UPDATE: Scott Yancey and company were found guilty by the FTC May 2023, and fined $16.7 million dollars.
If you only read this far into my review, please heed this warning: Do not use this show as any realistic example of the money that you can expect to earn from flipping a home, as all of the numbers shown (the cost of the remodel, and the selling price) are fake. More on this later.
Flipping Vegas is not a how-to show, as no part of this show is based on reality. The entire purpose of the show is the self-promotion of Scott Yancey, as part of a scheme that earned him millions of dollars (over $10 million according to the FTC) by fleecing people wanting to learn how to flip homes. More on this later as well.
The premise of this show, as seen in nearly every one of the 41 episodes (and yes, I have watched them all) is as follows: 1. Scott's "team of realtors" buy a house sight-unseen.
2. Scott and his wife Amie visit the house for the first time together, after they have bought it and are stuck with it.
3. Each house has an absurd, fake theme that has been poorly and embarassingly staged for the show.
4. Scott laments how they will never make any profit off the flip, and Amie begins overly-expensive renovation plans that Scott immediately scolds her over.
5. Scott sets some arbitrary and insanely short deadline to flip the house, with the premise that he loses money otherwise. Usually he only allows for several days of remodeling before the "open house" date, which becomes some incredibly important and fixed deadline that is a do-or-die goal that must be reached at all costs.
6. Amie visits the high-end tile and counter store, where she invariably chooses real granite countertops regardless of the value of the home.
7. Some contrived "emergency" happens (a fire, a gas leak, a water leak, someone vandalizes the home, AC needs replaced) and Scott saves the day by telling contractors what to do, even though they are far more experienced and knowledgeable about the subject than him.
8. Scott demeans Amie over the choices she has made because they are too expensive. Often Amie will damage something (a wall, a counter top, a mantle, a window, etc) in order to force it to be remodeled.
9. Scott and Amie pull up to the project in separate high-end vehicles, at the exact same time, multiple times in each episode.
10. A day or two before the open house date Scott says it will never get done on time, and places blue tape over all the things not done or that need to be redone.
11. Scott rants and raves against "his" work crews (almost always 3rd party contractors), and tells them to work overtime or into the night or to bring in extra workers to make his arbitrary open house date. They gladly and happily do whatever he wants, just because.
12. Scott and Amie show up just before the open house and are amazed that it all got done and it looks so amazing and they did such a good job on the remodel. The congratulate one another, Scott praises his wife on how amazing she is and how good it turned out.
13. Some realtor shows up in a borderline scandalous outfit to show the home to prospective buyers (usually families and couples), sets out cookies and puts up some balloons.
14. All the prospective buyers love the home, typically commenting specifically on some accent piece Amie spent extra money on, thus justifying the expense.
15. Multiple "first-day" offers are made right on the spot.
16. The final figures are revealed, ALWAYS showing an insanely low remodeling cost, a high selling price, and a large profit on every single home without exception.
As stated above, the true purpose of this show is the promotion of Scott Yancey as a shrewd, competent, driven real-estate mogal who has a solution for any problem that may come along, and who always, always makes a profit. The fact that he is successful is demonstrated through the extremely expensive cars prominently shown in every episode multiple times. In some episodes it literally shows him purchasing quarter of a million dollar sports cars, and in the final episode he takes Amie to an empty lot and tells her she can spend $4 million to build their home.
After the first season of Flipping Vegas aired, Scott Yancey used his newly-found fame to market real-estate and home flipping courses and seminars starting at $1,000 and costing upwards of $30,000 per person. This was done through a company called Nudge using high-pressure sales techniques. They also would advise people of homes for sale - homes that their companies were actually selling at a mark-up. Nudge fleeced consumers out of $400 million dollars, with Yancey receiving a minimum of $10 million dollars of that income.
Thus the success and prosperity shown in Flipping Vegas, which viewers assume was earned through the flips, was actually achieved through Scott's fame and the fleecing of people, often retirees. The FTC filed charges against Yancey and others involved in this scheme in 2020, and in May 2023 were found guilty and fined $16.7 million dollars.
