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I was checking all the information on a house I want to buy and comps taxes etc etc and the same buyers kept coming up-in my area of interest- This religious group claiming to be non profit are flipping these houses and selling them-- so is that normal or allowed. guess I have to join their church to buy?? hmm hows it work Just wondering.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Churches raise money a lot of ways, including donations from the members, but often the members will donate their time. This one may have a number of contractors and construction workers that are happy to give time rather than money. There's no reason you can't outbid them, and snap up one one of the houses, if they are flipping them they must be getting good deals.
Personally, I would dig a little deeper. The thought that occurred to me was that the church was buying and then reselling to church members to create a concentration of members in a specific area. That may not necessarily be a bad thing, but someone who isn't a member of that church might prefer not to leave there. Of course, that could be completely wrong, and it may just be a way of raising funds or some other scenario.
But I'd want to know more about the church and see what kind of reputation it has. And I'd also spend some time walking the area and talking to potential new neighbors to see if there is any info going around about what is happening.
Personally, I would dig a little deeper. The thought that occurred to me was that the church was buying and then reselling to church members to create a concentration of members in a specific area. That may not necessarily be a bad thing, but someone who isn't a member of that church might prefer not to leave there. Of course, that could be completely wrong, and it may just be a way of raising funds or some other scenario.
But I'd want to know more about the church and see what kind of reputation it has. And I'd also spend some time walking the area and talking to potential new neighbors to see if there is any info going around about what is happening.
Excellent advice. Also are you sure they are selling the houses after they buy them? They could be either trying to build a rental community and/or buy up all the property to get it rezoned (either tear down the houses and build or use the existing houses to create some sort of). Any of those may be a situation from what you have said it sounds like you do not want to get in the middle of.
Personally, I would probably just look elsewhere. I am basing that on there being several areas around here where either homes have all been bought up in a community then a portion of each is designated as a house of worship so now they pay no taxes (and the bill for things falls on others in the town) or they have built up a high density housing that does not fit the character of the area and knew it wouldn't fit well as some of their buying was done by shell companies. Not anything I want to get in the middle of, especially as I am not very religious, what little I am differs from them quite a bit, they are not very welcoming of outsiders, and they do not take care of their properties.
BTW, not to sound totally negative, a relative moved into a town which has a high concentration of a particular religious group. While his beliefs are quite a bit different than theirs they are not totally incompatible. The difference there being the church folks don't impose anything on the neighbors, they keep to their own groups, and overall they are good neighbors (quiet, family oriented, pride in home ownership). So it can vary a lot, the advice to find out more about this group and what they seem to be doing is excellent as there are a lot of questions here both about both what your quality of life would be there and how the are influencing the property values.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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One of the first houses I ever sold was to a group of televangelists. The property immediately next to their "compound" came up for sale (My associate planted the sign and before he could drive back to the office, they called and wanted to buy it).
We went to the closing in an attorney's office in Seattle (He represented the Canadian owners) and they wanted to delay the closing from Monday to Wednesday. When asked why, they said "The money comes in on Wednesday" (from their Sunday TV show).
They did give me a nice closing gift. An LP record of their family singing gospel music!
I was looking through all the channels on my dish TV and saw that they are still workin' the room 35 years later.
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