BY MARK PUENTE AND DARLA CAMERONTimes Staff Writers

Real estate investors have discovered a for-mula that transforms Tampa Bay’s housingcrash into quick and easy profits.Howquick?In Hillsborough County last year, 242 homes

were bought and then resold within just oneday. Another 113 sold the same way in Pinellas.To be clear, that’s not a seller finding a buyer inone day and entering into a contract that closesweeks later. It is a property bought and sold inone day, start to finish.Howeasy?The price markup on one-day flips averaged

$9,728 inHillsborough; $7,545 in Pinellas.Darren Wilson got a hard lesson in this fren-

zied business in October when he offered$18,000 cash for a foreclosed house in Tam-pa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood. Wilsonsays he refused the real estate agent’s requestto also represent both him and the seller, so shewouldn’t have to split the commission.The home later sold for $16,900. The same

agentWilson turned downwound up represent-ing the seller and the buyer,West FloridaWhole-sale properties. West Florida sold the homeagain for $26,000, a 53 percentmarkup.Wilson lost thedeal despitemaking thehigher

bid, and the bank lost $1,100.Said Wilson: “There is something strange

going onhere.”

• ••

Flipping isn’t new. It was common during thereal estate boom that peaked in 2006. Peopleprofited by buying and reselling homes in a rap-idly appreciatingmarket.Today, in a depressed market, astonishing

speed stands out.In calendar year 2011, 587 homes sold twice in

Hillsborough County. Themedian time between

Quickflipsprofita fewFour firms account formorethan 30 percent of propertyflips that take aweek or less.

. See FLIPS, 15A

ATampaBayTimesinvestigation

After gathering in Grant Park, protesters marched through the streets of Chicago last weekend, trying to get as close as they could toMcCormick Place, where the NATO summit was held. Chicago police officers on foot, bicycle, horseback and Segway lined the streets.

A COMING CLASH

Tampa police Assistant Chief John Bennettstopped to watch it all from the dappled shade ofa young elm tree.In August, Tampa will host the Republican

National Convention, and many of the same pro-testers will converge on its streets. Bennett andother local public safety officers had come to get apeek atwhat to expectwhen 10,000protestersmassin Tampa’s smaller, andmuchhotter, downtown.“This looks like the aftermath of Gasparilla

right now,” Bennett said, as a caped man wearinga rubber boot as a hat circled four people carryingcardboard cornstalks.Bennett predicted that Tampa, with its experi-

ence handling the Super Bowl and the Gasparilla

parade’s drunken crowd of 500,000, could dealwith this.As he spoke, the sun disappeared and the

wind picked up. Thunder cracked. Less than 100feet away, Chicago police officers in pale blue hel-mets and protesters in black bandannas beganjostling. Bottles and sticks flew. A man scaled askinny leafless tree and shook it violently.Bennett craned his neck. “They rushed the

police,” he said.He climbed a barricade and turned on his video

camera, zooming in on the fracas. It was hardto tell what was going on, but the swinging billyclubs didn’t look likeGasparilla.

Tampa preps for protests at theRepublicanNational Conventionby studying a dress rehearsal of sorts: theNATO summit inChicago.

STORYBYLEONORALAPETERANTON | PHOTOSBYMELISSA LYTTLE | Times Staff

CHICAGO

The socialists shouted and theHare Krishnas hummed. Half a dozenmen held up a Palestinian flag the size ofa swimming pool.Middle-classmoms in pinkwielded cardboard guns, part of the antiwar crowd.On the first day of theNATOsummit lastweekend, an estimated 3,000protesterswith everymessage imag-

inable swarmed south on Michigan Avenue. They were flanked on either side by compact lines of Chicagopolice officers.

A scrum of young people dressed in black and wearing masks snaked through the crowd carrying a red and blackanarchy flag.“What dowewant?” they roared. “Dead cops!Whendowewant it?Now.”

. See PROTEST, 8A

“It’s got to be safe for everyone.It can’t be survival of the fittest,”Tampa police Assistant Chief JohnBennett said, referring to expectedprotests during the RNC in Tampa.

