Here is some media coverage of “I am Facing Foreclosure .com” from last week. Both the TV and the newspaper coverage is a good recap of my story - for those who haven’t read the rest of the blog yet.
First, San Francisco KRON Chanel 4. Thanks to Maureen Kelly for coming out to Sacramento area and interviewing me at Karen’s Bakery coffee shop in Folsom.
(Video requires Windows Media Player. If you have trouble with pop-ups, try this link.)
San Francisco Chronicle article:
Article went online Friday Oct 6th and in print on Sunday. Another version of online article came out on Sunday too. Pretty much the same thing with a different headline. Not sure why. Anyway…
Thanks to Carol Lloyd of Surreal Estate column in SF Chronicle (and also author of Creating a Life Worth Living) for a balanced overview of my story:
A would-be real estate mogul follows boom tips straight to bust
In politics, journalism and other image-conscious businesses, insiders know full well how to “craft a deal” in Congress or “frame a story” for the front page, but an uninitiated public often can’t tell where the truth ends and the spin begins.
Real estate, also a world where appearances often trump content, operates according to a similar couching of reality. “Putting together” a loan package, for instance, or “writing up” an offer or “leveraging” your investment — all these practices have their customary manipulations that many insiders give the nod to — even when the practices are illegal, unethical or sometimes just stupid.
So when some loudmouth neophyte comes along with the sordid blow-by-blow of his real estate dealings — from the “get real estate quick” seminars to the credit card-funded down payments, the stated income loans (a.k.a. “liar loans”) to the over-leveraged portfolio, all collapsing in multiple foreclosures — it’s a confession worth listening to.
Welcome to the world according to Casey Serin, a 24-year-old real estate investor and author of the self-flagellating blog Iamfacingforeclosure.com. If Robert Kiyosaki was the pin-up patriarch for the real estate boom, Casey must be the poster child for its fall.
13 Comments
-
Next step, Oprah!
For encore, maybe Mr. and Mrs. Serin on Jerry Springer.
-
Hi Casey,
Here I go adding to this again, because sometimes the impressions left here I have to comment on. First, you are not the only person going through this. A lot of people refinanced homes and used the money to buy a better home in another area. This happened to a Mortgage broker friend of mine, who has been in the business for 20 years. They moved from their older home in Santa Cruz county to a newer home towards Tahoe. Things were booming in Califoifornia at the time, and renters were lining up to rent their old home. Everyone wanted to live near Sillicon Valley.
They relocated their employment and everything seemed fine. Then, the outsourcing hit Silllicon Valley and people began loosing their technical jobs. The two Engineers renting the SC home lost their jobs and spent 9 months trying to find other work. Finally in frustration, they gave notice and moved out of state. Now my friends are covering two house payments … no problem … someone else should rent it. No one did. They eventually listed it for sale … no offers.
Meanwhile the husband looses his new job, as the company is bought out and his division is “downsized”. He re-enters the job market in his 50s and nothing is paying what his old job did. Meanwhile her mortgae business is drying up.
The SC rental house is pulled off the market. They atttempt to rent it again … they finally are able, but not for enough to cover the mortgage payment. The value has gone down in the home, so refinancing would not better the situation.
As they watch their savings disappear, while they scramble to make ends meet, they list the SC home again. Again nothing. They are now considering a short sale on the SC rental home to get out from under it and are concerned about their new home.
I realize you went at this real estate investing with a vengence, but financial hardships in real estate can happen to anyone in any situation. A great many good paying jobs have left California … it is interesting that no one is talking about it here.
As you can see I am still checking back on you…(laugh)
Catherine
http://journals.aol.com/rapieress/Aweekinthelife -
They relocated their employment and everything seemed fine. Then, the outsourcing hit Silllicon Valley and people began loosing their technical jobs.
Loosing?
I wonder if Casey is making up some of these posts…only Casey is dumb enough to mix up LOSING and LOOSING despite the numerous posts correcting him on this.
-
I presume that you have permission to reprint somebody else’s copyrighted article? Or did you just assume that since it’s about you, you’re allowed to reprint the whole thing?
