Housing Bulletin

The Mack Daddy of Foreclosure Flippers

See more photos in the gallery below.
 

The Tinley Park mansion that the former NBA star Antoine Walker lost in foreclosure when he declared bankruptcy in 2010 was left in sorry condition. Water stood waist-deep in the basement, murky goo filled the indoor pool, and at least 32 light fixtures were gone. But Jim McClelland Jr. and Eric Workman saw an opportunity.

The company they work for, Mack Companies, which is run by McLelland’s father—who’s also named Jim—has built a south-suburban empire of more than 500 rental homes made from cleaned-up foreclosures. Since I wrote about the venture in 2010, Mack has become a role model for others catching on to the idea of converting foreclosures to rentals.

Now Workman, Mack’s vice president of sales, and Jim Jr., the COO, are pushing into a new realm: buying, fixing, and reselling high-end foreclosures. The Mack Estates division has sold four foreclosure rehabs since last fall, and it has an inventory of ten for sale now. Their prices start at $210,000 and are mostly in the $300,000s, with one in New Lenox and this one in Tinley both well over $1 million.

Click through the photo tour below for more on Walker’s former home.

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