CLARENCE CENTER, N.Y. -- Each week, we highlight someone who is making Western New York a better place to live in our City Shapers segment. This week, 2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik has two City Shapers for us- a married couple making a big splash by flipping homes in Western New York.
We met up with Chris and Lorissa Naugle at a home they flipped on Tonawanda Creek Road in Clarence Center.
"This is the biggest transformation we did. First off, when this house was built, this entry was about this closed in, so you basically had to squeeze in here, and you had walls everywhere," explained Chris Naugle.
It took six months for the Naugles to flip this California craftsman-style home.
"In the sitting area, and then in the kitchen, we actually go with a plank board ceiling which is really pretty," said Lorissa Naugle as she showed us around.
"We're really big into the mid-century modern, the 1950's," said Chris Naugle.
The Naugles didn't always flip homes. He was a financial advisor, a business owner, and a pro-snowboarder. She was working in banking and was busy saving people's houses from foreclosure.
Now they're buying foreclosed homes, renovating them, and selling them for a profit.
"My role is design. I know Chris will just say let's do these, let's do those cabinets, but I'll say, no Chris. I'm really just confident, just trust me. Trust me. And he backs off a little bit," she says.
In 2014, they decided to launch FlipOut Academy and LC Strategic Realty. Next thing they knew, their homes were being featured on HGTV. They've done more than 160 deals and have flipped more than one-hundred homes.
"Today at the auction though, it did get pretty intense I have to say," said Lorissa Naugle.
"So, it is like the shows when you see people bidding?" asked Dudzik.
"It was, yeah, I really wanted this house on Dakota Street in Buffalo, and someone else outbid me, and I tried not to get emotional about it because I knew that if I kept on bidding higher, it leaves less for me on the table," said Lorissa Naugle.
Chris and Lorissa learned how to flip homes by taking classes, before starting their own company and teaching people themselves.
"I think Buffalo is one of the greatest real estate markets there are. I think if you look at what Toronto's done, and some of the other cities like Pittsburgh and those cities, and how they've gone through it. They all started kind of where Buffalo is. They had water, and Buffalo's just never made it over that hump, but I think we finally did," said Chris Naugle.
"How does that make you feel to know that you're having an impact on several communities across Western New York and giving new life to homes that have been abandoned and not cared for?" asked Dudzik.
"The greatest thing about this business is turning a house around like that and making it from a drug house to an actual house that a family is living in," said Chris Naugle.
Next up for The Naugles, they're building a six-thousand square foot event center in the Eastern Hills Mall for FlipOut Academy's headquarters.
Chris and Lorissa Naugle have a bus tour coming up on October 28 for people who are interested in learning about how to flip houses.
If you would like to nominate someone to be a City Shaper, just email Kelly Dudzik.