Ok, a lot of you have been telling me to get a job. I’ve mentioned I had a job offer on the table that I was considering.
It’s a PHP programming job for a new internet business. They offered me $35/hour contract to hire. I already have the web development skills - right in line with what they need. Also the job was offered to me by a high school buddy who I haven’t talked to in several years. He just called me up out of the blue. It was perfect timing! So perfect, it seemed like an answer from above.
So I told them I’m going to take a couple of weeks to wrap up my real estate deals and I would let them know as soon as I can start working full time. I was going to start next Monday. I sent an email a couple of days ago saying that I’m ready to start. Today I got the answer:
Hi Casey,
As it turns out .. the scope and size of the project has grown way beyond what it was in August and as a result the CEO decided that instead of supporting an in-house team of developers, to outsource to India!
I couldn’t believe it, because I’ve always been against removing income from US workers. But, we’re under a huge deadline with a huge product to deliver and the CEO already has used these guys with his other business.
So, I’m sorry to say that the job is officially off the table. I’m sorry to tell you over an email, but I’m under the gun to have the SRS document ready for the “Indians” in a week. What should be 2 months is crammed into 2 weeks of work!
Wow! I was counting on this job so I can establish a financial base from which I can launch my come back. This way at least I can continue paying for my wife to finish her degree and put food on the table for both of us. The job would also give me some seed money for additional real estate deals.
Now I will need a new plan for a “financial base”.
39 Comments
October 6th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
You may have legal options.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.....y_estoppel
October 6th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Seed money for additional real estate deals….
Buddy, you’re still living in la-la-land.
Wake up Casey, Wake up!
October 6th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
This isn’t meant to be snide. A good programmer can change tools quickly. Learn .NET and SQL Server and you should be able to get anywhere from $45-$65 an hour CTH.
I don’t know the PHP market. But with .NET right now it is fairly easy to find consulting or CTH positions. Check Monster, Dice, and CareerBuilder!
I bet that the Indian software development firm misses the goals that they have set for it, either in terms of time, specifications, usability, or all three.
Brooks’ Law:
“Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.”
from the Mythical Man Month
October 6th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Casey, whatever you do, PLEASE consider putting your seed money elsewhere. Additional real estate delas?! You must be kidding.
And I meant to ask you how much of your daily time is this blogg business taking up? Shouldn’t you use every bit of your time to look for a job?
October 6th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
Wow, $35/hr! That was actually quite high for someone with fairly little experience and no employment record for half a year. If only you stuck to this sort of work in the first place rather than quit your job in favor of house flipping.
As a lay person and not as any kind of professional, I recommend you go and get any kind of job you can. If that means flipping burgers or (irony of ironies) twirling signs for home builders, I recommend you take it. $6-10/hr may not sound very good to someone so deep in the hole, but it will help demonstrate sincerity to your lenders.
October 6th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Man, I feel for you. Found this blog via SFGate. Interesting stuff.
All I can say about the job is this: you don’t have a job until you’ve signed the contract and the first check is sitting in your bank account. And therefore, don’t stop looking for a job until this is the case. It’s easier to turn down subsequent offers than it is to get the momentum rolling again when you think you have a job, and it falls through.
Sorry, but I don’t have any experience with real estate to help you on everything else. But I’ll continue to check out this blog; it’s interesting.
October 6th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Wow.
First, you became the new Internet poster boy for reckless amatuer RE bubble speculators. Now, you’re also a poster-boy for tech-job offshoring. Congratulations!
Some suggestions on how to complete your 21st Century Trend Trifecta:
–molest a Congressional pageboy
–get into a public brawl with Paris Hilton or [insert popular gangsta rapper]
–get a no-bid Halliburton contract but don’t complete any work
–start a Nigerian internet scam
–become a “person of interest” in some high-profile missing white woman investigation
Good luck to you!
October 6th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Why dont you try renting out some of your properties so you can pay off the loans monthly?
October 6th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Because of negative cashflow. None of the houses could be rented high enough to cover the mortgages. Not even close. Plus there is several thousands in late payments and fees on each property. Renters are not going to cover that.
I *am* going to try lease option (aka Rent-To-Own) or some other type of owner financing. That way they can just take over my payments and catchup my loan from their downpayment.
I did that on Utah property. I’ll try that with the Modesto property too and see how it goes.
October 6th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Getting a $8/hour job is stupid. My minimim payments for the credit lines ($140k worth) are about $3700 per month. I will waste 8 hours a day working a job.
Instead I could be helping other investors find real estate deals (aka bird dogging, or wholesaling) and get referrals fees of $5k - $10k. That is much better use of my time. I think I need to focus on doing that.
The problem is that its not guaranteed. Not sure how many hours and offers I have to go through before I get a descent deal. But I might as well try.
I should have started with bird dogging / wholesaling to begin with. That would have taught me the skills to find quality deals without investing into them myself.
October 6th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
sounds like you should give burger flipping a try
October 6th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Casey, you still have a good attitude which is a major plus. Whatever comes from this situation you will have learned boatload in financial matters and life.
You’re young enough to recover this with the lessons learned so you can apply them to future endevors.
