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California man touts business empire built of Philly rowhouses bought at sheriff’s sales. Some are skeptical.
When Tylisha Slaughter learned that the West Philadelphia rowhouse she rented was going to be auctioned off in a sheriff’s sale, she sensed opportunity. Slaughter, now 30, aimed to buy the home near Cobbs Creek Park on the cheap and restore it from the “slumlord”-like conditions she, her boyfriend, and her two young children had been living in. But on the day of the sale, she said, she found herself up against an out-of-towner with lots of money to spend: Brandon “Dutch” Mendenhall. “He outbid me,” said Slaughter, whose rent has risen from $700 to $900 since Mendenhall’s RAD Diversified REIT became her new landlord in late 2019, even as…