The latest episode of Flipper Nation named “The Blame Game” made me think about my experience with my team players: real estate agents, loan officers and contractors. I have much to say about all the different players. However, today I will focus on real estate agents.
To tell you the truth, I haven’t used real estate agents that much because I like to structure my own creative win-win deals directly with the seller.
I learned a bunch of unconventional buying and selling techniques in real estate investing seminars. In my experience, if a real estate agent does not understand the technique, he or she automatically assumes that it must be illegal / unethical.
Real Estate Agents = Standard
I have nothing against realtors but too often they are un-equipped to solve challenging problems for motivated buyers / sellers. That’s because real estate agents are taught in realtor school to list houses and do everything the “standard” way.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not hating on the realtors or the standards. I think rules are necessary to keep the industry in shape. I respect the fact that a licensed real estate agent had to attend and pass several real estate classes and learn real estate law. I wish they covered real estate law in my seminars.
However…
The issue here is that most real estate agents are trained to deal with a NORMAL buyer / seller. The kind of seller who has a nice home and is not in any hurry to sell. This way the seller can afford to keep the home on the market at top dollar until a highly qualified buyer comes along.
On the buying end, most realtors are trained to deal with NORMAL buyers. The kind of buyers that have excellent credit, a good job and 20% down-payment.
There is nothing wrong with that. Simply, a real estate agent is trying to make their commission in the most efficient way possible. A realtor has a family to feed and cannot afford to waste time with problem houses and looser buyers. Real estate agents by nature are trained to deal with good inventory and A credit buyers.
That’s why most real estate agents will never touch pre-foreclosure houses (like mine), especially if there are repairs needed and no equity to drop the price.
Real Estate Investors = Creative
Creative fix ‘n flip real estate investors are not much different from real estate agents. Like agents, we are paid to put together sellers and buyers and collect a profit in between. The difference is that we act as principals in the transaction.
We buy the house, fix it up and re-sell the finished product to an end user for a quick profit. (Not to be confused with buy ‘n hold investors who are in the deal long-term for cashflow and/or appreciation, although, they too shouold use creative buying techniques.)
The big difference between agents and fix ‘n flip investors is that we’re trained to deal with MOTIVATED buyers and sellers. We get paid to solve real estate problems. Solving problems takes expert knowledge and most of all creativity!
Helping Motivated Sellers…
We work with sellers who need to sell YESTEDAY and have no money or time to do repairs or no equity to drop the price. Perhaps the seller is facing foreclosure (like me) or need to relocated because of a job transfer or are selling because of a divorce or death in the family, or whatever.
In all these cases we are dealing with a seller who needs to: a sell fast and sell as-is. Only a creative real estate investors can help here. Instead of listing houses we buy houses.
Helping Motivated buyers…
We help “hungry” buyers as well. These are credit-challenged buyers who may have trouble qualifying for a conventional mortgage but would love to own. They have a dream of home ownership but don’t know how to achieve it.
If these credit-challenged buyers have some money to put down and have a stable job we can help them realize their dream! With seller financing (or lease options) we give them a chance to move into the home, help improve their credit and help them refinance into a traditional loan down the road.
Most real estate agent will not “waste their time” with a credit-challenged buyer unless they can show them a valid pre-approval. That’s why there is a need for creative real estate investors.
The Nature of a WIN-WIN deal
As creative investors we get paid to solve real estate problems for buyers and sellers.
* Priority #1: take care of the seller / buyer (their win)
* Priority #2: make money (my win)
* 1 + 2 = Sweet RE Deal!
If I am NOT doing #1 then I am letting greed drive my business and I will not be able to sleep at night. If I’m NOT doing #2 then I won’t be around long enough to help many sellers. The more people I help, the more money I make and vice versa.
My Bitter-Sweet Deals
Every single house I bought was from a motivated seller who needed a fast, as-is sale to solve their problem. That’s the only way I can buy a house at a discount, solve the seller’s problem, and still stand to make money.
I say “stand” because I obviously lost money on most of my deals. And it wasn’t because I didn’t buy below market. I failed in the fix-up and re-sell stage. True, I should have bought at a deeper discount to account for this. However, the cliché among investors “You Make Money When you Buy” doesn’t tell the full story. Besides buying you have to know how to fix and flip too. That’s what I need to improve on.
At least I was doing the right thing by solving the seller’s problem as my #1 priority. That’s the beginning of a sweet deal. All my sellers were happy to do business with me and I can sleep at night knowing I treated them fairly. (I should have collected some letters of recommendations, oh well, next time.)
This makes me want to do more deals to help more sellers (and of course make money this time). As I learn from the bitterness of my mistakes the “sugar content” on my future deals should increase.
Now some personal examples of doing sweet deals with and without a real estate agent…
Example of Using a “Creative” Agent
Salmon Falls Dr, Sacramento, CA.
