Records: Elizabeth Warren Profited By Buying, Selling Homes

Boston Herald:

Elizabeth Warren, who has railed against predatory banks and heartless foreclosures, took part in about a dozen Oklahoma real estate deals that netted her and her family hefty profits through maneuvers such as “flipping” properties, records show.

Read the whole story at Boston Herald

Comments

[springchickennot]

08:50 PM on 03/11/2013

There is absolutely nothing wrong with "flipping" homes, per se. You buy a piece of property, maybe fix it up, and sell it, hopefully for a profit, sometimes at a loss. It often improves neighborhoods. What is wrong with that?

[Steelsil]

09:05 PM on 09/18/2012

According to a Republican newspaper that endorsed Romney for President - the Boston Herald.  The 'story' is a political hit job, not news.

[kipcrockett]

08:35 AM on 09/07/2012

first shes a fake cherokee an now we find she's profiting off peoples financial misery. what a two faced profiteer.

[mosttruthful]

01:40 PM on 09/06/2012

Was it Indian land?

[elfin12u]

05:16 PM on 06/06/2012

In the instance where she makes a loan to her brother to help buy a home at $35k which he sells 2 1/2 mos. later for $38.5k, I'm missing the huge profit implied in the article. Isn't most of that profit eaten up by real estate sales tax and recording fees??

In fact, wouldn't that be the case for most of these properties?

[ThugsDeserveHugs]

07:52 PM on 06/06/2012

You're not missing anything because the article has no substance. Looking into the specifics shows Warren did nothing and that the reporter is a hack.

[Hidare]

01:49 PM on 06/06/2012

Did she use her "minority status" to secure funds?

[ThugsDeserveHugs]

07:53 PM on 06/06/2012

What do you "think?"

[Hidare]

08:39 PM on 06/06/2012

"Hi how are ya, Hi how are ya, Hi how are ya."

[Ohioan4truth]

12:39 AM on 08/05/2012

Oh yeah, like minorities got GREAT deals, right? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!

[blackhole2008]

04:32 PM on 06/04/2012

The Globe tries to draw a connection between flipping houses and deceptive mortgage practices..and fails.

[De Lee]

10:04 PM on 10/31/2012

Keep in mind the Globe endorsed EW.

[warmandcaringperson]

12:32 PM on 06/03/2012

No surprise here, Warren is a schemer.

[FOXYROSE]

12:23 PM on 06/03/2012

Very sparse article - no time line, no amounts, no locations.

[ThugsDeserveHugs]

01:52 PM on 06/03/2012

That's its beauty. There is no substance, and it allows the demagogues and their prey to give the false equivalency that she caused the housing crisis.

[marbiol]

09:52 PM on 06/03/2012

you r so rite!!!

• Purchasing a foreclosed home at 2725 West Wilshire Boulevard from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for $61,000 in June 1993, then selling it in December 1994 for $95,000 — a 56 percent mark-up in just 18 months.

• Buying a house at 200 NW 16th St. for $30,000 in August 1993, then flipping it for $145,000 — a 383 percent gain after just five months.

• Lending one of her brothers money at 9.5 percent interest to buy a home at 1425 Classen Drive for $35,000 in August 2000. He sold the place three months later for $38,500 — a 10 percent gain in 75 days.

• Providing her brother with financing to buy a $25,000 house at 4301 NW 16th St. in 1994. He sold the property four years later for $42,000, a 68 percent increase.

• Giving her sister-in-law a mortgage in 1996 to buy a $31,000 home at 2621 NW 13th St. Three years later, the sister-in-law sold the place for $45,000 — a 45 percent boost in three years.

• Providing her brother with a loan in 1997 to buy 901 NW 22nd St. for $90,000. He sold it some two years later for $106,000 — an 18 percent increase.

• Giving her brother a mortgage to buy 3836 NW 12th St. in 1997 for $26,000. Nine years later, he unloaded the home for $45,000 — a 73 percent jump.

[ThugsDeserveHugs]

11:51 PM on 06/03/2012

Let's look at the two houses she flipped- profits at 34k plus 115k equal $149,000. So she *gasp* made 149k gross profit if we DON'T factor in closing costs and whatever improvements she paid for. Oh the humanity.

The rest of the 'story' concerns loans to family members. There is no substance, and it allows the demagogues and their prey to give the false equivalency that she caused the housing crisis.

[RecoverySummerTake3]

12:21 PM on 06/03/2012

Me scalp 'em good!.

[artbbcramer]

10:39 AM on 07/25/2012

Flagged for racism.

[Earl King]

09:47 AM on 06/03/2012

No problem with this...its a good strategy for a PROFIT. All it proves however is that she is MAJOR hypocrite.

[ThugsDeserveHugs]

01:54 PM on 06/03/2012

Yeah, she has always preached making a profit is SO wrong- we're supposed to buy high and sell low like she said when...Oh wait. She never said that. Never mind.

[carbolaw]

09:34 AM on 06/03/2012

The author of this one should be fired.   He/she seems to completely misunderstand the idea of flipping a house - they miss the piece of fixing the house up, renovating the house and then putting it back on the market.   Even the "high interest" loan of 9.5% for an investment is laughable.   Not sure why HuffPost even decided to link to this one.

[ThugsDeserveHugs]

01:59 PM on 06/03/2012

The author of this one has a rosy future ahead of him. He willfully misunderstands the issue to tap into anger by using a false equivalency. Anger at big banks that caused this mess deflected on flipping houses and giving family loans. This is all they have.

[stevegeryk]

08:46 AM on 06/03/2012

So all of you who see problems with this. Should she have been buying properties, renovating them and then trying sell them for a loss?

[marbiol]

09:53 PM on 06/03/2012

wasnt she an intern at bain for a bit??

[Siebenstein]

07:11 AM on 06/03/2012

What I don't like about the article is that it does not compare her selling price to the market price at the time. Only then could wen know if she took advantage of people or not.

Bad journalism. Bad research.

[springchickennot]

09:09 PM on 03/11/2013

Market price is the price that something will sell for to a willing and able buyer who is not under duress. What is too high? No one has to buy anything. It's their choice. If there was any financing involved, then there would also be an appraisal of the property. If the appraisal comes back low, then the buyer does not get the loan or they have to make up the difference in order to buy. The buyers would also have to qualify for the loan. It is the lender's responsibility to make sure that a buyer can afford a loan, although apparently that didn't happen in quite a few cases.

There is nothing wrong with pricing a piece of property too high as far as ethics, either, and we don't know that she even did that. But those properties usually don't sell, they just sit on the market since there are other comparable homes that have lower prices.

[l78lancer]

04:59 AM on 06/03/2012

So? She flipped houses. She didn't cause the market to crash. She didn't do any robo signings. She didn't create CDSs.

There is no there there.