DANIEL WALLACE | Times

Hillsborough County’s chiefmedical examiner, VernardAdams, 59, plans to take acollege position after 21 yearsand thousands of autopsies.

EndformedicalexaminerNo,HillsboroughCounty’s chief pathologist isn’t dying. He’s retiring.BY PATTY RYANTimes Staff Writer

TAMPA — Vernard Adamshas the physique of a man whowalks 3 miles a day, lifts weightsand regularly dances the tango.He lunches on nutrient-rich sar-dines and broccoli. He’s 59 andhealthy, with a fatherwho is 90.But he does autopsies for a liv-

ing, and so, yes, he has consid-ered howhemight prefer to go.“A cardiac arrhythmia,” he

said. “It’s instant death. Theheart stops. Ten seconds later,you’re unconscious.” He pauses.Wry smile. “But on a water haz-ard at the golf course.”He doesn’t golf. He just likes

the idea of leaving a challenge forfellow forensic pathologists.Hillsborough County’s chief

medical examiner will retire

from his post next month, after21 years of solving the district’spuzzles. He has accepted a uni-versity position out of state.His 3,922 autopsy reports, the

bulk of a career total near 5,500,will linger in color-coded files:red for homicide, yellow for sui-cide and black for traffic crashes.The plain manila ones, deathsfrom natural diseases, interestedhim the most, though televisioncameras came for the others.His first autopsy was a lung

cancer patient at Tufts Univer-sity School ofMedicine. Hismostrecent: a possible drug overdose.Over the years, as he watched,

death changed its robes.Drug abusers started arriving

obese, with bad backs and oxy-codone habits, eclipsing gaunt. See ADAMS, 12A

USF softballteamheads toCollegeWorldSeries. Sports, 1C

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Arewe there yet?School’s out! Time to take off. But before youdo, read our vacation ideas anda survivalguide for summer’s family road trip. 1L

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Syria blamedas attacks kill32 childrenU.N. andU.S. officials condemnthe violence, which raises newquestions about a peace plan.Associated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Gruesome video Satur-day showed rows of dead Syrian children lyingin a mosque in bloody shorts and T-shirts withgaping head wounds, haunting images of whatactivists called one of the deadliest regimeattacks yet in Syria’s 14-month-old uprising.Syrian tanks and artillery pounded the village

of Houla, near the restive city of Homs, duringthe day, opposition groups said, then soldiersandpro-government fighters stormed the villageand killed families in their homes late at night.The attacks Friday killed more than 90 people,

including at least 32 children under the age of 10,the head of theU.N. observer team in Syria said.The attacks sparked outrage from U.S. and

other international leaders, and large protests inthe suburbs of Syria’s capital of Damascus andits largest city. The attacks also renewed fears ofthe relevance of amonth-old international peaceplan that has not stopped almost daily violence.The United Nations denounced the attacks in

. See SYRIA, 6A

* * * * Tampa Bay Times | Sunday, May 27, 2012 | 15A

the first sale and the close of the second: three days. Pinellas expe-rienced a similar pattern.

A Tampa Bay Times investi-gation of property deals in Hills-borough and Pinellas counties found that four firms account for more than 30 percent of the flips that take a week or less.

One of them is West Florida Wholesale Properties, the firm that bought the house Wilson wanted. In 2011, West Florida bought and then resold 139 prop-erties within just 60 days.

Most of West Florida’s flips took place in much less time. The average was nine days; the median 5.5 days. On average, the final selling price was 33 percent higher than what West Florida originally paid.

Take as an example West Flori-da’s flip of a three-bedroom, two-bath 1,864-square-foot house at 3909 Deleuil Ave. in Tampa.

Fannie Mae, the government sponsored mortgage holder, had foreclosed on the home in November 2010 and subse-quently sold it two months later to California-based USA Rental Fund LLC for $19,000.

On March 14, West Florida bought the house for $39,500.

That same day, West Florida resold the house for $69,000.

