Flip This House Rip Off

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I always thought that Leccima seemed a bit like a rip-off artist but never expected that is was this faked. He just seemed "fake".

The Montelongos version ticks me off just because you can tell that about 75% of the scenes are staged. Plus, he's an a-hole, though it has been funny watching him get fat.

I much prefer Property Ladder. The host is much better to look at than any of these guys...

 

My SP went from The Real Deal to Property King to The Real Deal too. Thought that was kinda weird. Doesn't matter...important thing is I found the Trademark group again.
Richard Davis and the Trademark group do things the right way. He treats people fair and seperates family from business...and it show's.

I wonder what happened to Kevin? He was a character on the show. I remember him taking off and shooting shotguns with some of his crew. The time when he and Richard staked out the house that got vandalized. Funny stuff...

I'll reserve my remarks about the Atlanta & San Antonio teams since they're not kind. Except for this one thing about Angela (the real estate agent for Sam in Atl). I saw the one episode she did her flip on and she's got a lot to learn.

 

Phodog points out they seem to still be associated with the group.

I think they have some kind of weird arrangement though. Not to spoil the House of Horrors episode, which is the one when David left, but the banner on the house at the end said "ArmandoMontelongo.com".

So I think they may have companies to do business apart. David's gripe was he did not want his name on the project. Which is pretty smart, especially considering it being on television.

I just wonder what liabilities these flippers take on if they do a short-cut or something and sell a house and it later becomes a problem. Having it documented on tv is not going to help them.,


Anyways, from the people who I know watch the show, even the break-up seemed a bit staged, just to create more drama. It seems the production company for the show panicked when they lost Richard et al. I think most of the Trademark stuff was real, and they were dealing with a pretty good sized company. Then they go to this little guys who are not capable of doing the things Richard did, and they start staging stuff for the camera.

 

It is a huge learning experience, but at the same time flipping isn't that hard. It's a house.

After doing a few you learn what to look for, what to expect.



Hell, I should approach A&E about my flips. Most of the time these people don't even get inspections. Then they freak about the plumbing needing repairs, or some such. Granted if they buy off the courthouse steps (ie foreclosures) you can't really check. But still.

They make so many ridiculous mistakes.

However, I'd make a boring TV show. What do you know, he did his homework and it went smoothly and he made a few bucks. Big whoop.

The Montelongos rub me wrong, though I did like the brother. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there's some skeletons in their closets and David leaves. One show had some investor from California flying in and buying a house from them which seemed shady.

The New Haven group seemed on the up-and-up as well.

... and a friend of mine in South Carolina says he sees Trademark For Sale signs everywhere. So they're not selling everything in a day like they make it seem. And yes, Trademark is a much bigger company, with something like 50 employees.

 

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I don't believe for a minute that all of the "drama" on the Trademark Flip This House shows was real either.

I remember the one episode where the dumpster ran into Richard's brothers car. The trouble is the car was not the same car that was shown as his earlier in the episode.

That turned me off to the show completely.

 

As with any of these "reality shows" I'm sure there is a certain amount of acting it up for the cameras, however I have noticed people switching cars quite frequently in the real deal - it appears that some times they're driving company cars.

 

From the Montelongo's website:

"Armando, enjoys sparring, Tae Kwon Do, running, weight lifting, boating and family barbeques. These ventures create sanity and balance in his hectic and fast paced life. "

Looks to me like he cut out that sparring, Tae Kwon Do, running and weightlifting and has been focusing primarily on the family barbeques.

 

Now it's listed as "The Real Estate Pros"

 

... a fraud? Really? Nah, it can't be ... fraud in real estate, for a TV show?

'Flip This House' star accused of fraud

 

Also being discussed in TV Talk: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=352071

 

A lot of those TV shows that tell you how to buy real estate involve fraud. The people who follow them don't even realize it--until they get their asses sued.

 

Expound please.

 

I dunno. According to the ad, non-paid, blah, blah, blah. It sounds like they just wanted to ensure a good turn-out. It's no different than sports teams filling seats with temp workers. Unless they did something (like place fake bids), standing there isn't a crime and soliciting people to stand there shouldn't be either.

 

They typically involve some sort of a scheme to get into the house with little or no money down (and not by borrowing the money from a bank to pay the seller--that's different).

I haven't watched any of those shows for years, so I don't remember any of the specific scams. But about two years ago I did go to a seminar on equity skimmers. The mentioned how the defendants would say: "It's part of the program" without understanding the legal implications. They'd basically just open up and disclose all they'd done, not realizing how much trouble they were in.

 

It's guys like that that give Realtors a bad name...

There's plenty of honest realtors out there too, but these guys get all the publicity.

 

A "Realtor" is a member of a specific association. While these folks probably have their real estate licenses, I wouldn't even call them real estate agents. Most are only selling properties for their shell corp.

 

I think you might not be familiar with what this particular show, making this a somewhat misplaced criticism.

"Flip This House" is not a how-to show or an infomercial. It's a "reality" show that purports to follow a couple of companies that do house-flipping professionally. Each episode follows the drama that occurs as the company fights budget and personnel issues as they attempt to complete the house on time to get it back on the market.

This show does not describe any sort of financial scam or scheme... in fact, they barely touch on the purchasing of the house at all. At best, they might indicate that the house was purchased at auction, but that's about the most in depth they'll get into that aspect.

The problem with this particular series of episodes is that despite being presented as a reality-based show, the main person involved, Sam Leccima, does not in fact have a real estate license (it was revoked), did not complete the work to flip the house as shown (most of the work was mocked up just for the camera) and did not in fact sell the property at all, let alone for the profit they claimed to get for the property.

 

But it's a "tv show". It's not a game show, there's no prize money.. what does it matter if they faked the whole thing? I don't understand what about faking a non-gameing/prize winning show could be at all criminal.

What next, sueing Paramount because they faked pictures of the Enterprise in orbit around some distant planet?

 

But it's more newsy, or documentary-y. It's not supposed to be scripted fiction.

It's closer to when Dateline rigged the trucks to blow up.

 

I get your point, but a case could also be made that it will lead innocent viewers to believe that they too could flip a house in the same way? I've seen a lot of people get into Real Estate with dreams of great riches only to leave within a year due to starvation.

Secondly, it's probably great "free advertising" for the Real Estate Agent in that it makes him look like a magician. Many may hire him based on the shows. So in that scenario it could be construed that he did this for "self aggrandizement" and personal profit. I won't be surprised if the guy gets away with a slap on the wrist though.