Gorilla Capital's Tanja Baker and John Helmick stand outside the company's headquarters in Eugene, Oregon.
Gorilla Capital steps up.
Erin J. Bernard
It's not easy to wow Gorilla Capital CEO John Helmick.
Over the course of a decade buying, renovating and selling distressed homes, he and his team have come face to face with a terrifying array of creepy creatures, from raccoons and cats to rats, bats and buzzing wasps.
“Just because there are no people in the house doesn't mean there are no animals,” Helmick said. “Vacant, abandoned, abandoned houses attract a lot of nuisance creatures, and I've seen some strange ones.”
In a downturn in the real estate market and surprises becoming commonplace, gorillas have learned that cool heads and a little ingenuity always win the day. While most of these unwelcome residents can be trapped or evicted, beekeepers often offer to harvest the dripping comb for free.
That instinct for calm has helped the Eugene-based, privately held investment fund grow over a turbulent decade from a DIY startup into a giant fix-it-and-resale business that operates in Oregon (excluding the Portland market) and 21 other states and had sales of more than $70 million last year.
Gorilla's approach is so simple that even an ape could see the wisdom in it: buy homes no one wants, add value through smart renovations, pass the savings on to homebuyers, and then scale by building strong capital partnerships with experienced fixer-uppers who already have a foothold in their desired markets.
But even great apes must evolve, and Helmick plans to double the size of Gorilla in 2016 by expanding its capital pool, targeting more deeply troubled homes, and increasing its emphasis on its thriving Fix & Flip Funding and Support program, all while staying true to its tenacious, home-grown startup ethos.
Helmick explains that Gorilla's fix-it-and-flip partnership benefits all parties: “With Gorilla covering the overhead and logistics, local fix-it-and-flip businesses can focus on revitalizing the dilapidated homes that are blighting neighborhoods across the country.”
These homes are often in dire need of a little sprucing up, says Tanya Baker, vice president of operations at Gorilla and a member of the company since its inception: “We typically buy homes that no one else wants to buy — homes that you can't get financing for, that are in total disrepair, that are in worse condition than any home we've ever been in… homes that are just not fit to live in.”
Foreclosures can take years to process and vacant homes can become abandoned in just a few months. When this happens multiple times, it creates major quality of life issues.
Helmick says fixing up these homes and reselling them to new owner-occupants revitalizes both the properties and the surrounding neighborhoods: “The people who live on these streets come up to thank us for fixing it because it was the worst house in the neighborhood. And then they usually look over their shoulder and say, 'Can you fix that one next? It's the second worst house.'”
In a depressed real estate market, each market and home is unique, Baker says, making calm judgment and a little insight even more important: “I used to look at depressed homes and think there was no way to fix them, but they can and do, and when you see the before and after photos, it's really amazing.”
Helmick agrees that this evolution is always something to see, whether or not there's a beehive: “The house goes from smelling like cat urine to fresh sawdust to fresh paint.”