• • •

The Times asked how West Florida Wholesale Properties can flip so many homes so quickly.

Lee Kearney, a real estate agent and husband of company managing member Megan Zelin-skas, said West Florida finds potential buyers while still nego-tiating with the bank to buy the property.

Kearney said many West Flor-ida customers are investors from France, Spain and England. He said the firm promises to fix up the homes after the sale, so the investors can then rent them out. West Florida profits on the quick flip by convincing buyers that the home has future earning poten-tial, Kearney said

He said the investors make more in rental profits than they could make in the stock market.

“We send before and after pic-tures” to the investors, he said. “It’s a complete package.”

Kearney has a connection to one of the other firms that dom-inate the bay area’s quick flip market. Bay Area Trust, formed in 2008 by Gregory Vander Wel, received $478,400 more than it paid by flipping 59 houses in a week or less last year, according to public records. That’s an aver-age increase of more than 24 per-cent.

Kearney holds only a sales associate license. In 2011, he han-dled a few transactions under Vander Wel’s broker’s license, a common practice within the industry.

Vander Wel, through a spokes-person, declined to talk to the Times.

• • •

Christopher Smith of Bay to Gulf Holdings laughed when asked about West Florida Whole-sale Properties’ practice of mak-ing improvements after selling homes.

That is not how Smith’s com-pany does business.

“You buy and fix, then sell,” he said.

Smith’s Tampa firm received $301,000 more than it origi-nally paid by flipping 31 homes in a week or less in 2011, accord-ing to public records. Smith said the firm buys most of its proper-ties from courthouse auctions in Hillsborough County.

One of his firm’s flips was the 1,088-square-foot house at 1910 E Flora St. in Tampa.

On March 18, Bay to Gulf bought the home from Fannie Mae for $25,000.

That same day, Bay to Gulf flipped the home to FPNS Invest-ments LLC for $30,000. A tidy increase, to be sure, but noth-ing compared to what FPNS got the next month when it sold the same house to Yves Sellier for $70,000.

Smith emphasized that he finds buyers while the paperwork for his bank deal is being final-ized. Although the prices appear low on many deals, he said lend-ers prefer cash buyers instead of deals contingent upon apprais-als, financing and repairs.

“Which offer would you take if you were the bank?” Smith asked. “There is no secret to this.”

Mark Helmling of St. Peters-burg-based Central Florida Hold-ings Group, said lenders are try-ing to get houses off their books.

3909 Deleuil Ave., TampaYear built: 1958 Sq. ft.: 1,864 Beds/baths: 3/2Original list price: $39,900

Sale activityNov. 11, 2010: Citi-Mortgage transfers to Fannie MaeJan. 27, 2011: Fan-nie Mae sells to California-based USA Rental Fund LLC for $19,000March 14: USA Rental Fund sells to West Florida Wholesale Properties for $39,500March 14: West Florida Wholesale Properties sells to 3909 Deleuil Avenue LLC for $69,000

West Florida Wholesale Properties Flips in a week or less: 60Total price increase: $529,200Avg. increase: $8,820Flips in 60 days or less: 139Total price increase: $1,773,600Avg. increase: $12,760

Bay Area TrustFlips in a week or less: 59Total price increase: $478,400Avg. increase: $8,108Flips in 60 days or less: 76Total price increase: $662,200Avg. increase: $8,713

Bay to Gulf HoldingsFlips in a week or less: 31Total price increase: $301,000Avg. increase: $9,710Flips in 60 days or less: 58Total price increase: $904,000Avg. increase: $15,586

Central Florida Holdings GroupFlips in a week or less: 43Total price increase: $234,000Avg. increase: $5,442Flips in 60 days or less: 73Total price increase: $473,700Avg. increase: $6,489

He, like Smith, said his firm makes renovations before resell-ing homes to investors.

His company rece ived $234,000 more than what it paid by flipping 43 homes in a week or less, according to public records.

“We are aboveboard,” Helm-ling said. “The banks are the ones creating their own problems” by not seeking higher prices.

