“There was a price that you could pay, but you would always go lower and tell them that was the price you could pay.”Įven when homeowners believed they were being taken advantage of and tried to back out of deals, franchise owners sued or filed paperwork to block a sale to another buyer. That’s what we were trained,” said Katie Southard, who owned a franchise in North Carolina. But he spent his final days alive waiting to be evicted when - after the contract was signed - the franchise owner informed him the homeowners association rules didn’t allow it. One court case documented the plight of an elderly man in Florida who was told if he sold his condo he could continue living there temporarily. An Arizona woman said in an interview that she was forced to live in her truck after trying unsuccessfully to cancel the sale of her home. One HomeVestors franchisee falsely claimed to a 72-year-old woman suffering from a hoarding problem that city code enforcement officers would take her house, according to court documents. Treat every customer like they’re your 85-year-old grandma who’s never done a real estate deal, HomeVestors trainers tell franchise owners at annual conferences.īut a ProPublica investigation - based on court documents, property records, company training materials and interviews with 48 former franchise owners and dozens of homeowners who have sold to its franchises - found HomeVestors franchisees that used deception and targeted the elderly, infirm and those so close to poverty that they feared homelessness would be a consequence of selling. Part of that mission is a promise not to take advantage of anyone who doesn’t understand the true value of their home, even as franchisees pursue rock-bottom prices. The company says it helps homeowners out of jams - ugly houses and ugly situations - improving lives and communities by taking on properties no one else would buy. HomeVestors, the self-proclaimed “largest homebuyer in the United States,” goes to great lengths to distinguish itself from the hedge funds and YouTube gurus that have taken over large swaths of the real estate investment market. But in most states, flippers don’t need a license. Real estate agents have a fiduciary responsibility to represent a homeowner’s best interests in negotiations, which is defined in state laws, licensing requirements and an industry code of ethics. Unlike real estate agents, house flippers operate in a largely unregulated space.
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