This was my first ever real estate purchase back in 2002. It was a fixer-upper condo I bought for $105,000 to use as my personal residence. I was 19 and got tired of living in an apartment. With the help of a competent loan officer I used a no-money-down full-doc first-time-buyer FHA loan to get in the game. (I was only making $35,000/yr as a programmer.)
This was an out-of-state seller and who got tired of putting up the the tenants. The condo was a big mess inside. Even with no construction experience I can tell there was a lot of deferred maintenance. Seller was motivated and didn’t want to deal with evicting the tenants and doing any repairs. This is an example of a problem that needed to be solved.
The awesome realtor who I used was a referral from my parents. I had no RE experience at this time but she held my hand through the whole thing and thought me a few tricks.
She showed me how to ask the seller for a $5,000 cash-back at close for repair money. The “repair money” was fully disclosed as such on the contract and settlement statement and everything was above-board. (I’m proud of that!) The seller was happy to get rid of this thing and not have to worry about repairs.
The deal closed quickly with no problems, I got my first-ever cash-back-at-close. Win-Win! I fixed up the condo by myself with my dad’s help (Yes, I can swing a hammer), lived in it for a year and sold it for a $35,000 net gain. Sweet!
I used the same realtor on the the sale because she already proved to be creative and competent. Not bad for my first fix-n-flip deal and I wasn’t even trying to be a real estate investor at this time. (Granted such profit was only possible because of the hot California market at that time, but still…)
Example of Not Using an Agent
Calla Way, Sacramento, CA.
After I got married in 2004 I wanted to become a full time real estate investor (still feeling good from my first flip). After reading books, listening to CDs and going to seminars, I bought the Calla Way house. There were not agents involved.
I followed the instructions and found a motivated seller. It was a nice family who needed to relocate because of a job situation. I structured the deal on my own using a sweet home-cooked one-page contract.
Before that they had the house on the market with a realtor since May. The house was nice, no repairs needed, and had plenty of equity. However, the market just started to show signs of a slow down and the realtor was over-pricing the house.
By August the seller got frustrated and searched for a “private investor” online. That’s how they found me. I gave them a low-but-reasonable as-is offer and promised to close in a week. They initially refused but after a month of no activity they let the agent go and called me to see if the offer is still “on the table”.
After looking at the changing market I lowered my offer to be on the safe side. I still promised the one-week as-is no-hassle close. They agreed.
I performed as promised and closed it in 8 days - funded on the 7th and recorded on the 8th, I think. Even though I was using a conventional 100% loan, my awesome mortgage broker was able to get everything ready ahead of time and pull off an amazing 7 day close.
The seller was happy! It was a WIN for them as they got to finally move and buy their dream home in another neighborhood. True, they sold the house at a discount and gave up some equity. However, the convenience and the speed of my buying service was well worth it to them.
It was a WIN for me because I got $30,000 cash back at close in order to have money for a few mortgage payments until I resell. I also used the money to pay off my almost $30K of credit card debt to improve my credit score so I can do more 100% loans. My conservative wife was very happy to have our consumer debt payed off! Win-Win-Win. Sweet!
I sold this house creatively as well. Again, because there were no realtors involved I was able to structure a sweet deal here too. I bought the buyer’s old house on Burdett Way and helped him get financing to buy my house on Calla Way. We did a simultaneous escrow that closed on Jan 3rd.
The buyer was very happy to be able to move up to a nicer house in a better neighborhood AND sell his old house in a so-so neighborhood all in the SAME transaction! What kind of a realtor would help him do THAT?
True, I’m still stuck with the Burdett house. And yes I did pay a little more than I wanted to. Through this experience I became friends with the buyer, his wife and his kids. I was glad to be able to help them out. It was a true win for them. And since I was able to get rid of Calla Way and secure my $30,000 gain, it was a pretty good deal for me too.
The lesson…
A creative investor can put together win-win deals with or without a realtor. But in my experience the truly creative deals happen when you work directly with the buyer/seller.
They say there is always more than “one way to skin the cat” and “you gotta think outside the box”. All true. I like to say “WIN-WIN or NO (SWEET) DEAL!”
Utah House Unwrapped Back to Foreclosure
Back in Phoenix
206 Comments
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Mr. Serin
December 9th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
http://www.myebid.com/cgi-bin/.....ingID=2940
I bought a shirt, I hope it’s of good quality.
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Bonnie Erickson
December 9th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Not all real estate agents are created equal. Considering that my start in real estate was with the zero down, make a million late night infomercials to which I added the additional training BEFORE getting my license, I consider myself extremely capable of thinking out of the box. That very ability has benefitted my clients over and over varying from getting a bathroom installed in a “standard” transaction (Listing agent said seller’s father was a plumber and they always intended to install the master bathtub/shower and they did for my client before it closed!) to creating my own addendums to protect investor clients from shoddy work on the part of some listing agents. An agent’s caution to be law abiding might have prevented your current dilemma despite the fact you think it’s because the agent doesn’t understand!
