Empire Flippers Review

Empire Flippers operates a brokerage/marketplace hybrid that focuses primarily on lower-valued web assets, compared to traditional brokerages. Previously branded as AdsenseFlippers, buying and selling own web properties, the company was rebranded in 2013 and started offering brokerage as of 2014.

Valuations

Empire Flippers certainly has a very unique approach to valuations, in that they only take into account a small range of factors in their appraisals, and allow very little subjective adjustments to reach the actual market value.

Due to this and the fact that EF appears to use a “base multiple” of just 20x monthly net profit (1.66x yearly profit), their properties tend to be valued at significantly lower prices than usual.

This can partially be explained by the fact that compared to traditional brokers, EF tends to be happy to accept listings that are of somewhat lower quality, e.g. sites that have been only recently established, in which cases the 1.66x multiple may be accurate or even high.

Due Diligence / Asset Quality

Empire Flippers appears to take pride in providing “full vetting”, which is coincidentally one of their key selling points. Based on the appraiser’s experience, however, they have often listed properties that are of sub-par quality. Therefore it’s strongly advised to perform rigorous due diligence prior to an acquisition, and as usual – never rely on a broker claiming that they’ve vetted/verified a listing.

Quality of Marketing Materials

EF employ a unique approach whereby every buyer is requested to put in an earnest deposit in order to gain access to the marketing materials (and the URL) of a particular property. As such, none of Empire Flippers’ current marketing materials were available to the reviewer at the time of the review, however based on earlier experience it appears that the information prepared and shared falls below the usual levels. Listings are often distributed with very limited financials (e.g. only one year) and to the reviewer’s knowledge, seller interviews/questionnaires are not used.

Longevity / Reliability

Based on publicly available information, Empire Flippers employ a number of people and appear to have systemized the entire brokerage process extremely well, leading the reviewer to believe that there are no particular issues with regards to longevity and reliability.

Integrity

Empire Flippers appear to have a high level of integrity both in their dealings with client and partners alike. Their marketing efforts are extremely aggressive, however based on the reviewer’s knowledge all of their marketing efforts are above the board.

Inventory and Turnaround

The average number of active listings tends to be approximately 20, however it’s important to note that Empire Flippers is also happy to accept listings that are smaller than most other brokerages would take on, as well sites that have been established very recently (less than a year ago).

Inventory turnaround appears to be decent, with most lower-end properties remaining on the site for a month or two. Higher-value properties tend to remain on the market much longer however, likely because EF have only recently started focusing on the $100k+ side of the industry and therefore lack buyers for such properties.

Details:

Established: 2014 (as brokerage)
URL: http://EmpireFlippers.com/
Directors: Justin Cooke, Joe Magnotti