Now, becky quick. We begin with a cautionary tale. House flipping is hot again and homes are being flipped at the fastest pace in a decade. But if you are tempted to rush in and buy what looks like pictureperfect home, as a buyer you should beware. From flip to flop is this weeks cover story as diana olick reports. Reporter this historic d. C. Rowhouse looks like a renovated gem. Outside and in. And thats exactly what empty nesters Cameron Mcguire and his wife wanted. And it was so seductive with all of the highend appliances and those pieces. We thought it was going to be a dream and it turns out to be a nightmare. Reporter the three bed, three bath home had been renovated and expanded by a local house flipper with highend appliances and finishings. It looked pictureperfect. I am looking at this gore jus kitchen, whats wrong . When you look at it, things you wouldnt realize. Receptacles are not permitted the way theyre installed here. Reporter the list literally goes on and on. Improper light canisters. A fire hazard. A bathtub installed incorrectly. The emergency shutoff to the charming gas fireplace is behind the fire. And the new heating system had a 25degree difference between the two floors. Turns out theres not even a certificate of occupancy for this property. Reporter they only found out because a d. C. Inspector called investigating complaints from other homeowners who bought from the same flipper. And then came the killer code vi violation. We purchased a three bedroom, three bath unit. And then found out that the bumpout that holds two of the bedrooms and two of the bathrooms, this addition, is illegal. And the city has the authority to make us tear it down. Reporter the mcguires are now working with the city to bring the home up to code, but it will likely cost more than 100,000. And thats on top of the 630,000 they originally paid. Unfortunately, stories like this are becoming more and more common as more flippers get into the business. A lot of times well see where theres termite damage, water damage in a house, it literally gets slapstick right over top of it. So its lipstick on a pig. Reporter steven carpenter works only with buyers and helps them see behind the walls. The flippers, the bad ones wont pull permits. At that point youve got a huge issue. Because no ones looked at this. Reporter the mcguires did have a Home Inspection, but most inspecti inspectors dont pull permits and they cant see behind walls. Experts warn, dont be fooled by fancy finishings because they may be covering up a real mess. You are not kid, diana, thank you very much. Thats a nightmare. Whether youre buying a flipped house or not, how can you find potentially expensive problems before you buy . Frank lesh is executive director of the American Society of home inspectors. Thank you so much for joining us. We just saw a flipped house without permits and major problems. Did they have a bad inspection . How common is Something Like this . Its fairly common. What you have to watch out for is if a house has been totally renovated, everything, not just the kitchen or a bathroom, but the whole house, thats a good sign that it was probably flipped fairly quickly. And a home inspector will go into a little more detail to try to make sure everything works the way its supposed to. What should a complete and thorough Home Inspection include . How should i feel good about it if im a buyer . One thing you want to do is make sure you get a qualified home inspector. Ashi, the Organization Im part of, has a certification program. We make sure our guys are really thoroughly investigated by a thirdparty firm. If there are problems that show up after the inspection, is the inspect tore blame . Could they be liable . Or this is all on me . It depends. We cant, like you said, we cant see behind walls. So in the segment you showed, the receptacle that was probably in the kitchen was not protected properly. Thats a home inspector could find that very easily. But sometimes slow problems that you may not see, a small leak behind a wall because it wasnt taped properly, could become a problem that an inspector wouldnt be able to see. There are a lot of things the home inspector can do, there are some we cant. Is this something that has risen in frequency just in terms of how hope flipping has picked up . Or has this always been around . Its been around, but sometimes in a hot market it becomes more prevalent. Because people are trying to turn around houses very quickly. And if a market is hot, a lot of times people forgo the Home Inspection. Thats never a good idea. What are some other red flags that i should look for . Something that tells me, okay, maybe this inspection wasnt as thorough or pass boss snilk or maybe just looking around the house myself, these are some things that really should tip me off to make sure im extra careful . Well, keep in mind that a Home Inspection is done over a few hours time period. So thats sort of like taking a photograph of a moving train. We see it today, right now. So we cant predict