Last year his firm flipped a 1,235-square-foot house at 7307 50th Ave. N, in St. Petersburg.

It purchased the home from the U.S. Department of Hous-ing and Urban Development on Oct. 6 for $20,000 and sold it for $25,000 the next day to Hector Patino and Denise Baker-Winter. One day later, they sold the same house to Thomas and Janeadaire Durban for $35,000.

• • •

Making improvements after selling homes isn’t the only dif-ference that sets West Florida apart from its rivals.

More than 85 percent of West Florida’s quick flips included a single real estate agent repre-senting both the bank and West Florida. Fifty-two of 60 to be pre-cise. At the other three firms, the same agent represented both buyer and seller on less than 35 percent of the quick flips.

Darren Wilson says it cost him

a deal. He’s the part-time inves-tor who offered to buy the home on N Cherokee Avenue in Tampa for $18,000 that West Florida secured for $16,900 and then quickly resold for $26,000.

Christina Griffin, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker in Tampa, represented Bank of America in the sale. According to Wilson, she demanded that she also rep-resent him on the sale, a request he refused.

She wound up representing the bank and West Florida on the deal, which allowed her to avoid splitting the commission with another agent, according to My Florida Regional Multiple List-ing Service data.

Bank of America spokes-woman Jumana Bauwens said the bank rejected Wilson’s bid because a required form was missing. Wilson insists he signed the form.

Griffin and Coldwell Banker did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“This is wrong,” Wilson said. “Nobody is looking at this.”

• • •

Should someone in author-ity be concerned about the new quick flip phenomenon?

It may be nothing more than people trying to make a buck, just as they did with earlier, more

are absorbing the losses.”Should real estate firms and

Realtors transform this hypo-thetical scenario into actual prac-tice, it might run afoul of the law, according to former prosecutors.

“Brokers and real estate agents acting on behalf of a seller of real property have a duty to present all offers to purchase, whether high or low, to their seller,’’ said Brian Albritton, former U.S attor-ney for the Middle District of Florida and currently a partner at Phelps Dunbar in Tampa.

Todd Foster, a former su-pervisory assis-tant U.S. attor-ney and man-aging attorney at Todd Foster Law Group in Tampa, said ac-tivity in which an agent fun-neled homes to one buyer could be considered a ‘‘scheme to de-fraud’’ under federal law.

In this context, Foster said: ‘‘This may include a buyer, seller, appraiser, Realtor or mortgage broker — the statute is broad enough to reach anyone who defrauds another. However, before being held criminally responsible, an individual must be shown to have specifically intended to defraud another. Merely being involved in a trans-action where there has been a loss, regardless of the amount of the loss, does not mean there has been a crime committed.”

Foster pointed specifically to the bank fraud and mail fraud sections of the U.S. Code. The former “proscribes the use of a scheme or artifice . . . to defraud a Federally chartered or insured financial institution.’’

The latter basically makes it a crime to use the U.S. mails to accomplish the same thing.

Ann Fulmer, a former Georgia prosecutor who co-founded the Georgia Real Estate Fraud Pre-vention and Awareness Coali-tion, said a crime could be diffi-cult to prove even if taxpayers are absorbing losses.

“The shorter time between sales, the more likely it is shenanigans,” she said. “But it can be difficult to tell. You don’t know what the (real estate agent) told the bank.”

Mark Puente can be reached at mpuente@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8459. Follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/markpuente.