-btc
-
Legion- I am so thrilled to finally meet the first perfect person - YOU! (
-
Please, people. One doesn’t ‘loose’ a job. One ‘loses’ a job. Get it straight.
-
Funny thing….I just sat through a 10-minute lecture by my English professor about the proper use of “lose” and “loose.” Must be an epidemic going on in our nation’s school system.
-
Good luck with that “I can always get a Web design job at $50,000 to $70,000 a year” idea. There ain’t no such thing, unless you also know several database programming languages. And in any case, you’re going to have to compete with Indians, Chinese, and Romanians who will work for 1/10 the money. Time to think of another exit strategy, kid.
-
My ex fiance was involved with one of these california real estate investment groups. The one that encourages its members to engage in “armchair” sight unseen real estate purchases as well as to call the group founder by his first name (to encourage the feeling that he is really your close and trusted friend).
I particularly loved their dogma of not listening to friends and relatives who may try to talk you out of listening to the teachings of the group because, after all, they just dont understand how insightful and brillient the members are.
My concerns regarding my fiance’s unquestioning dedication to this group placed serious stress on our relationship. One of the group representatives cleaverly took advantage of this riff between my fiance and myself and sold her a huge line of s*** about how I was “now worthy” of someone as intelligent and dynamic as she. He skillfully manipulated her into breaking off our relationship and having sex with him. After a couple of weeks he grew tired of her and informed her he was no longer interested in seeing her “exclusively”.
She came crawling back to me begging fo another chance. F her and thank you Mr. M and your associates. You saved me from a world of future pain and suffering.
Which brings me back to the point that I was originally trying to make. It is no surprise to me that you lied and commited fraud in obtaining your loans. As long as you got what you wanted, who cares. Right? This is exactly the type of behavor that is obviously practiced by these gurus and their associates.
-
in way over his head in the house-flipping game, and now that the housing market is sagging, he’s in flippin’ trouble. A week or so ago, the SF Gate wrote an article on him (as part of the aptly named column Surreal Estate), he was featured on the local news, Motley Fool wrote about him, and now NPR has done a profile on Casey and his troubles. Basically, Casey bought his first house in Sacramento and flipped it for an easy 30K profit. From there, he bought eight houses with essentially no money down. And
-
DejaVu - This real estate scenario played out back in 91. Same thing will happen again. Prices will go down 5% and people will jump in only to find that they fall another 5% a couple of months later
Remember if a $600K house goes down 5% that’s $30K deprciation + $30K comission= $60K to get out of it. Most people who need to get out of an adjustable, liar, or interest only loan don’t have that kind of money.
5% is enough to shatter a heavily leveraged market such as real estate. I’ve heard allot of “Experts” say that we may see a “cooling” of prices of a modest 10-15%. Do the math.
-
Heyyyyy..
anyone have a foreclosure in Bakersfield??…93306..93305???? -
But yes, Casey Serin is indeed not another lonelygirl15 but actually a genuine person who’s been trying to crawl out of the fiscal quagmire he’s dug himself worth all of $2.2 million, and whose monetary tales of woe have attracted the mainstream media, well-known bloggers and even the controversial Robert Kiyosaki himself to write chapters in this unfolding tale and thus vouch for the authenticity of his person. Since then, the cringe-worthy behaviors he
-
During this time we all read a lot of interesting post. It seemed that in the mist of this foreclosure earthquake doors began to open for Casey Serin. Things such as meeting with Robert Kiyosaki, advice from Real Estate Guru’s, Newspaper Articles and Television Appearances. Casey has even had his website sponsored by someone in the real estate industry. One would think with all of these opportunities that Casey would be able to rise out of the ashes like the legendary phoenix, but it just never happened. Some of you are
-
During this time we all read a lot of interesting post. It seemed that in the mist of this foreclosure earthquake doors began to open for Casey Serin. Things such as meeting with Robert Kiyosaki, advice from Real Estate Guru’s, Newspaper Articles and Television Appearances. Casey has even had his website sponsored by someone in the real estate industry. One would think with all of these opportunities that Casey would be able to rise out of the ashes like the legendary phoenix, but it just never happened. Some of you are
No comments:
Post a Comment