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getajob
December 9th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
are you on crack?
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BFFChucky
December 9th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
I can feel my IQ dropping as I read that post. I may be too stupid to wake up tomorrow morning.
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Editor
December 9th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
“I like to structure my own creative win-win deals directly with the seller”
Yes - you are REALLY good at this! A core competency for sure.
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Jerry
December 9th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
Good post, Casey. I may not agree with everything you wrote, but at least it was informative and not about silly stuff like Jamba Juice. Keep up the good work!
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Jack
December 9th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
everytime I see such a story of you (’I am this, my collegues do that, and make loads of money’) I think of where you are now…. and laugh! you’re a joke Casey, admit it. unless some saint comes flying by to help you out, you will only get worse, and worse….
this post is the biggest joke I’ve seen so far.
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Editor
December 9th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
“I learned a bunch of unconventional buying and selling techniques in real estate investing seminars”
Yep, buying at over-market prices at peak of bubble, then sitting around and blogging while the bubble bursts is quite unconventional. You were clearly paying attention during that lesson.
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Editor
December 9th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
“I have nothing against realtors but too often they are un-equipped to solve challenging problems for motivated buyers / sellers”
‘challenging’ = illegal
‘motivated’ = desparate
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Editor
December 9th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
“A realtor has a family to feed and cannot afford to waste time with problem houses and looser buyers”
‘looser’ - LOL!!
You are absolutely untrainable and hopeless!
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T.White
December 9th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
“We buy the house, fix it up and re-sell the finished product to an end user for a quick profit.”
…and hows that workin’ out for ya, sport?
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Editor
December 9th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
Wow - so many delusions, errors in thinking - not to mention spelling and grammar problems…
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Editor
December 9th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
“True, I’m still stuck with the Burdett house. ….. And since I was able to get rid of Calla Way and secure my $30,000 gain, it was a pretty good deal for me too.”
Huh ?!?!?!?
How’s the weather on planet unREalistic today? Sweet and sunny I bet.
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Sexual Health And Advice
December 9th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
Nice post casey, really informative as well….but why dont you try to take a day or two from blogging and spend some nice quality time with your wife, family..
Eddie
http://www.sexualhealth-101.blogspot.com
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wallace
December 9th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Now I’m completely convinced that Casey is just writing flamebait posts to get more comments/hits on his blog.
So Casey… you decided to spend a couple of hours writing and outlining what a “sweet” deal is when you could have spent the time marketing your current houses for sale? Are you insane? The grammar and tone of your post… it’s almost as you’re facetious. I can’t tell if you’re really smart for getting people pissed (thus more web-traffic) or just really stupid.
My bet is that it’s both. You’re really that stupid where you think of yourself as a great real estate investor, and at the same time you probaby want to increase your traffic by writing something outlandish.
Casey, you wouldn’t recognize a sweet deal if it slapped you in the face.
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synchro
December 9th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
I think you’re still living in la-la land. You were able to “structure” these deals only because the whole mortgage-real estate complex is corrupt. Do you realize you are the stooge/sucker of the whole corrupt complex? Of course you don’t. Because here you are on the verge of bankruptcy and ruin, and you write a self-congratulatory missive on “win-win” deals. Sorry to break it to you, you lost, lose, and will lose.
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Editor
December 9th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
BFFChucky: “I can feel my IQ dropping as I read that post. I may be too stupid to wake up tomorrow morning. ”
Well said, well said!! I too felt my neurons doing unconventional, yet sweet, multi-dimensional phase shifts.
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Bibbity John Bobbity
December 9th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Casey, well written, and it’s evident you are serious about learning. I find it hard to want to digest what you’re writing though, soley based on the fact that your credentials just aren’t there yet. Keep plugging away though. The sooner you get yourself out of this hole, the sooner you can start a new, financially-clean life.
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Fraud
December 9th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Casey, let’s see how creative you get when you are behind bars.
Any sweet deals?
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S.L
December 9th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Enough, this is a fake, these stories are fabricated. He is making more money from this site than the actual real estate that he “owns”.
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Editor
December 9th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
What wonderful bait! I have to make myself stop for the night. Possibly your first 400-post thread?!
The Google ad-sense counters will be spinning madly.
I now understand that you are not paying to attend a class next week. You’re getting paid $50K to instruct a class on “Creative win-win sweet RE deals” - right!!?? Congrats!
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Fraud
December 9th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
After reading Casey newest entry, my IQ level also dropped a few notches.
That kid can sure bring in add clicks.
My comodo Fire Wall reports at least 7 different site hits when I open this site.
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briguy
December 9th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Does that mean you never paid taxes on the $30k you got from the Calla Way house?
I refer you to:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f3949a.pdf
Since that happened in a prior tax year, if you didn’t pay those taxes, you are very exposed to one of the readers here reporting you to the IRS. The IRS pays _rewards_ for turning in tax cheats!