whats going to happen. One thing that you have to be aware of is although we run the water in the bathtub and the shower, we dont get in the shower or in the tub and actually sit in there or stand there. So some things thats good, i dont want anybody using my tub anyway. So its hard for us to actually live in the house. But were there for a few hours, so we try to check it out as thoroughly as we can. What have been some things that maybe youve found in past inspections, things that have cropped up and made you say, wait a second. First of all, the lay of the land around the house is correct, its not sloping towards the house, everything should slope away. Make sure the gutters and down spouts are in place and extended away from the foundation so that water does not accumulate around the lower part of the house. As far as the inside of the house, we want to make sure that windows and doors operate. Those are things that we look for that you can look for as a home buyer. Make sure that those commonsense things are there. Great. Frank, thank you so much for your time today. Youre welcome. Now heres a look at whats making news as we head into a new week on the money. The Federal Reserve did what it made apparent bite do, raised the key Interest Rate by a quarter a point for the third time in a little over a year. Chair janet yellen said there was a very good reason. The simple message is the economys doing well. What does that mean . There is a direct impact on credit card rates, adjustable rate mortgages, home equity lines of credit. Theyre pegged to the feds Interest Rate and go up in conjunction with this fed action. It affects mortgages, auto loans, and bank Interest Rates. They go up in part because of the feds move but there are other factors involved. Things like demand for loans and competition between banks. All that sent the markets up on wednesday. The dow climbing triple digits with the s p 500 and nasdaq showing strength as well. Those stocks fell later in the week. Retail sales last month were soft. They climbed just. 1 , which is either a sign of consumer caution or a temporary slowdown in spending. Consumer spending is always closely watched because it makes up more than twothirds of the the united states. Next, on the money playing for profit. The billions behind march madness. Who are the real winners and losers in the ncaas big dance . Who gets left out . Later, retiring doesnt mean you stop. It could be time to restart your life somewhere else. The best cities for successful aging. Right now a look at how the stock market ended the week. We are in the midst of march madness. College basketball teams from around the nation vying for the title of ncaa champion. It is not just a sport, it is a business. A huge moneymaker for schools with winning teams. But the players dont see a dime of that. Joining us right now is joan astara, a Bloomberg View columnist and coauthor of indentured the inside story of the rebellion against the ncaa. Thank you for being here. You think College Athletes should be paid, youve got a plan for it, how does it work . First of all, i this think they should be paid because when you have a 10 billion industry with an unpaid labor force, theres something wrong with that. Everybody else is making millions. Ive been a big proponent of a salary cap idea. Which would put money in players pockets, but not put so much money that it would break athletic departments all over the country. How much money are we talking . My argument is they are making money for the university, they are actually at the university, theyve been admitted to the university to make money for the university. You cant say that about any other student. You could say that about some of the researchers who are there who are helping and doing other things too. Sure, and who are getting paid. Okay. I cant imagine how this would change schools. Are there schools that would say, forget, we cant compete with this . Yes, and thats a good then. They cant compete now but theyre trying to. Theyre spending all this money and student fees are getting switched over to the athletic department. You think this is the reason College Tuition is up so much . No. No, no, i dont think that. But if you take a school like rutgers. 25 million to 30 million going from the school to the athletic department. Rutgers, my alma mater. The argument, if you have a great football team, youll have lum buy that will help the schools endowment, that will help them give scholarships to other kids too. That is true. You take a school like butler, in backtoback final fours, admissions were up 25 to 30 . That is true. Whats not true is that the eastern michigans can compete in football with the alabamas. And i can i mean, the way i think about it is, you probably have 70 universities whose football teams can afford to pay the athletes. Fine. Fine, theyre the one you watch anyway. Theyre the new league . They are now, the power 5, that already exists. The other schools can say, we cant afford to pay, were going to play football