With the foreclosure epidemic came a new flock of house flippers. They’ve come as individuals. They’ve come as LLC’s. They have veen come as Hedge Funds. And they’ve come with an identical recipe for what homes should look like; at least on the inside.

Investors have flocked to distress sales over the last several years in order to mint a profit. There’s nothing wrong with that. They have in fact taken some extremely ugly and neglected homes, and made them much more attractive by today’s standards.

But what will our standards be like in the year 2044, when quite a few 30 year mortgages taken out now will have been paid off (lol I know – who pays off their mortgage these days?). Let’s pretend though.

All of these flip homes. They basically look the same.

The House Flip Checklist:

– earth tone brown paint

– cheapest slap of granite

– stainless steel appliances with mismatched brands

– dark kitchen cabinets

– cheap new light fixtures

– beige carpet or tile

– light switches where up is off and down is on

Won’t it be sad when in the year 2044 (think Conan O’brien Year 2000 Skit), home buyers of the future have a seriously difficult time finding homes with smoothed out lava stone countertops in the kitchen (they’ll be all the rage), because in the “older part of town” most homes only have granite countertops. And disappointment reigns in when they realize all the light fixtures are the energy sucking kind that have been sourced back to a clearance isle from a store once called Home Depot.

I think walking into a house for sale in the year 2044 that was flipped circa 2010 to 2014, will be much like present day, when we stumble across a home in the San Fernando Valley with avocado green stoves; most of us cringe.

What are the house flippers creating? More good than bad, I’m sure. Though, in 2044 there may be a new epidemic. I’m assuming we’ll think it’s an ugly one.