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BFFChucky
December 9th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
synchro: you must learn the intricate art of communicating with the naive yet wily native - that will be “loose, loose and will loose” in Caseyspeak. Or better yet, if you wish to quickly get the native’s attention, “totally sweet win, win and win deals.”
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John
December 9th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
“I haven’t used real estate agents that much because I like to structure my own creative win-win deals directly with the seller.”
—————-
Just a couple questions for clarification, Casey:
1 - How do you like to structure your uncreative deals?
2 - How do you like to structure your win-lose deals?
I can hardly wait.
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Mike
December 9th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Do you really think you will be able to pull yourself out of $2,000,000 in debt. The answer is no. The real estate market is far from coming back. This is just the beginning of the real estate collapse that should last well into 2009. With ARMS resetting you should see even more foreclosures in 2007. You should have declared bankruptcy after you first investment went sour. Im sure your credit score is well south of 500 now.
I think you should call up Suze Orman and ask for her advice. Im sure she would be able to do a full hour on your story alone.
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Mike
December 9th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
By the way those late night info commercial on buy and selling Real Estate is a JOKE. Anyone who believes that garbage is quite pathetic.
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Darren
December 9th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Hey why dont you contact Robert Allen , he could help you sell them lol….set up a creative selling boot camp ..just dont wear sandals - this blog is like watching a delusion in writing - its such great entertainment..why dont you set up another website to compete with flipper nation..you could call it flopper nation - better still you could go to iraq as a semi delusional chemical weapon ..serin gas
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Anon
December 9th, 2006 at 10:54 pm
Hey every one check this out:
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/O....._Age_Of_24
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Nigel Swaby
December 9th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
Ummm,
Casey I don’t think you have enough experience to be criticizing real estate agents. There are plenty that focus on investor buyers and selling distressed properties. Had you used these agents in your transactions, they would have at least told you that your deals were not on the up and up.
The ethical ones would have discontinued their representation of you alltogether.
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J. Whittimer Lightning
December 9th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
This is one of the courses that Casey will be TEACHING at my real estate seminar this coming week. Isn’t he good? Isn’t he convincing? Come on, you got to admit it people.
I just couldn’t pass up employing Casey and putting him to work teaching at my seminars. I mean this guy really believes it. With that quality, imagine what he can sell to the rubes who sign up for my seminars.
I’m hoping that this one week, evolves into the turnaround for both Sunshine and me.
J. Whittimer Lightning
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I think casey jumped the shark
December 9th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
In my state they have Real estate fiancing as required courses, along with contracts, and real estate law…and guess what casey….all of the wraparound mortgages, creative financing, simultaneous closes, and even SUBJECT 2 is covered as STATE MANDATED.
‘
ALL of the real estate brokers in Oregon know exactly what creative REI’s do and the funny thing is….THE NAR’S code of ethics prohibit any Realtor from participating in Subject 2’s as it is unethical, illegal in some cases, and predatory.
You say you look for Motivated sellers..NO…WRONG…people like you are predators that prey on people in bad situations so you can make a fast buck. And to say your helping people out–your end buyers when you know they have a high likelihood of defaulting or never exercising their option to buy…bah..your a real piece of work casey.
and to say that realtors look for A borrowers is ridiculous. The majority of the population is not A borrowers…It is just retarded to say that agents would alienate almost the entire customer base of America. With all of the first time homebuyer programs out there, Realtors deal with people from A credit down to subprime because there are tons of programs FHA/VA etc. that people can take advantage of to become homebuyers.
Do some research before you go and spout off at the mouth again casey.
PS after reading this blog for a month or so casey really pisses me off to the point that I think violent thoughts about him for defrauding the American public, lenders, and undermining the entire loan system as well as helping drive the housing prices up to unsustainable levels.
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Free Advice
December 9th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Don’t put yourself into more legal hot water.
“Realtor” is a registered trademark for a member of the National Association of Realtors.
Of all the organizations in the world, this one really defends its trademark.
No need to worry yet. There’s a whole long NAR process for dealing with the media.
It boils down this is: You get five stern letters. Then they sue.
However, according to the NAR, “It has been our experience that only very rarely has resort to litigation by the Association been necessary.”
How reassuring.
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Joey Bobo
December 9th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
So… basically, what you’re telling is that you’re a little Uzbeki boy playing grown American men games.
No… better yet… you’re the “Dude! You’re Getting a Dell!!!” kid playing real estate games in “You’re Fired.. Get Out” Donald Trump’s world.
And you got screwed in the process.
Your Win-Win Sweet Deals involve REAL MONEY. Ms. Serin can kiss her CPA dreams goodbye, because you decided to play Santa Claus with your family’s money.
But at least you made someone else happy. Casey gets a medal!!!! HURRAY!!!!
Was it really a “Sweet” deal, or is it a stupid deal?
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Matt
December 9th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
OK sir, that’s it, where’s the crack-pipe? Hand it over mister. No more crack for you! Mmmmmmkay?
