"We looked at it and said, 'That's the way Sacramento is growing, people will be wanting to move out there,' " said Evan Weinzinger, a data-center manager from Vacaville who bought a home for $508,000 in Lincoln two years ago as an investment with his wife, Angela.
Some 14 percent of the homes sold in Lincoln in 2005 were purchased by investors like the Weinzingers, who schooled themselves by attending real estate seminars and watching cable-TV reality shows like "Flip This House." They bought a home in Texas and one on Keswick Court in Lincoln Crossing.
The Texas property is doing well. But the four-bedroom home on Keswick is another matter. The Weinzingers never found a tenant for it, maxed out their credit cards to meet the $2,900 monthly mortgage payments and lost the place to foreclosure in March. It's listed for $389,900.
"It's brand new," Weinzinger said. "No one's ever lived in it."
I've caught about 3 relatively recent episodes of Flip This House, and none of the houses sold.