House flippers are back at it

[Liberal_in_LA]

Flipping houses is back in South Los Angeles

Investors are snapping up foreclosed homes in hopes of making a quick killing.

The musty smell of neglect greeted the two investors as they stepped past the waist-high weeds and peeling paint to cross the threshold of the latest prize: a boarded-up two-story house in South Los Angeles.

Shards of glass crunched underfoot. The men spied a shoe-sized hole in one wall and an empty can of Steel Reserve beer on the floor.

"This is not bad," chirped Robert Fragoso, complimenting his friend Olivier Clamagirand on his new purchase.

Two days before, Clamagirand paid $180,000 for the lender-owned home on Second Avenue, six blocks east of Crenshaw High. His plan is to spend $45,000 on repairs and sell the house for about $320,000.

"The key is to buy right and move quick," Clamagirand said in his thick French accent. "If you can get out in three or four months, you're good."

Flipping homes is back.

Lured by steep discounts on bank-owned properties, investors are sifting through the wreckage of Southern California's real estate bust, snapping up foreclosed homes in hopes of making a quick killing. The rapid-sale rebound comes amid a general recovery in housing prices and sales, and the epicenter is South Los Angeles.

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"People have very, very short memories and we go straight from collapse to bubble," said Leo Nordine, one of Los Angeles' top foreclosure agents. "The second South L.A. stopped crashing, we started getting 20 offers on everything."

Investors say there is no shortage of buyers.

Standing outside the open doors of a three-bedroom, one-bathroom, fully refurbished home in Compton one recent weekend afternoon, real estate agent Sonia Moncayo greeted a steady stream of potential buyers in Spanish as ranchera and banda hits played from a neighbor's stereo.


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-south-la-20100425,0,3267386.story