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Free Advice
December 9th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Casey:
By August the seller got frustrated and searched for a “private investor” online.
Now you’re the one who is frustrated, probably searching for private investors.
That’s how they found me. I gave them a low-but-reasonable as-is offer and promised to close in a week.
I’ll bet you’re getting plenty of low offers for a quick close, by potential buyers who consider their offers very “reasonable.” Evidently you don’t. And evidently buyers don’t care that you’re underwater.
They initially refused but after a month of no activity they let the agent go and called me to see if the offer is still “on the table”. After looking at the changing market I lowered my offer to be on the safe side. I still promised the one-week as-is no-hassle close. They agreed.
And so it goes. Buyers will continually lower their offers to you — to be “on the safe side.”
And someday you too will agree on the price, whether you want to or not.
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Casey is a Genius
December 9th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
*Yawn*…We already know that you’re delusional. Why don’t you get to the interesting parts of your life. No one wants to hear you trying to preach. You’re like a priest who everyone knows that you molested children and now you’re trying to preach about virtures. I hope you don’t think any of that BS is inspiring anyone. You’ve accomplished nothing and you’re trying to give some insight on what it takes to be a great Real Estate Agent. Tell [wife] to smack you upside the head for me. Me scratching my ass right now has been more productive than you have been in 1 year. The only house you sold was a “swap.” And you call it “Creative.” Well the Feds will have another word for it. Get ready for that phone call and the late night ankle grabs.
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Mr. Flipper
December 10th, 2006 at 12:46 am
To “I think casey jumped the shark” who wrote:
“ALL of the real estate brokers in Oregon know exactly what creative REI’s do and the funny thing is….THE NAR’S code of ethics prohibit any Realtor from participating in Subject 2’s as it is unethical, illegal in some cases, and predatory.”
—————–
If you’re an agent, then you obviously don’t keep up with NAR guidelines. The NAR is currently organizing material for their association members to not only offer, but encourage their agents to offer “Subject To” transactions as a viable alternative to a short sale, or foreclosure. And any bank is eager for something creative to help curb or even eliminate taking back zero equity houses through foreclosure — or having to suffer a short-sale hair-cut on their loans for the next five years.
Sorry “jump the shark”. I’m not going to beat you over the head on this topic, suffice to say that not only is “Subject To” financing legal, it is the only way some sellers can save their credit. The NAR is onboard with “Subject To” because there is money to made with clients that have no alternatives.
I’m avoiding giving you a verbal spanking because of your ignorant comment(s).
Merry Christmas!
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ROKIT88
December 10th, 2006 at 12:48 am
Did you watch a lot of South Park to learn english? I’m trying to figure out your obsession with using “sweet”.
Every day your hole gets deeper.
Turn in the keys.
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none
December 10th, 2006 at 1:26 am
haha, i love all this casey bashing - because you know what, he is making so much money off of this site right now, all thanks to you guys. meme guy suggests $24,000 a year, i would suggest a lot more. do you think he wrote ‘looser’ and added ’sweet deals’ a bunch of times for nothing? he reads every single comment to moderate this place, and is well aware of what ticks you off. his story is real, but he’s ’smart posting’, choosing keywords, phrases and an attitude to best suit his audience.
i wouldn’t be suprised if the last $4k loan at 36% interest, was in fact adsense money he is making a story about to sound even more outrageous. i also wouldn’t be suprised to hear if his job with ‘chris’ for $3000 a month was actually a job with his alter-ego as an adsense optimiser.
i am also confused as to whether casey is really stupid or really smart, but it’s certain he is making a ton of cash right now.
so the joke is actually on you guys for putting his traffic through the roof. if you truly truly hate casey as suggested by your commenting, don’t ever come back.
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Ross Pruden
December 10th, 2006 at 1:32 am
While today’s blog is interesting, you appear to be disregarding your own “urgent” problems — have you forgotten that you said this JUST YESTERDAY:
“4) run an effective blog - writing a good post takes 1-3 hours…
Sometimes I wish I can just blog all day because I enjoy it and if I can spend more time responding to your questions/comments the reading experience will be even better. But I have responsibility to take care of.
“After 3 months I’m finally realizing that maybe fighting the fire and writing about fighting the fire is very hard to do at the same time. Or to borrow from a prior analogy: Watching a huge tidal wave coming at me and instead of running I am taking pictures of it. The view is good for a few minutes untill I find myself at the bottom of the ocean.”
Please: stop blogging for an entire= week — take care of your problems first. THEN tell us about them. It’s pretty clear you’re using blogging as an escape from reality (not that I can blame you), and even though you JUST SAID that you’re taking snapshots of a tidal wave… you are still there snapping off pictures at the approaching disaster. What gives?
If you’re blogging in your free time, fine — but don’t blog when you know you have work hard to solve your debt probs… and then be mystified that you don’t know where all your time went.
