Family flips for home restoration business

Before the housing bubble burst in the late 2000s house flipping was a nationwide fad, up there with MySpace accounts and “Livestrong” wristbands. There were blogs, news articles and TV shows devoted to it.

But about 10 years prior to that, a former farmer and Hubert native, Clifton Humphrey, saw an opportunity when the area experienced a rash of home foreclosures. According to a report printed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, foreclosure rates in the United States remained level until about 1995, hitting their apex in 2002 after a recession in 2001.

These homes were usually in bad condition, but he believed buying them, repairing them, then selling them again, might not be a bad idea.

“I got started because foreclosures were so plentiful,” Humphrey said. “All of them (needed) 30 percent repairs or more. None of them were in good shape”

Humphrey estimates he has purchased 22 homes over the course of about 2 decades. Now, Barbara Garrett — his daughter and a former real estate agent — and her son, Matthew Russell have joined him. The business’ formal name is CD Investments, LLC Garrett, but Garrett calls it “The Flippin’ Family.”

Garrett has been working with her father as a personal real estate agent about 11 years and Russell, a recently retired soldier and Iraq War veteran, has two house flipping projects under his belt.

“I primarily got into (real estate) to be his agent,” Garrett said, adding that it wasn’t going to be a full-time position but she went on to find out that “you can’t be a part time agent.”

Garrett used to own Crossroads Realty in Jacksonville.

Their most recent house flip was in the family’s native part of the county, in the Bear Creek area of Hubert, at 137 Parnell Road. According to Onslow County Tax Office records, the house has been in Humphrey’s name since Dec. 2014 and has a tax market value of $112,970. Garnett said the 23-year-old, single-level home was in fairly good condition, save missing roof shingles and a hole in the wall.

Russell added that it looked like a “small forest” of high grass grew in the back yard and tree limbs in the front lawn had to be pruned.

The worst Garrett worked on was in 2005 in Bear Creek she only refers to as “The Snake House.”

“They raised snakes,” Garrett said about the home’s previous owners. “And, each bedroom had stacks and stacks…of cages where they had raised snakes. The house had been empty for several years.”

The interior of the house on Parnell Road is stark white. The walls and the cream colored furniture in the living room have spots of ornaments featuring cooler shades of blue and brown. Garrett said this is her MO when redesigning a flipped house, saying a neutral color palette gives the home’s next owner the flexibility to make their own designing adjustments.

Garrett said her family flips house from top to bottom, starting by patching holes in the roof to putting new floorboards on the foundation. Garrett said the company’s policy is to turn a home around in 30 days or less.

They use a small network of contractors to make sure the wiring is in place and the walls are sturdy, but interior design is firmly her domain.

“If you were to take away the pops of color, the turquoise and browns,” Garrett said. “Let’s say you strip this house of furniture and all the accessories…what you’re going to be left with is a very neutral interior, neutral enough that anybody can move in here and make this their own home.”

Humphrey added his daughter has a “natural talent” for interior design.

Exterior work has become Russell’s specialty, though he said tossing loose tree branches into the refuse bin and mowing lawns was not always his favorite thing in the world. Russell recalls spending much of his life outdoors, playing baseball, hunting and, while in the Army, training for combat. He said he’ll take outdoor work to staying cooped up inside any day.

Russell said the family company provides prospective owners, many of whom are Marines and sailors buying their first home, an special opportunity to own something they can truly call their own.

“Just to give lower-enlisted military a place to live,” Russell hopes to provide through the family’s work. “I know what it was like when I was there. It was a struggle and they need a good place to live as well.”

If you want to buy the Parnell Road house, you’re out of luck. Donna Chase, a local realtor, sold it on Monday. This is the second time Chase sold a home the family flipped. She also sold a home one block down the street — 254 Parnell Road — which was on the market for 75 days. Chase said the home on 137 Parnell Road sold in nearly half that time. The house went off the market in less than 40 days and the deal will close on April 9.

Chase said the Bear Creek market has taken a downturn, but the family’s efforts is giving it a new face and a new sense of pride.

“They’re giving back to that community,” Chase said. “It helps drive the economy and it will certainly help the morale of the community…I love to see a community pitch in and give everything they’ve got.”

Garrett said she’s pleased about how the project turned out, but she’s on the lookout for what’s next. Whatever it is, you’ll probably see her, her son and, health permitting, her 83-year-old father there.

The family flips houses across the county, but she said she especially hopes to rejuvenate the Bear Creek area.

“Thirty days ago, this house looked pretty sad,” Garrett said. “This was an example of what some of the homes in this neighborhood is becoming and I feel like we are helping to bring a community back, a neighborhood back…Nothing is more unsightly than a house that’s vacant and overgrown and in disrepair.”