June 02, 2007

HP REPOST: A&E Programming Note: "Flip This House" name change. Now "Scam This Country"

I've gotten tons of email and posts today about the A&E Flip This House scam, because yahoo and the AP finally ran a story (weeks later). So here's the repost. HP also got mentioned in the Kansas City Star on this subject. Nice to see the MSM chasing their tail (and the blogs).

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I'm sorry. I thought today was May 16. I didn't realize it was HousingPANIC Christmas! The gifts just keep coming!

Fox News Breaks "Flip This House" Case

If you ever wanted to know whether the real estate investors who say they make a lot of money are telling the truth or not, don't expect to learn it by watching A&E's "Flip This House."

In a stunning investigative report, Fox News Atlanta actually did their homework and found out that Sam Leccima, one of the 'stars' of the popular Fix/Flip weekly show had been involved in staging phony transactions, performing shoddy renovations, and, in the most bizarre bit of fakery, planting and un-planting landscaping for the cameras.

Mr. Leccima, when asked about the allegations, responded, "It's a television show."

Fox Atlanta also poked fun at A&E for not even bothering to check that Mr. Leccima had recently had his real estate license revoked by the Georgia real estate commission, before the show began airing, and now may be under investigation by the Georgia Attorney General for securities issues.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should really credit whoever it was who broke the story here at HP. I never liked that guy and his slick suits and fancy car anyway.

Anonymous said...

You do realize the difference between TV life and real life right renters?

What's next a shocking discovery by HP that wrestling is staged?

Anonymous said...

In my area, "Flip This House" on A&E is on opposite "Flip That House" on another channel.

blogger said...

so many readers sent this one in it's a group credit - thanks HPers

It's tough some times living in London keeping up with American pop culture and bad housing bubble TV. Are these shows still on the air or are they all cancelled by now?

Next up - GET ME OUT OF THIS TOXIC LOAN!

or

BUT SUZANNE RESEARCHED IT!!!

Anonymous said...

Are these shows still on the air or are they all cancelled by now?

Not only are they still on, but they are making new ones all the time. They always sell at a great big profit at the end. It pisses me off to no end. They always make money, they can't screw up, they can never over-spend, it always works out for the best. [/rant]

Anonymous said...

Mort said: They always make money...

Yeah, that is total BS. As if some knuckle-head can just go out and start a project, run into all the "issues" and crap they find and make money.

Anonymous said...

I've seen some shows where they lost money. One guy in the OC spent a month working on a house and it took him another four months to sell it just to break even. He and his friend must have put in at least 200 hours of labor into the house and got nothing in return. He even had his dad fly out from Boston to help him over the weekend. His regular day job was a coffee jock at Starbucks.

Paul E. Math said...

Those shows are almost impossible to watch if your hearing is especially acute when it comes to BS. For me, they produce a gag reflex, so obvious is the BS.

I find nothing shocking about this story and would only be surprised if A&E finally verified their other episodes and learned that none of the other developers were just scammers. I suspect most episodes in the last 2 years have been largely works of fiction.

Anonymous said...

Do you mean to tell me reality shows aren't real?

I guess no one would want to watch Suzanne in "Flip This Burger"

Out at the peak said...

They encouraged so many amateurs to try to flip houses themselves. There is probably more hard lessons learned than success stories if they started late 2005 or beyond.

Anonymous said...

i remember seeing one in the first season (with Richard, Ginger etc)where they weren't able to sell a beach house they fixed up, so they held onto it.

Anonymous said...

i remember seeing one in the first season (with Richard, Ginger etc)where they weren't able to sell a beach house they fixed up, so they held onto it.

Yeah, that was one house, out of a hundred episodes. You had to watch every one of the lucrative flips to find one they couldn't sell.

Anonymous said...

Ginger and Richard are on another station now with "The Real Deal". Not a big fan, but I watch because Ginger is a hottie!!

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one who suspects that Richard is tapping that stuff? She isn't there for her brains, I can tell you that much.

Anonymous said...

My favorite host - Tanya Memme from "Sell This House.

One word - UNGH

robert said...

OK, yea, it was fairly obvious this was a scam.

But the real atrocity is that America bought it lock stock and both barrels. Whilst they watch, some thought to themselves it was a scam and still played along. Now with proof, and with no doubt that it is a scam, they still play along. Proof positive of one big pyramid scheme and they still drink the cool-aid.

OK folks, in an effort to save time, let’s cut out the middle man. I’ll take the money off your hands just as fast as these swindlers, and you can still catch American Idol and be none the wiser.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Tanya Memme is HOT!

But the show where they threw a throw rug over a bad spot on some hardwood floor sucked.

Oh, and "they expect an offer any day now!" LOL

Anonymous said...

A&E should bear some of the blame for facilitating this fraud. It would have taken them only minutes to do a title serch and check the MLS to realize he was lying.

Anonymous said...

Now everybody needs to write fraud@paypal.com and request that they close his book selling account down based on that news article and what Georgia said about him in regards to real estate licensing.

http://samleccima.com/

Anonymous said...

When I first saw one of those flipper TV shows ,about 2 years ago, my first reaction was that the sheep will try to do this. Those flip show advertisers are in the real estate industry ,(like Lowes or some Lender ).

Anonymous said...

dear god the msm is now quoting the anonymous postings of a communist blog as evidence.

that's it, game over. it's official this country is beyond fucked.

Anonymous said...

Monkey see, monkey do. Now a whole lotta flippers are stuck in deep doo-doo. AHAHAHAHA

Unknown said...

Is their such an investment vehicle as "short sales for flippers?" This would make a great show. Think of all the intrigue potential of that.

--Jack Payne
www.sixhrs.com