From the front page > tampabay.com for the latest news

. FLIPS continued from 1A

Quick flips bring in big bucks for a few

1910 E Flora St., TampaYear built: 1953 Sq. ft.: 1,088 Beds/baths: 3/1Original list price: $49,900

Sale activityMarch 18, 2011: Fannie Mae sells to Bay to Gulf Holdings LLC for $25,000March 18: Bay to Gulf sells to FPNS Investments LLC for $30,000April 29: FPNS investments sells to Yves Sellier for $70,000

3260 Laurel Dale Drive, TampaYear built: 1984 Sq. ft.: 1,338 Beds/baths: 2/2Original list price: $75,000

Sale activityJuly 2, 2010: Wells Fargo deeds to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban DevelopmentJune 22, 2011: HUD sells to Bay Area Trust LLC for $35,000June 24: Bay Area Trust sells to Salma Properties LLC for $55,000

7307 50th Ave. N, St. PetersburgYear built: 1957 Sq. ft.: 1,235 Beds/baths: 4/2Original list price: $44,000

Sale activityOct. 6, 2011: HUD sells to Central Florida Holdings Group Inc. for $20,000Oct. 7: Central Florida Holdings Group sells to Hector Patino and Denise Baker-Winter for $25,000Oct. 7: Patino and Baker-Winter sell to Thomas and Janeadaire Durban for $35,000

Sources: Florida Department of State, Department of Corporations; Hillsborough and Pinellas county records; My Florida Regional MLS data

Four companies stand out

Here are government-owned homes flipped by each of the companies

A look at deals in Hillsborough and Pinellas finds these four making more than 30 percent of flips that take a week or less.

5 miles

301

41

60

75

4

75

275

275

Tampa

NewTampa

Plant City

Sun City

Brandon

Tampa Bay

DARLA CAMERON | Times

HILLSBOROUGH

Source: Hillsborough County Property Appraiser

39 properties bought and sold twice in the same day

West Florida Wholesale Properties bought and then resold 111 Hillsborough County homes in 60 days or less last year. The company flipped many of them in a week or less.

21 properties bought and sold twice in one week or less

51 properties bought and sold two to four times in two months

Fast sales, for a profit

DANIEL WALLACE | Times DANIEL WALLACE | Times

DANIEL WALLACE | Times SCOTT KEELER | Times

conventional forms of flipping.Further, state records contain

no complaints against West Flor-ida, Bay to Gulf, Bay Area Trust or Central Florida Holdings. And the Times could find no exam-ples of federal authorities prose-cuting anyone for similar quick flips.

That’s not to say that regula-tors aren’t curious about this new world of flipping.

The Times sent a sample sale from each of the four firms that do many of the quick flips in Hillsborough and Pinellas to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In response, HUD spokes-man Lemar Wooley said the Fed-eral Housing Administration “has received information about instances of investors who have ‘flipped’ FHA (foreclosed homes) acquisitions for a quick profit and is in the process of conduct-ing an internal review of these instances. As such, HUD has no comment on the specific cases cited in Florida at this time.’’

The combination of rapid-fire flips and a single agent repre-senting both the buyer and seller on the original sale raises con-cerns that banks and the federal government and ultimately tax-payers are losing money on the sale of foreclosed homes.

Joni Herndon, vice chairwoman of the Florida Real Estate Apprais-al Board, and other real estate observers are concerned about a potentially worrisome symbiotic relationship among a few inves-tors and real estate agents.

“There’s too much monkey business going on,” said Hern-don, a 27-year industry veteran who testifies in court on real estate fraud. “It’s the little cliques that work all these deals.”

The scenario she and others fear begins with a real estate firm trying to assure a steady supply of houses to flip in a highly com-petitive market for foreclosed properties. The firm joins with a Realtor who represents a bank or other lender needing to dispose of large numbers of foreclosed properties.

The deal:The Realtor representing the

bank funnels homes to the real estate firm, assuring a steady supply. In return, the Realtor also gets to represent the real estate firm in the sales, avoiding having to split the commission.

In that arrangement, the Real-tor has no incentive to present the bank with other potentially higher offers from parties the Realtor does not represent.

To real estate experts, the rapid

Joni Herndon fears there’s “monkey business” going on.

resale suggests that the original seller did not get the best price for the property. And, since fed-eral agencies owned some of the homes or insured the mortgages on them, rapid flips could mean that taxpayers may be short-changed in the process.

“How the heck does a home’s value go up by (thousands of dol-lars) in eight hours?” Herndon said. “Somebody dropped the ball at the bank. They’re not doing their due diligence. The taxpayers