Posted on 10/06/2017 7:40:48 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
As more details emerge about the life of Stephen Paddock, one thing is clear: on paper, he does not appear to fit a typical profile of a mass shooter. The 64-year-old former accountant who carried out the deadly massacre in Las Vegas on Sunday night was a successful real estate investor who stayed in touch with family and took care of his mother. He was a gambler, but not a reckless one. It appears Paddock liked to have a strategy.
Over the past three decades, Paddock was involved in nearly a dozen real estate deals. At first, he invested in small apartment buildings, but gradually moved into upscale multi-million-dollar properties. He appeared to make money on most of these deals, but he wasn't immune to losses.
Paddock appears to have started his real estate investments in November 1985 with the purchase of a modest house in Los Angeles on El Paso Drive. Two years later, with the help of his mother, he bought a small apartment building, also in Los Angeles for $725,000.
Apartment buildings became a collector's item for Paddock in following years, with a property on Kornblum Avenue in southwest Los Angeles County and another on Doty Street in Hawthorne, Calif. He began to sell them off for profit in the early 2000s, with four sales in 2004 alone.
He may have been preparing for what would be his biggest deal, a multi-story apartment complex on the north side of Mesquite, Texas, not far from the municipal golf course. Paddock borrowed $3.5 million to buy the property and sold it eight years later for $4.6 million.
There were also single family home purchases along the way. A home in California City, Calif., was bought in 1995 for $57,000 and presumably flipped a year later for $89,000. A home Paddock bought in Mesquite, Texas, in 2004 was later transferred to his mother at a sales price of $159,375. She apparently lost money when she sold it in 2014 for $150,000.
When his mother wanted to move to Florida, Paddock bought a brand new home for her in Melbourne. At least, that's what he told neighbor Don Judy. This one was another loss: purchased for $246,000 in 2013 and sold two years later for $235,000.
Paddock's most recent purchase appears to have been a house on Babbling Brook Court in Mesquite, Nevada. He paid $369,022 for it in January 2015.
It would be his final real estate purchase.
This shows some decent investor skills.
I’d like to see his tax returns.
It doesn’t seem to fit his income levels.
Where do these investments realize income levels of several hundred thousand dollars a year?
Perhaps reports of his casino gambling levels are wildly exaggerated.
On the surface, nothing abnormal. Real estate can be, for someone with knowledge of the market, knowledge of how to rent out property and maintain it (or how to hire a good manager), and the financial end of real estate, can make good money and move up the ladder from single family homes to small apartment complexes, and then to larger complexes...all in a relative short period of time. He was an accountant, so probably more intelligent and informed that the average bear...again, this is not far-fetched, and doesn’t speak to a “secret life” as an arms or drug dealer.
Of course, it also doesn’t speak to the evil residing in his mind, either.
Wonder where all his cash is stashed. Bet he gave the bros 100,000 each, too. Would you tell?? Hell no.
Apartment projects can make some big bucks. Just ask our local millionaires.
Well, there you have it. Ban rental property and property investments. That’ll make ya safe.
This apartment purchase in 1987 (the initial deal)...$725,000 involved. In 2017 values....that’s roughly $1.5 million. Where exactly does Mom get the $725,000?
What? He may have been preparing? He made the deal. Very poor writing.
He may have been preparing for what would be his biggest deal, a multi-story apartment complex on the north side of Mesquite, Texas, not far from the municipal golf course. Paddock borrowed $3.5 million to buy the property and sold it eight years later for $4.6 million.
Exactly.
This layout doesn’t add up to millions of dollars. Those numbers also will be taxed.
I’ve read that he was an accountant—where did he go to college?
Cal State - Northridge, Business Administration
Why do you rob banks?
Cause that’s where the money is
Seems puzzle pieces are missing. How much money can you realistically make at casino video poker? They apparently knew him well. It was reported his suite was comped.
I used to live next to a retired couple years ago. The husband was a professional horse gambler. He had it down to a science on how to pick, and was very astute about keeping track of winnings and losses for the IRS.
Yet his brother said that deal made him and Stephen rich, and able to retire. And supposedly Paddock had a 1.5 million dollar gambling pool, along with airplanes, a 390 thousand dollar house, etc.
It is hard to see how the net gains from the real estate provided enough capital to support the rest of his activities. And maybe it didn't - which would perhaps lead to some motive, or indicate Paddock had other activities he was involved with that did generate income.
Over time the gambling, even if done very well, was basically a net zero income activity. The video poker games apparently pay at close to 98%, and casino comps can make up the 2% spread. But actually making money is very unlikely.
Money laundering via casino play, smuggling by airplane, gun reselling or some other activity may have generated actual income.
Horse gambling is where skill can be used.
Not so much with casino gambling.
He seems to have an affinity to cities named Mesquite.
No idea where he went to school.
Don’t know that it matters much, he’d have graduated about 40 years ago.
Unless ISIS is telling the truth....
You can palm off unlaundered money as gambling winnings. Then the money is legit. I think he was some kind of criminal.
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