Tara Waggoner, the Houston market manager for brokerage and online listings firm Redfin, said the firm’s local agents were getting about four times the number of calls they usually get from investors. They ranged from individuals looking to buy one flooded house to groups of ten or more pooling their money for a home-buying spree, she said.
“You have people with millions of dollars to work with,” she said in an interview days after the storm. “They want to go in, pay cash, get the discount and fix it up to sell.”
Market is flat so profit must come from deep discount and cost control. How much a discount can you get? If government gives money to homeowners, they may just fix and live.
Some Houston homes may never recover value post-Harvey
Some of the homes and commercial properties affected will suffer permanent market value loss while others will actually benefit according to a new report from Houston-based real estate firm Deal Sikes & Associates.
“Some properties that did not flood have actually benefitted. For example, apartment occupancy and rental rates have spiked and a great deal of empty office space has been absorbed,” said Matthew Deal, principal at Deal Sikes & Associates. “An otherwise soft market has tightened because flooded properties have been at least temporarily taken off the market.”
Deal added that some of the commercial properties damaged may never return to the market, lowering vacancy rates which could put upward pressure on rents and property values.
The vultures are out in force…Personally I would not buy a flooded house…Some have flooded twice already…and will again…hard to sell…Buy the ones that didn’t flood…