differently, were going to think about football differently. Basketball, you probably have 130, 140 schools that can do the same thing. Are they still students going to classes . Yes but i would have them go to two classes a semester instead of five. I would allow them to have a lifetime scholarship. Even after youre done playing, still of a have the option . Right. One of the problems, theyre trying to take five classes at the same time theyre working 60hour weeks on their sport. Its not right. If you start paying your students, does your academic standing as a school fall . Does it look like you are no longer a serious Academic School because im paying the athletes . Is there a way to separate that . I dont think it makes that much difference. Kentucky basketball. Usually starts three freshmen, two sophomores, they go on to the pros the next year. Does that hurt their academic standing . Those guys arent really students when you think about it. No. Theyre whats called one and done. Is the problem here that the feeder schools the schools have become the feeder, you cant get into the nba without doing that. Thats right. It bothers me as a parent to see this get pushed down to the middle school and High School Level where my kids if they want to play sports are going to have to start practicing in july to get things going. Because its such a competitive sporting environment. I wish i could push it back to where if youre playing basketball, youre practicing a couple of times a week, not six times a week. The world was a better place when the kids played basketball in the wintertime, baseball in the summertime, soccer in the fall or football in the fall. They were more wellrounded even in sports. Yeah, and you have to give up significant amounts of family time to accommodate these things. Absolutely, its so true. Give us our kids back. Thats the bottom line. Joe, thank you very much. Indentured the inside story of the rebellion against the ncaa. Its always great to see you. Up next, on the money. College towns arent just for kids. Learn which cities rank highest in quality of life for senior adults. There is nothing fishy about it. One womans underwater business idea and how it is keeping her afloat. You are not going to believe this. Dont call it retirement, but if you are ready for a change of place for your next act, the Milken Institute released its rankings of best cities for successful aging. Paul irving is chairman of the Milken Center for the future of aging. Thanks for being here today. Thank you, belky, pleasure to be here. Great to see you. This is a list of not the best places to retire, but the best places to live and age successfully. Whats the criteria for that . What makes a city agefriendly . We see a range of factors, from health and housing to transportation and the opportunity for Lifelong Learning and continuing work. The top cities in both your rankings have big universities or theyre college towns. What do places have that appeal to both younger and older adults, some of these bigcity colleges . In addition to obviously the opportunity to educate the young, they create opportunities for Lifelong Learning. They are often associated with Hospital Systems and the opportunity for great health care. Innovative transit systems. And i would say most importantly, they attract a group of people who were intellectually engaged, who were entrepreneurial, thinking creatively about improving the world and creating new businesses. And that bodes well both for younger people and older people as well. Sure. In your large city rankings, utah actually has two of the top four spots. Provo comes in at number one. Salt lake city comes in at number four. Is there Something Special about utah . Well, its interesting. Utah is a state thats generally healthy. Things like low rates of smoking, low rates of drinking obviously have a positive impact on rankings. But its more than that. I think maybe the takeaway from utah is the importance of connection. The importance of communities and neighborhoods. The top four small cities are all in the central midwest. Youve got two in iowa, also kansas and missouri. So should people be thinking about a second act consider moving to the central midwest . Its interesting. These are towns that are relatively inexpensive. Iowa city, again, a great example of a college down. The place where the writers workshop and so many other great amenities exist. These are places that have a range of factors. Healthy economies, walkable streets, relative safety. You know, the weather may not be ideal for some. But weather is just one factor that should be considered. More and more people want to continue to work, more and more people want to continue to learn. And these places afford those opportunities. Thank you very much, we appreciate your time. Thank you, becky. Up next on the money, a look at the news for the week ahead. And diving in head first. One womans Wild Business tale of success. As soon as i tried one on, i knew that i was a mermaid. Here are the