Ft. Worth PI tracks down value in Olney’s older homes
Fort Worth Private Investigator Tim Matheus has rehabilitated and flipped five homes in Olney in the past two years, using his investigative skills to track down the owners of the dilapidated structures and persuade them to sell.
Mr. Matheus, a retired sales manager at Johnson & Johnson and Proctor & Gamble, has always had a knack for property deals. By age 26, he owned about 30 or 40 rental homes in the Metroplex that he and his wife, a former buyer for Dillard’s department stores, had bought and remodeled. These days, he is rehabbing starter houses in Graham and Olney, and renting or offering rent-to-own financing to buyers through his company, Profile Equities LLC.
A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage comes with a 6-7.5 percent interest rate on a 5 percent down payment, depending on the buyer’s credit, according to a search last week on Zillow.com. Mr. Matheus finances the loans at 10 percent but requires no credit check or down payment - just that the renter-buyer pays their rent on time for six months.
“If somebody is in the habit of paying on time, they’ll keep paying on time so it opens it up to a lot more people. It gives people the opportunity to where they can actually own a house where they wouldn’t be able to before,” he said.
Mr. Matheus said he “recently started liking West Texas” after buying a ranch outside Graham. “It gives us more reasons to come out here and check on houses,” he said. “We drive the neighborhoods and we try to find empty houses and track down the owners,” he said. “We can use my [PI license] to track down the heirs.”
Mr. Matheus bought his first home in Olney - 204 Edwards St. - out of foreclosure at the Young County Courthouse. He and his crews are hard at work on a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with hardwood floors and a fireplace at 608 W. Elm St. and he has an offer pending on another home on the same street. He has flipped four other homes on the Avenues, he said.
Mr. Matheus was in the process of refinishing the hardwood floors, updating the bathrooms, and fixing a gaping hole in the West Elm Street property. He planned to put the house on the market before mid-May, if he can find the labor to finish the job on time.
“We found a good corner in Olney and I’d like to find workers here,” he said. “So far nearly everybody who has worked on the houses has been from Olney.”
City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon said the City Council welcomes Mr. Matheus and others who want to give new life to the town’s older homes. The Council is working on an ordinance that would require inspections of plumbing and new electrical work and would mandate annual inspections of rental homes to ensure the premises are safe and livable.
“That’s fantastic if he wants to do something with the properties that are out there and make them livable then that’s great,” Mrs. Pagsuberon said. “We would definitely encourage them to take stock of what they are doing and come to the City with their permit requests so that we can know what is being done. There is a renovation permit that covers a lot of things and we definitely want them to have their plumbing and electrical inspected because you let somebody move in and it’s not done up to code and something happens, that would be awful.”
Mr. Matheus can be reached for work or property inquiries at 817.237.8238.