If you only read this far into my review, please heed this warning: Do not use this show as any realistic example of the money that you can expect to earn from flipping a home, as all of the numbers shown (the cost of the remodel, and the selling price) are fake. More on this later.
Flipping Vegas is not a how-to show, as no part of this show is based on reality. The entire purpose of the show is the self-promotion of Scott Yancey, as part of a scheme that earned him millions of dollars (over $10 million according to the FTC) by fleecing people wanting to learn how to flip homes. More on this later as well.
The premise of this show, as seen in nearly every one of the 41 episodes (and yes, I have watched them all) is as follows: 1. Scott's "team of realtors" buy a house sight-unseen.
2. Scott and his wife Amie visit the house for the first time together, after they have bought it and are stuck with it.
3. Each house has an absurd, fake theme that has been poorly and embarassingly staged for the show.
4. Scott laments how they will never make any profit off the flip, and Amie begins overly-expensive renovation plans that Scott immediately scolds her over.
5. Scott sets some arbitrary and insanely short deadline to flip the house, with the premise that he loses money otherwise. Usually he only allows for several days of remodeling before the "open house" date, which becomes some incredibly important and fixed deadline that is a do-or-die goal that must be reached at all costs.
6. Amie visits the high-end tile and counter store, where she invariably chooses real granite countertops regardless of the value of the home.
7. Some contrived "emergency" happens (a fire, a gas leak, a water leak, someone vandalizes the home, AC needs replaced) and Scott saves the day by telling contractors what to do, even though they are far more experienced and knowledgeable about the subject than him.
8. Scott demeans Amie over the choices she has made because they are too expensive. Often Amie will damage something (a wall, a counter top, a mantle, a window, etc) in order to force it to be remodeled.
9. Scott and Amie pull up to the project in separate high-end vehicles, at the exact same time, multiple times in each episode.
10. A day or two before the open house date Scott says it will never get done on time, and places blue tape over all the things not done or that need to be redone.
11. Scott rants and raves against "his" work crews (almost always 3rd party contractors), and tells them to work overtime or into the night or to bring in extra workers to make his arbitrary open house date. They gladly and happily do whatever he wants, just because.
12. Scott and Amie show up just before the open house and are amazed that it all got done and it looks so amazing and they did such a good job on the remodel. The congratulate one another, Scott praises his wife on how amazing she is and how good it turned out.
13. Some realtor shows up in a borderline scandalous outfit to show the home to prospective buyers (usually families and couples), sets out cookies and puts up some balloons.
14. All the prospective buyers love the home, typically commenting specifically on some accent piece Amie spent extra money on, thus justifying the expense.
15. Multiple "first-day" offers are made right on the spot.
16. The final figures are revealed, ALWAYS showing an insanely low remodeling cost, a high selling price, and a large profit on every single home without exception.
As stated above, the true purpose of this show is the promotion of Scott Yancey as a shrewd, competent, driven real-estate mogal who has a solution for any problem that may come along, and who always, always makes a profit. The fact that he is successful is demonstrated through the extremely expensive cars prominently shown in every episode multiple times. In some episodes it literally shows him purchasing quarter of a million dollar sports cars, and in the final episode he takes Amie to an empty lot and tells her she can spend $4 million to build their home.
After the first season of Flipping Vegas aired, Scott Yancey used his newly-found fame to market real-estate and home flipping courses and seminars starting at $1,000 and costing upwards of $30,000 per person. This was done through a company called Nudge using high-pressure sales techniques. They also would advise people of homes for sale - homes that their companies were actually selling at a mark-up. Nudge fleeced consumers out of $400 million dollars, with Yancey receiving a minimum of $10 million dollars of that income.
Thus the success and prosperity shown in Flipping Vegas, which viewers assume was earned through the flips, was actually achieved through Scott's fame and the fleecing of people, often retirees. The FTC filed charges against Yancey and others involved in this scheme in 2020, and in May 2023 were found guilty and fined $16.7 million dollars.
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