But executives at the St. Petersburg company, which buys and sells real estate from Tampa to Fort Myers, do not regard themselves as a flippers and neither do the banks and real estate investors they do business with.
They consider DeSoto Holdings to be a wholesaler.
“If a house is in disrepair, it can be difficult to sell,” said Brad Hodge, who heads up the company's operations in Sarasota and Manatee counties. “It may need new plumbing or a new septic field. We search hard for homes like this — properties that people have to sell and can't wait to fix up. Then we sell to people who do the fixing.”
Court records show that DeSoto holdings paid $2.42 million to buy 64 properties in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties so far this year and has resold them in a matter of days or weeks for a total $2.69 million, or about $270,000 more than it paid.