October 6th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Sounds like you should be preparing yourself as a defendant in institutional lender lawsuits for fraud and you may be facing criminal charges arising from your admissions of fraud with respect to the loan applications. It is likely that the lenders will sue you based on the admissions contained in this blog and that they might cooperate with a criminal investigation.
October 6th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Okay…sounds like somebody still believes the housing bubble will go out and lift him out of trouble.
October 6th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
This website is a troll. You created it solely to generate income from google adsense ads, which you have plastered all over your site.
Have you no shame at all? BTW- I have posted this message several times and each time it was deleted.
Meaning- this entire site is a fraud. Your real estate transactions never happened. The only purpose of this site is to generate clicks on the google ads displayed.
October 6th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
James, if you want I can fax you the closing documents (or anyone else interested). This is not a fraud. Which public records did you search on? Does anybody have a place to lookup public records for free? My system charges me money.
October 6th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
If you want any “financial base” the first thing you’re going to have to do is quit pissing away money. Don’t buy anything you don’t need, and SAVE anything you can. And whatever you do, no new real estate deals. Not until you’ve learned real estate fundamentals, which those informercials did NOT teach you.
October 6th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
I checked the blog creator’s name in some real property searches (try lexis if you have it). At least 2 california properties come up matching those described. Just started reading the blog.
October 6th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Casey, on a more serious note, have you considering looking for work in Alberta, Canada? According to this CNN story, they’re so desperate for workers there (due to recent surge in oil sands development/investment), they are paying janitors $17/hr., and similar well-above-average premiums for other jobs. Perhaps they could use a PHP coder. Plus, housing there is considerably cheaper than CA.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/0.....2006100616
Sure, it gets cold in the winter, but the scenery can be spectacular (think Brokeback Mountain minus gay sex). And after all, beggars can’t be choosers, right?:
http://wwp.canada-ca.net/alberta/photos.htm
October 6th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
casey,
You sound like a nice guy, albeit a bit naive. My advice to you is nothing comes easy. Put in the time and you will earn your rewards.
Foreget making fast money on real estate. That is now yesterday’s news. Just like the dot com days, they are now over. What we saw over the last ten years was a hundred year phenomena and now it is over.
Invest in your career, sharpen your skills and diversify your knowledge. Someone recommended learning .Net, I think that’s a great idea. Those skills are in high demand and that is the kind of thing that will dig you out of the hole you are in.
Take it from one who knows. I have ridden the highs and lows of several boom-bust cycles. in the end it was the consistency of my career investment that has paid the dividends and is setting me up for retirement.
I have no college degree and started out my career as a laborer at age 18. Over the years I have been a carpenter, foreman, contractor, commercial estimator, network engineer, software test engineer, web programmer, UI developer, kernel programmer, project manager, VP Software Engineering, and held seats on the boards of 5 venture funded startups. Currently I am a band 10 STSM at IBM Systems and Technology Group in Austin.
Pick a career and stick to it, don’t get hung up on get rich quick schemes. You obviously have the drive, just don’t take the bait looking for a get rich quick scheme and let time work for you.
NOBODY gets something for nothing. If they are telling you they did then they are either lying or hit the lottery.
October 6th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Nothing wrong with flipping burgers. It beats sitting around and moping about the buck or two each day you generate from Google ads.
Casey, there is nothing you can do except to go out and do something productive with your life. You aren’t helping anyone because tens of thousands of people have already been stupid. If you had done this 4 years ago I think you’d have a worthy mission.
(Code monkeys sure make a lot of cash. No wonder the jobs are being outsourced.)
October 6th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
Casey, you should NEVER go to Las Vegas, because you’re displaying the classic behavior of an addict who ponies up for “one more hit” trying to wipe out all his previous losses when he’s already too far in the hole.
You honestly think ‘bird dogging’ for other real estate investors is a way of getting out of the hole you’re in? What exactly can you offer these investors? What connections, knowledge, or sense of the market do you have that’s going to make you someone they would want to do business with? Your current track record in deal spotting is not one that would inspire confidence.
Obviously you don’t want to hear it, but I’ll say what many others have told you: declare BK, get a job, and get on with your life while you still can.
October 6th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
So you lost in gambling and now you want win back your losses. Seed money for additional real estate deals huh. What a pathetic gambling habit. Did you not hear someone say don’t ever go to Las Vegas?
October 6th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
HARM,
One of my friends went to college in Canada and she couldn’t get a job off campus. She was American by nationality but her mom had a work visa in Canada and her stepdad was Canadian.
So I wouldn’t count on work in Alberta, unless Casey plans to be Canada’s Mexican.
October 6th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
The obvious answer is to convert to Islam and move to Pakistan or a similar country in the mid-east.
Kinda’ doubt the lenders or the law will attempt to follow you.
If they do, just shout out to thine bretheren the Infidels are assaulting thee (and, in turn, Islam) and await the call for a jihad to protect thee.
While over there, check out the used camel industry. You may be a natural.