stories coming up that may impact your money this week. Monday the house holds its first public hearing on russias alleged meddling in the president ial election. Tuesday the Philadelphia Fed releases its latest Regional Survey of business activity. Tuesday marks nine years since twitters ceo posted the first tweet. Wednesday numbers on existing home sales for february. And it is World Water Day spotlighting that more than 500 Million People dont have access to clean people. Friday the durable goods orders for february. Those are the biggerticket items that last at least three years. Starting a business is hard. It can be tough to get people to take you seriously. So imagine if you also wear a tail and call yourself a mermaid. Jane wells is here to introduce us to a woman who went ahead and took the plunge. Jane, this almost sounds like splash in reverse. You know what little girls love mermaids. As you know, big girls do too. And with a potential remake of the Little Mermaid as a live action works at disney, a remake of splash with Channing Tatum as the mermaid or merman, one entrepreneur is cashing in. Linda wahlberg is a mermaid. Really. Youre not a crazy person but do you think youre a mermaid . I think im a little crazy. Reporter Linda Wahlberg grew up in pennsylvania Amish Country but ended up in california and became a scuba diver. One day she saw people putting both feet inside what are called monofins to move quickly through the water. As soon as i tried one on, i knew i was a mermaid. Reporter wahlberg quit her desk job and dove into being a mermaid fulltime. It took 25,000 to take my first tail. Oh my goodness. How do you get in the water in this thing . I need help. This was truly seven months of high stress. This was us sculpting every scale, molding my body and creati creating fiberglass versions of my legs. Having nightmares, waking up talking in my sleep about tails. Calling herself mermaid lindon, she began getting hired for celebrity parties charging up to 6,000. Celebrities taking pictures with me, that was surreal. Reporter wahlberg focused on educational videos starting a youtube channel. I can make up to four figures a month just on my youtube videos. She picked up shoots for shark week and began donating time to charity, including this surprise visit to a little girl in scotland who was struggling with illness, viewed over 17 million times. But wahlbergs career went from guppy to whale when she teamed up with body glove. Together they created monofins for kids which expanded to leggings. Theyll be sold in walmart. Next up, monofins for adults. In 2017 its look lying well compete 4. 5 million in sales. Reporter mermaid lindon surprised her skeptics and even herself by swimming youll stream and succeeding. Shes not done yet. Because you cant just survive on one thing. You cant just rely on income from performances or just from merchandise or just from youtube. Its about creating a wealth of options. Yep, from spending 25,000 on a tail to millions of dollars in retail sales, including this stuff. By the way, that tail is so heavy lindon needs help getting to the edge of the water. Shes only had one awkward moment. She did a Charity Event at the playboy mansion and felt like a fish out of water. Jane, have you tried that thing out . Have you been in the water with it . Your legs . I have. No, im not going to do it right now because this is cold, this is the pacific, way too cold. You do move really, really fast with these things. And theyre a great core workout, ladies. Hm, all good selling points. Did she really swim with the sharks . That was the most incredible thing. She did a shark week promo for discovery. She cant wear goggles so her vision is blurry. At first the sharks wouldnt swim with her because with the tail shes eight feet long, they wouldnt come near. They had to chum the water. She couldnt see them because it was blurry, she had to completely rely on the hammers to keep her safe. Thats another difference between her and us. Yeah. No way. Yeah. Big, big difference. Im never swimming when they chum the waters. Wow, amazing story. Jane, thank you, love your tail. Youre welcome. Thats the show. Im becky quick. Thank you for joining us. Next week well hear about athletes making millions and then going bankrupt. One nfl owner is teaching his players business skills for life after football. Each week keep it here, were on the money. Have a great one, well see you next weekend. Live at the Nasdaq Market site on a quadruple witching day. The guys are getting ready behind me. Heres whats coming up on the show. Youre out of hand. Thats what some traders are saying about the banks. And theres one name in particular that looks vulnerable. Plus how would you like to play sprint for a takeout and not pay a dime . Its my little way of sticking it to the man. Well show you how. And suddenly nike shares are hot again. Is it the shoes . No, its not the shoes. Its the charts. And theres something in them that suggests mike shares are going higher. The action begins right now