about one-third of them, and rehab and sell the rest. He'll make a killing, he said.

DEVELOPING STORM: For buyers within 'flood pools,' no warnings from developers, public officials

Listen: Brian Spitz pulls back the curtain on an industry that's playing a key role in Houston's post-Hurricane Harvey real estate market: investing in flooded homes. Spitz, a local investor and president of Big State Home Buyers who has bought thousands of homes over the years, talks about the investor ecosystem, how it works and how the recent activity is likely to influence the market. Click here to listen to the episode. *** Flood investors 5,500 – Harvey-damaged homes in Harris County sold by mid-March

45,000 – Total Harris County sales between September and mid-March

$1 billion – Allocated by three funds tobuy homes, post-Harvey

88 – Homes Harris County has targeted for a buyout but instead sold to investors

15 of 27 – Harvey-flooded homes sold by mid-March on Pagehurst Drive in Bear Creek Village, behind Addicks Reservoir

In January, broker Charlie Kriegel sent an email to wholesalers saying he was representing three funds looking to spend more than $1 billion here. "I desperately need daily options to keep this fund closing as many buy/hold properties as possible this year," Kriegel wrote.

"They wanted to go after non-flooded homes," said Kriegel, co-founder of Houston's Winhill Advisors. "But we told them that's just not a possibility."

Kriegel said his team sold 250 properties for a little over $75 million last year. This year, WinHill is on pace to sell 400. Half of them, he estimated,