Tarek and Christina Flopped on an Appearance in Portland in December 2015

Step right up Ladies and Gentlemen …

So! Social media backlash got them in Portland: Tarek and Christina El Moussa, the flipper king and queen from the HGTV series “Flip or Flop,” were scheduled to appear in Portland last month for a “live training” event designed to show folks how to make money and get rich in the local real estate market. But that didn’t happen.

My my, does this sound familiar? People took issue with the “premise of the event – quickly buying and selling homes for a profit – in a housing market that has seen fast-rising home values, skyrocketing rents, no-cause evictions and historically low vacancy rates,” according to The Oregonian. Portland-area homes, like San Francisco, Seattle and — and DALLAS — posted annual gains at the third-fastest rate in the country in September, according to Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index (from September 2015):

Houses in the region increased in value by 10.1 percent from September to September, the report found. For the second-straight month, only home values in Denver (10.9 percent) and San Francisco (11.2 percent) increased more quickly. Dallas (9 percent) and Seattle (8.2 percent) were next in line.

So James Carlson, of Advanced Real Estate Education, the company organizing the seminar in conjunction with Success Path Events, obviously using these HGTV stars for window dressing to bring in crowds, says he didn’t know there was a problem in Portland with housing affordability:

“We didn’t know that there was a local issue in terms of affordability of rents,” said James Carlson, of Advanced Real Estate Education.

Wait, help me here. This guy teaches real estate, teaches people how to buy and flip homes and make money, or oversees the whole “advanced” course, and “he doesn’t know there was a local issue in terms of affordability of rents?” If he doesn’t know that, he doesn’t know the local market. If he doesn’t know the local market, why the hell is he offering a course to “educate people”?

Oh wait, it was free:

The events are initially free, Carlson added, with attendees encouraged to purchase an investment course at the conclusion.

Yep, the old purchase the investment course trick.

Meantime, the fourth season of “Flip or Flop” premieres Thursday at 9 p.m. Jon, we have to attend one of these — just please NOT the Days Inn in Sherman. (I’m sure it’s lovely, she said…)

How about the Holiday Inn Express or the Magnolia Hotel? We will go undercover, of course!

!

 

February 2	Days Inn Sherman	6PM
February 2	Holiday Inn McKinney-Fairview	6PM
February 3	Hyatt Regency Richardson	Noon & 6PM
February 3	Embassy Suites Frisco	Noon & 6PM
February 4	Grapevine Convention Center	Noon & 6PM
February 4	Hilton Garden Inn, Allen	Noon & 6PM
February 5	Castle Heights Bijoux Events Center, Waco	Noon
February 5	Hilton Garden Inn, Las Colinas	Noon
February 6	Holiday Inn Express North Dallas	9AM
February 6	Magnolia Hotel, Dallas	9AM