out of thousands, hiring contractors thereby creating jobs and placing responsible adults in former bank owned properties that were not inhabitable will A. not lower property values and B. not replace the private sector. In fact the folks the city places in these houses will be better overall for the neighborhood as a result of being better vetted and placed with conventional loans, not the NIND's, NINJA's, 0 down etc bull**** that created this mess in the first place that most flip buyers end up utilizing.

The city is doing bare minimum repairs

First off you don't know that. Secondly 99 percent of the flippers do in fact the bare minimum; often less actually with a sugar coating like granite counter tops to hide the rest of the sub-par work.

I don't see any need for the slap-dash flippers to get all butt hurt over this, those 20 something properties were no doubt on the market for as many or more months than the rest of the inventory.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by tryin2makalivin

I think everyone on here is missing the point...The point is the government has taken over something that the private sector has been doing and it is actually how a lot of us make a living. The government has no place in the real estate business. Before this program started you could actually buy bank sales in Aurora at a bargin price (as it should be) and then fix them up and make a little profit while fixing up the neighborhood and RAISING property values, this is how the cycle of neighborhood revitalization works. The city is doing bare minimum repairs and selling properties at cost...private investors can not compete with a municipality to purchase the homes and can not sell at cost therefore property values will actually be hurt by this. Furthermore, watch and see if the properties arent in the exact same condition in 5 years as they are now.

The homes that were being done in Northglenn were being put back on the market after for Market value. The city made a little money on the sales of the two homes they managed to sell.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by steveindenver

There are tons of bank owned properties in that zip still at affordable prices so that gripe remains baseless.

The city rehabbing 20 something properties out of thousands, hiring contractors thereby creating jobs and placing responsible adults in former bank owned properties that were not inhabitable will A. not lower property values and B. not replace the private sector. In fact the folks the city places in these houses will be better overall for the neighborhood as a result of being better vetted and placed with conventional loans, not the NIND's, NINJA's, 0 down etc BS that created this mess in the first place that most flip buyers end up utilizing.


First off you don't know that. Secondly 99 percent of the flippers do in fact the bare minimum; often less actually with a sugar coating like granite counter tops to hide the rest of the sub-par work.

I don't see any need for the slap-dash flippers to get all butt hurt over this, those 20 something properties were no doubt on the market for as many or more months than the rest of the inventory.

That govt has to step in tells me that flippers aren't able to get loans to buy and re-hab houses in the first place. I consider most flippers to be quick-buck artists, like those profiled on TV, and the sell-anyone-a-mortgage types who got us in this mess. Banks own these houses, they could flip the houses themselves, but can not or will not do it. Believe me, if there was a buck in it for bankers, they WOULD do it -- all of which tells me that things are so frozen that intervention by govt is needed, so I've no gripe with govt stepping in, at THIS point, to get it moving again.

[Murmur]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

That govt has to step in tells me that flippers aren't able to get loans to buy and re-hab houses in the first place. I consider most flippers to be quick-buck artists, like those profiled on TV, and the sell-anyone-a-mortgage types who got us in this mess. Banks own these houses, they could flip the houses themselves, but can not or will not do it. Believe me, if there was a buck in it for bankers, they WOULD do it -- all of which tells me that things are so frozen that intervention by govt is needed, so I've no gripe with govt stepping in, at THIS point, to get it moving again.

A house not far from mine was apparently an attempted flip. The market declined, and the flipper let the house decay. They apparently had the front yard torn up and ready for sod, but never delivered it because they were running low on money. it turned into a rental, and was trashed.

Someone finally bought it, and is fixing it up, this time correctly.

Just because something is private market doesn't make it instantly better.