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Joey Bobo
December 10th, 2006 at 1:42 am
Oh yeah, one more lesson for you, Casey.
“Team” is an overated corporate concept that has no place in the real world. It’s right up there with other false concepts like “synergy” and “win-win”.
In life, the only team you really have are family and close friends. And let’s see how you treated your real team:
You bummed loans off of your friends
You are bumming living quarters and loans from your family.
Your wife’s future career as a CPA is destroyed. No one except a tax cheat would ever hire a CPA that was bankrupted. Do they even give licenses to bankrupted CPAs? I don’t think they do in NY… maybe you should have your wife check the licensing regulations in California for that.
Yet you cheer yourself because you made some stranger you did a deal with happy.
Here in NYC, we have the Coney Island Amusement park. It’s near a Russian neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. It’s run down, and depressing. But there is one storefront without a sign where you can play a game.
You pay the guy some cash, and he hands you a paintball rifle. He then presses a button, and ‘The Freak” comes out. The Freak is obviously a mentally retarded person, who is dressed in a paintball suit. You get to shoot the freak while he runs from left to right, shouting insults, trying to avoid getting hit.
You should come to NY. You can have a wonderful career as “The Freak”.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/tr.....mp;index=2
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Dave
December 10th, 2006 at 1:55 am
And since I was able to get rid of Calla Way and secure my $30,000 gain, it was a pretty good deal for me too.
Come on, you won’t know until you’ve sold Burdett House how much of a win that was.
You need to finally stop thinking of your deals in terms of cash basis. Cash that changes hands at certain points is important from an operational perspective, that is, to keep you going. But profits (and losses) are a result of the whole deal, taking future repayments, original investments etc into account. That is, you need to look at equity.
I can’t believe even after all these experiences your writing still sounds like your confusing cash-in-hand with profit.
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Mr. Right
December 10th, 2006 at 2:24 am
Your recent entry has yet again amazed me Casey. Did your mom ever drop you on your head when you were a child?
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Wikifortune.com
December 10th, 2006 at 2:52 am
Yes Mr. Casey.
I wish you the best of luck when you are searching for your sweet deals.
It’s a very sweet world indeed.
Much sweater than grass wheat shot of Jamba Juice.
Swwwwweeeeeeet
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Coyote Investor
December 10th, 2006 at 3:29 am
Wow. It is fun though isn’t it my fellow readers?
30k in profit
less taxes
less the time-value of the money
less expenses
this on a deal valued at what 400k? Looks like a single digit return to me. Casey still has not a clue of the risks of borrowing such large sums of money. None.
I love it that he does a #2 on all his deals.
Indeed, in deed.
suh-wheat grass in the morning
no more grammar
no more punctuation
I’m King of the World!
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Bubbers
December 10th, 2006 at 4:37 am
I’m going to ignore the idiocy of Casey writing “instructional” posts on how to be successful in real estate deals because it’s so obvious, so I’ll stick to….
“need to improve on”?
“next time”?
“more deals”?
“future deals”?
Casey, wake up. IT’S OVER!
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FrugalTrader
December 10th, 2006 at 4:45 am
Great post Casey!
I agree with most of your article considering that I have done a couple of creative real estate deals myself. You seem to find the sellers easily enough, which is usually the hard part, now you just need to fine tune your exit strategy.
FrugalTrader
http://www.MillionDollarJourney.com
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Jump the Shark Again
December 10th, 2006 at 5:04 am
Since almost every mortgage has a due on sale clause, and a “subject to” tranfers title, the note holder is not”eager” to participate in Subject To schemes, especially since no underwriting was done on the person who acquires the property in this manner. Plus, when the new owner defaults, which they often do, the original owner is still on the hook for the original note.
“Subject To” schemes are very popular with the equity strippers and “stop foreclosure” people of the world. The ignorant homeowners will bite at anything that seems to be the panacea for their troubles.
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KevBo
December 10th, 2006 at 5:14 am
Casey, all I can say is that I’m happy that you don’t have a RE license. This means there’s one less incompetent agent out there.
Maybe if you had used one of these ‘normal’ real estate agents, you might have learned a thing or two about the current state of the housing market. And maybe, just maybe, they might have been able to get you a ’sweet deal’. But because you like to lump us all together, you didn’t wish to explore that alternative.
I’ve got nothing against being unconventional or thinking out of the box, but you’re doing it to such an extreme, that your reality is going crazy. And your life is being turned upside down. But keep on keeping on.
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Sputnik_the_Cat
December 10th, 2006 at 5:16 am
aaackk!!
I’m still hacking on a hairball after reading that you’ve borrowed another $4,500 at … what? … 36% + 10% fee…
Thhpptt!! I thought predatory lending laws were supposed to protect uneducated, immigrant suckers like you!?!
And you’ll use the money for .. what? … don’t tell me … another scammer guru seminar?!?