October 6th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
You could work in Canada easily as an illegal immigrant. They have next to no border security and even fewer employment regulations. Sure, you’d be illegal but who cares? Worst case scenario you get sent home and be where you are now, but with more money. What have you got to lose? Anyway, programmers usually are able to get work visas. It sounds pretty win-win to me.
October 7th, 2006 at 8:39 am
Don’t worry about that job going to India, those are just the low level programming jobs that Americans don’t really want anyway. You just need to find one of them manager jobs. They pay more any way.
October 7th, 2006 at 9:29 am
one job rejection and you “abandon” the concept? eh?
October 7th, 2006 at 11:40 am
One problem about calling a $35/hr contract a $70k job. On a 1099 contract, you have to pay almost 50% in taxes (between state, federal, an double the Social Security contribution). You’d be lucky if you came out even averaging $35-40k a year after all of that was taken into account.
(I know — I’ve been in the industry almost a decade, and completed more freelance projects than I can count.) Not to mention I’ve had my own run-ins with the IRS over this sort of thing, and they don’t ignorance nicely.
October 7th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Skip sez: “Don’t worry about that job going to India, those are just the low level programming jobs that Americans don’t really want anyway. You just need to find one of them manager jobs. They pay more any way.”
Wow great advice! I know you’ve got to be talking tongue-in cheek-here. I personally can’t wait for the executive slobs in management to be completely outsourced next.
October 8th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Hey Casey,
Don’t listen to all the “nay-sayers.” Most people are so afraid to get out of their “comfort zone” that they laugh at people who aleast tries. It is called “Envy.” Success isn’t just 1 shoot and you can win, that would be called “Luck” just like buying a lottery ticket.
You jumped on the real estate bangwagon and learned the hard work, however aleast you tried for that you should pat yourself on the back. Just get back onto your feet and don’t give up.
The two ingredients are “Determination + Failures.” You can learn so much for your failures than your wins. You have a great head on your shoulder, good attitude and finally your biggest asset “YOUTH”. Most people just complain about their life and don’t do anything about it they are wasting more than $$$ they are wasting time. This misstep you had is a great building block to build your foundation to your road to success. I am very sure you have learned so much from this experience, keep in mind experience trumps education. Now you have both!
I know you will become success, just don’t give up! Don’t allow anyone steal your dream. You have so many years ahead of you. Good Luck!
- Max
October 8th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
I wouldn’t sweat it. I get a lot of work from projects that are sent back to the states because sending it over seas turned out to be a huge waste of time and money. For some projects, it works well, but most of R&D is inventing that requires good communication and people with relevant information. It was a vogue thing for a couple of years and a lot of companies got burned really bad outsourcing. Call centers, yeah. It’s okay if it burns a customer that already purchased the product. R&D, Hell no. You get burned before you develop the product and your entire business goes down in flames.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Casey,
I just read how the opportunity got shipped to India. Bummer. I think they will regret it. Anyway, I think somethink else will come up. Keep looking.
October 9th, 2006 at 1:55 am
Rick,
band 10? I forget the exact formula, but I think that is a 2nd line manager in software development (1 below execuctive). I was a band 6 in Toronto Lab. That’s quite impressive, I must say. And you did it without a college degree, I must say you really must have done a great job. Hats off to you.
October 9th, 2006 at 6:57 am
Sorry to be the skeptic here. But no company you’d want to work for would be so foolish as to put something like that into Email. If anyone working at my company did so I’d fire them on the spot.
Rather, I think you wrote that email yourself for pity after you got a standard “Thank you but we need to hire someone who can actually do the job” response.
October 19th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
Casey,
Would you get aboard an airliner piloted by a student pilot? Of course not, but that is what you are doing with your future, financial and otherwise. Wisdom comes with age for a good reason: we have all made similiar mistakes and learned from them. You need to learn from this mistake: you are not a professional investor and need adult supervision. But you continue to harbor the idea that you CAN make a living from investing. The advice to pick a career for which you are trained and stick to it is good advice. Don’t try to force the issue by trying to be an instant success, it just doesn’t work that way.
Regarding investing, here is one word: DIVERSIFICATION. No, I will say it again: DIVERSIFICATION. A successful entrepreneur mangages risk thru diversification, and buying multiple properties in different locations IS NOT diversification.
October 30th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
No offense to you, Sir, However I should like to point out a few things.
1) While you may not want to “work” for someone else and have a “limited but stable income” and would rather earn “$1000.00 per hour” that simply is very very very unlikely.
2) You should stop letting daydreams of get rich quick schemes distract you.
3) If you must try to be “financially independant” then working a 9-5 and putting in a couple hours after work would serve you better than sitting around earning little or nothing.
Wiliam Howard Taft
Editor, PopularParanoia.com
November 14th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
I saw your RDTV segment at richdad.com and I commend you for having the courage to step forward and make something positive from your mistakes. About 80-90% of the population would have left and gone home with their tail between the legs. I want to say thank you for your website as I will study and keep up with your progress. As for those who sit in judgment of you, know that there are people like myself that admire your character where as most have little or none. These mistakes are valuable and your marketing ideas are commendable. You have the ability for authentic action; that makes you unstoppable.
My sincerest regards as a master mistake maker,
Lu