'Lured by cheap St. Louis foreclosures, a California investor buys in bunches'
In an article recently published by The St Louis Post-Dispatch (article HERE), they discuss a California Investor that is making efforts to rehabilitate many of the crumbling foreclosures in St Louis. So far, Mr. Katsimbrakis has purchased more than 200 homes since 2010. In that amount of time he has managed to rehab and flip around 100 properties, while he has acquired and currently holds about 130 properties.
Mr. Katsimbrakis talked about how he has faced multiple hurdles. Many of the vacant properties are often targets of burglary and vandalism. Many of these homes that were being redone had thousands of dollars worth of new wiring, A/C units etc. stolen right from them. But they are taking measures to reduce this, and so far these measures have been relatively effective!
'Many of these neighborhoods have a history of investors snatching up cheap homes and then getting in over their heads, prolonging vacancy and decay. That’s not the case here, said Katsimbrakis, who lives in Newport Beach, Calif., and frequently flies to St. Louis and Palm Bay, Fla., where he’s developing residential homes. “We’re not going to leave the city,” he said.'
This is so important, we need to have more people investing in St Louis. We are always hearing about the bad. But I feel that it is important to highlight the good as well. We have seen much of the success of new construction and rehabs in St Louis City (Benton Park, Tower Grove, CWE, Dogtown, The Hill) and other areas and it has been a tremendous success!
In closing, Katsimbrakis said, “Our plan is not to leave the city,” he said. “It doesn’t matter that I live in California.” I love my city, do you?
