This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(May 2013) |
Company type | privately held |
---|---|
Industry | real estate |
Founded | 2006 |
Headquarters | Austin, Texas |
Key people | Jeff Ball |
Econohomes is a privately held company based in Austin, Texas, specializing in foreclosures. It's known as real estate owned properties (REO), and specialty financing across the United States. [1] [2] The company buys distressed residential properties wholesale and resells them online at prices under $100,000. Buyers are mostly made up of investors who renovate and resell or rent the properties. [3]
Founded in 2006, [4] Econohomes’ initial goal was to serve the deep sub-prime market by retailing affordable homes. But, after the subprime mortgage crisis, CEO Jeff Ball realigned the business model to sell to investors. [5] [6]
Jeff Ball is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the business, as well as spearheading capital raising efforts. Most recently, Jeff was the Global Head of Semiconductor Investment Banking at JPMorgan. Jeff received his JD and MBA from Santa Clara University. He received his BA in Economics and Theology from Georgetown University. [7]
Econohomes offers full bilingual services and Spanish-language online information to help the Hispanic community buy more real estate as first time home owners and real estate investors. [8]
In 2012, Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine named Econohomes as one of the Top 50 Real Estate Investment Opinion Makers and Market Leaders in the category of Leading Lenders and Other Vital Services. [9]
Additionally, in 2012, Econohomes was named number 15 of The 100 Best Companies to Work for in Texas, a project of the Texas Association of Business (TAB), the Society for Human Resources Management – Texas State Council, and the Best Companies Group. This ranking was awarded in the Small Companies division. [10]
On October 18, 2012, Econohomes was awarded the #2 spot on Austin Business Journal’s annual list of Austin’s 50 fastest growing private companies, in the category of businesses grossing over $10M in yearly revenue. [11]
According to Jeff Ball, CEO of Econohomes, being named second of the Fast 50 is an honor and a result of the increasingly vital role Econohomes is playing in turning distressed properties lost to foreclosure back into family homes. "At Econohomes, we are passionate about helping small, local investors unlock the value trapped in distressed foreclosure properties,” says Ball. [12]
On November 12, 2012, Econohomes was named #40 on Austin American-Statesman’s 2012 Top Workplaces of Greater Austin list. The list was compiled through WorkplaceDynamics’ surveys asking workers to rate their employers on issues such as leadership and direction, ethics and values, and how well employees are treated. The ranking was awarded in the Top Small Companies 2012 category. [13] [14] [15]
A real estate investment trust is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of commercial real estate, including office and apartment buildings, studios, warehouses, hospitals, shopping centers, hotels and commercial forests. Some REITs engage in financing real estate. REITs act as a bridge between the worlds of housing and urban development on one hand, and institutional investors and financial markets on the other. They are typically categorized into commercial REITs (C-REITs) and residential REITs (R-REITs), with the latter focusing on housing assets such as apartments and single-family homes.
Foreclosure investment refers to the process of investing capital in the public sale of a mortgaged property following foreclosure of the loan secured by that property.
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In finance, flipping is a term used to describe purchasing an asset and quickly reselling it for profit.
Real estate investing involves the purchase, management and sale or rental of real estate for profit. Someone who actively or passively invests in real estate is called a real estate entrepreneur or a real estate investor. In contrast, real estate development is building, improving or renovating real estate.
Real estate owned, or REO, is a term used in the United States to describe a class of property owned by a lender—typically a bank, government agency, or government loan insurer—after an unsuccessful sale at a foreclosure auction. A foreclosing beneficiary will typically set the opening bid at such an auction for at least the outstanding loan amount. If there are no interested bidders, then the beneficiary will legally repossess the property. This is commonly the case when the amount owed on the home is higher than the current market value of the foreclosure property, such as with a mortgage loan made at a high loan-to-value during a real estate bubble. As soon as the beneficiary repossesses the property it is listed on their books as REO and categorized as an asset..
Casey Konstantin Serin is an Uzbekistan-born American blogger, mortgage broker, and real estate investor. In a newspaper article, USA Today called him the "poster child for everything that went wrong in the real estate boom". Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Serin immigrated to the United States in 1994. After graduating from high school, Serin bounced from job to job, generally working in website design. However, in his early twenties, Serin decided to quit working full-time in order to pursue a career in house flipping as a means of earning an income and building wealth. In an eight-month period beginning in October 2005, Serin purchased eight houses in four southwest U.S. states, and then began blogging about the foreclosure process on the properties he was unable to resell. In time, five of the eight properties foreclosed. The dubious nature of Serin's real estate transactions, coupled with his subsequent blogging about the affair, have led to Serin's name becoming strongly associated with the subprime mortgage crisis.
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James Odell Barnes Jr. has earned the nickname "Foreclosure King." His firm, Odell Barnes REO, is a bulk-buyer of foreclosed homes in the United States. For decades, Barnes has been buying foreclosed homes in bulk from banks and other mortgage-lenders and selling them to a network of private investors and directly to homeowners. Barnes and his investors sell the homes below current market value, typically with low down payments and higher-than-normal interest rates.
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RealtyTrac is a real estate information company and an online marketplace for foreclosed and defaulted properties in the United States. It was founded in 1993 and is based in Santa Barbara, California. It publishes a monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.
Aspen Capital is a merchant bank in Portland, Oregon, USA. The private merchant bank specializes in loan acquisitions, real estate financing and investment, distressed securities and hospitality. Originally known as Aspen Capital Partners, the bank was once strictly focused on commercial real estate, but entered the residential property market in 2004 by offering loans to homeowners who were nearing foreclosure.
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Doug Clark is an American real estate investor and TV personality. Before getting into real estate, Doug also worked as an airline pilot. Between 2011 and 2012, he was featured on the Spike TV reality television series Flip Men alongside co-host Mike Baird. The series follows Baird and Clark as they purchase foreclosed houses at auction, remodel the homes, and sell them for return profits.
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