I’m officially BORED now. Time to take a nap in a warm spot. Going over to play with Hobbes later this afternoon.
Forget what I said about me being here to prove that a cat with a brain the size of a walnut is smarter than Casey … he didn’t need me for that! (yneone doesn’t need me for that either… [que high-pitched clueless whiney voice] “Why would anyone trash a property???…” PLEEEEEZE!! No wonder you love Casey! You are as stupid and naive as he is!
Sputnik_the_Cat has left the building…. (and scratched up all the furniture on the way out!)
Thhhpptttt!!!!
S_t_C
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Shawn Michael Scott
December 10th, 2006 at 6:02 am
Me: Dude, what’s my tattoo say?
Casey: SWEET!
Casey: DUDE!
ME: SWEET!
I agree with the other poster….the post this morning is the one that “jumped the shark for Casey”
Over and out.
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Just Some Contradictions
December 10th, 2006 at 6:16 am
I obviously lost money on most of my deals. And it wasn’t because I didn’t buy below market. I failed in the fix-up and re-sell stage. True, I should have bought at a deeper discount to account for this.
Look at your own contradiction.
I’m still stuck with the Burdett house. And yes I did pay a little more than I wanted to. …. And since I was able to get rid of Calla Way and secure my $30,000 gain, it was a pretty good deal for me too.
It was a good deal to extract $30,000 that you have to pay back to get stuck in a house that won’t sell and will be foreclosed upon?
Most real estate agent will not “waste their time” with a credit-challenged buyer unless they can show them a valid pre-approval. That’s why there is a need for creative real estate investors. …I used the same realtor on the sale because she already proved to be creative and competent.
A creative Realtor? Wow!
I failed in the fix-up and re-sell stage. …. I like to say “WIN-WIN or NO (SWEET) DEAL!”
Then you never should have failed, right? Because you would only do win-win deals, right?
I’m really beginning to pray this is a hoax, because it pains me to think you’re truly this self-destructive.
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LOL
December 10th, 2006 at 6:16 am
Quit trying to sugar coat your stupidity. There is nothing “sweet” about any of your deals. You equity stripped the properties you bought for living expenses and committed mortgage fraud. You are in deep shit.
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Editor
December 10th, 2006 at 6:47 am
Good morning Early Riser! Are you up and at ‘em, chasing sweet RE deals?
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Crashlander
December 10th, 2006 at 6:52 am
There is no more $ to be made in RE for at least 5 years.
The fact that ‘most people’ now realize this means its a collective self-fulfilling property (demand dries up, prices flat or down)
Buying a house someone can’t sell means you now own a house that you can’t sell. Its pretty simple. And you are WORSE off than the guy you bought it from cuz you have to
1. make sellable($$$)
2. pay commissions/transfter costs($$$)
The reason all the sellers were happy to deal with Casey is that he was paying top dollar. There is rarely a ‘good deal’ to be had since the second you buy you have set the market price. If you really get a good deal the seller WILL HATE YOU by the time escrow closes in many cases. They know what market price is/should be and if you pay less they will resent it.
Getting a RE license and putting all your ‘flips’ into the MLS is probably the best way to do what Casey is trying. He wont do it because the seminar gurus advise to NOT get a RE license this is for two reasons:
1. many seminar people cannot pass RE exam (pathetic)
2. some semnar people afraid of being finger printed by the state (ex cons, cant pass background check)
3. Realtors subject to following state laws and cant steal homes in equity stripping/abusive land contracts/questionable wraps.
4. Judjes in lawsuits will come down very hard on licensed agents in disputes they are supposed to not be predators so more likely to lose in inevitable court cases.
5. If seminar guru tell you to get RE license virtually EVERYONE will have to take a few weeks months to pass exam meanwhile you cant sell them more ’seminar crap’. They operate on the ‘fleece the suckers NOW’ business model.
Anyway lawsuits and/or Real estate are the only way to make big money quickly nowadays. Good luck Casey.
Next time buy a house and then sue the guy you bought it from for a frivolus/fictional reason. Thats SOP in CA. Remember we are over run with foreigners/ out of staters ALL of whom are here to get rich quick, its rough here. No one is moving here for quality of life anymore.(opposite)
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Mike
December 10th, 2006 at 7:03 am
“Solving problems takes expert knowledge and most of all creativity!”
You idiot!!! Paying through the nose for a few seminars doesn’t make you an expert at anything. Please share with us your various areas of expert knowledge.
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Payday Loans
December 10th, 2006 at 7:12 am
Hello Casey!
I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now. As a webmaster, I think you did an awesome job.
Have you ever thought that maybe web marketing might be your forte?
IMHO, you should just forget about real estate for a while as I imagine (I’m not RE investor) that it’s extremely hard to make money in such a declining market.
Just try to sell your houses as quick as possible but put most of your time into something else.
Why don’t you work on the ads on this site? You might get a better click trough rate if you maybe make them stand out in some way (like if you make them red).
