Do-Nothing Flipper Pockets Quick $80K

Without raising a hammer and only two months after buying the property, an Orange-based investor flipped a two-family home on Wolcott Street to a fellow suburban LLC — at a nearly $80,000 markup.

That was just the latest flip in a trend in New Haven’s hot housing market. (Recent land transactions appear at the bottom of this article.)

According to the city’s land record database, on consecutive days at the end of July, two different investors flipped two different two-family homes just around the corner from one another for tens of thousands of dollars more than they bought those properties for just a few months earlier.

The first flip took place on July 28, when a company called Block Chain Holdings LLC — controlled by Roger Dawson of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — sold the two-family house at 62 Saltonstall Ave. to Michael and Virginia Caroleo for $245,000.

That sale came less than five months after Dawson’s holding company purchased that same Saltonstall Avenue property on March 8 for $163,000. The city last appraised the two-family home as worth $142,500.

The second flip took place on July 29, when a company called Premiere Properties Group IV LLC — controlled by Nicholas Mastrangelo of Orange — sold the two-family house at 145 Wolcott St. to a company called Kangrui Investment Inc. for $269,400.

That sale came two months after Mastrangelo’s holding company purchased the Wolcott Street property on May 28 for $190,000. The city last appraised the two-family home as worth $140,200.

The Fair Haven flips mark the latest examples of out-of-town landlords cashing in on soaring housing prices that extend outside of downtown’s market-rate apartment construction boom and into surrounding neighborhoods’ low- and middle-income rental market.

According to a ground-floor tenant on Wolcott Street, Mastrangelo’s brief ownership of that two-family home didn’t result in any noticeable improvements or repairs.

“He bought it, then he flipped it,” said Iris Hagadone, a 30-year-old New Haven native who works part-time for the city as a crossing guard.

She offered that assessment in a matter of fact way — with no malice or contempt for the flipper.

“He was OK. He has a lot of houses,” she said.

Before Mastrangelo’s LLC purchased the property in May, Hagadone said, the two-family home at 145 Wolcott St. was owned by Hagadone’s grandmother for nearly 30 years. Her grandmother sold the property and moved in with Hagadone’s parents in Hamden earlier this year after getting sick, she said.

Hagadone added that she met briefly on Tuesday afternoon with the new owner of the property.

Kangrui Investment Inc., the company that now owns the Wolctott Street rental property, is controlled by Orange-based investor Jin Lin.

Hagadone said that, as far as she’s aware, her and her husband’s $900 monthly rent for their two-bedroom apartment will not be increasing, even with the recent change(s) in ownership.

How does she feel about living in a house that used to belong to her family, and that was recently flipped from investor to investor at a nearly $80,000 markup?

Hagadone smiled and shrugged. As long as her rent stays the same, she said, her top concerns are noise and safety in the neighborhood.

The Wolcott Street flipper, Mastrangelo, and the two-family Wolcott Street property’s new owner, Lin, did not respond to multiple requests for comment by the publication time of this article.

A recent Zillow listing for the property posted by Coldwell Banker Realty, meanwhile, shows 145 Wolcott St. bearing an asking price of $272,500. ​“Attention Owners and Investors ! Great opportunity for a very well kept home that has never been offered for sale on the MLS,” that listing reads. ​“This home has had many updates and has been well cared for over the years. It features 2 large units. The 1st floor unit with a large eat in kitchen, full bathroom, living room and 2 bedrooms. The 2nd floor unit has been combined with the 3rd floor for updated town house style unit. This unit has a large eat in kitchen, dining room, large living room, 2 full bathrooms, 4 – 5 bedrooms and in unit laundry room. The property also offers off street parking and a private rear yard. Call today to schedule your private showing.”

“Ministry House” Planned After Saltonstall Flip

The Florida-based flipper of 62 Saltonstall Ave., Dawson — who has a controversial history in New Haven’s low-income housing market — also could not be reached for comment for this story. A representative from his company, Block Chain Holdings LLC, did not respond to an email request for comment.

According to 62 Saltonstall’s new owner, the previous landlord did undertake quite a few improvements and repairs to the currently-empty two-family home.

“It has all new floors. It’s all painted, all cleaned up,” said Mike Caroleo, who runs the local Christian-centered 180 Center recovery project currently based out of Grand Avenue.

City building permit records show that, during Block Chain Holdings LLC’s brief ownership of the property, the company repaired fire damage to the first floor ceiling and second floor wall (at an estimated cost of $10,000) and rewired the first and second floor kitchens (at an estimated cost of $1,500).

Caroleo said he plans to convert the two-family house on Saltonstall into a new sober house — or ​“ministry house,” as he prefers to call it — for up 9 or 10 people at a time to rent individual rooms by the week and follow a specific set of guidelines as they work towards putting their lives back together.

Caroleo said the prospective new tenants of 62 Saltonstall will be able to rent rooms for between $120 and $150 per week. There will be no drinking or drug use at the house, and tenants will have to be home by curfew and give at least 30 days notice if they want to leave.

“Pretty basic stuff,” he said.

He also said that his company already runs another sober house right next door at an adjacent multi-family home on Saltonstall Ave. In total, he has four ​“ministry houses” across the city.

“The need is great,” Caroleo said. ​“People need a safe, clean place to live.”

Caroleo said that, when he purchased the flipped 62 Saltonstall Ave. at a roughly $80,000 markup than what Dawson’s company had paid for it roughly five months prior, the property had no tenants.

Click here, and see the charts below, for a roundup of other recent local property transactions.