Also, why don’t you start a few more blogs? You can probably make a very good living as a webmaster as you seem to have the skills for it.
Best wishes,
A fellow webmaster
P.S. Please don’t ignore this post because of the weird name and website; I’m only just trying to get a little bit of Google juice from you.
Thanks.
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Anti-Drug Campaign
December 10th, 2006 at 7:24 am
If I could erase two words from human existance it would be “sweet” and “dirty”. Every time I read them on this blog I feel like screaming.
Casey, your vernacular does NOT put into anyone’s mind a business man of any kind, successful or otherwise. If you wanted to be taken seriously you would at least attempt to write and speak better than a 14 year old pot head. But then your actions are that of a 14 year old pot head as well.
OMG I just realized how you can get yourself out of this mess! Go to the people that make the “don’t use drugs” commercials, let them read your blog and listen to your rambling about more sweet deals for about 5 minutes and they will immediately sign you up to be America’s posterboy in their anti-drug campaign. Perhaps they will even sign you up for a series of commercials and you will make enough money to pay back every dirty penny.
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Wasting time
December 10th, 2006 at 7:32 am
Casey, what’s the point of posts like this other than to troll? If anything, your website is excellent testimonial that none of those techniques work. The stuff about your actual two purchases is interesting though, so if you could post more stuff like that without the BS Casey-theory that would be great. We know you’re just repeating “loosing”, “WIN-WIN”, and “sweet” to drive your comment counts up. Let’s hear the stories of the other properties.
And if you really want the name Casey Serin to live on in infamy, we need some serious dirt soon. We need a Casey-gate. For example, you’ve been taking out life insurance policies on old ladies and then running over them with the Jetta to fund your RE purchases. Or maybe you neglected to tell the wife that the collateral for your 36% loan was her ovaries. Something of this nature. (Actually, the life insurance thing has already been done with bums, but think creatively and outside the box.)
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Easy Living
December 10th, 2006 at 7:41 am
“The buyer was very happy to be able to move up to a nicer house in a better neighborhood AND sell his old house in a so-so neighborhood all in the SAME transaction! What kind of a realtor would help him do THAT?”
A realtor that wanted to get stuck with an underwater POS house in a bad neighborhood?
Did I get the right answer?
(They’re probably still laughing about sticking you with the Burdett house at that high price!)
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Free Advice
December 10th, 2006 at 7:41 am
Mr. Flipper:
It seems the NAR is now even offering its members a course on the subject of “subject to” financing (though anyone can buy it).
From the blurb:
Whether you are an active or passive “Subject To” Mortgage Investor, you must know the key success areas to learn and master. Beginning investors often learn these difficult lessons the hard way.
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Free Advice
December 10th, 2006 at 7:49 am
Casey:
I wonder: Did the other parties in your transactions actually cause you to lose — while making you think you won?
So instead of “WIN/WIN,” why don’t you try “LOSE (Win?)/WIN (Lose?)” as an approach?
This is where the other party loses something, but you lead them to believe they’re winning. You, on the other hand, win something, but make the other party think you’re losing.
Try it on for size. You could indeed lose sleep over it. But if that’s the case, then I think you’re going to have to choose between sleeping at night and real estate success.
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Loads o Money
December 10th, 2006 at 7:53 am
There is a common theme in your thinking. You don’t seem to be aware of the real consequences of your actions. It played out before when you were buying houses in different states - how could you possibly manage the rehab of those.
It is playing out right now by wondering if you’re going to Jail. You have already admitted guilt to federal offences. You should be preparing yourself for time in jail. You should be asking if you should go down to the FBI now or wait several years down the line for the phone call. Who know’s - you may be a successful real estate investor then…… and then you would go to jail - rather like your mortgage fraud guy you had on podcast. And then you would lose everything…!
Have you prepared your wife for this ! What does she have to say ?
And dont bother asking if you are going to jail. Of course you are !! You have very publicly admitted guilt. You are sticking the finger at the FBI saying “hey FBI - am here, am guilty, why don’t you come get me…! ”
The FBI are all over mortgage fraud now…. With you, they dont have to do much, if any, work to secure a conviction.
I assume you are going to plead “guilty” right ?
Why don’t you do the right think and take yourself down to the FBI.
And what about your marriage…. You have deceived your wife. You have already said you were giving her the impression that you were some big shot !!
I can tell you what she is thinking…. Yes, she has supported you and will support you for a while. But there will come a point where she will throw in the towel. She will justify this because you lied to her. You promised you were a big shot; you would not financially ruin her. This will be why in 2 years, when you go to jail she will leave. If were you I would ask her now what she wants you to do. Maybe if you go to jail now, she wont leave….
Oh, and when your lastest deal has worked that turns $4000 into $2M then let me know how its done. I got a spare $4000.
Hey - I just thought of a great way to make money. Why dont you get the reality tv people there filming you…. You have to do this before you go to the FBI cos that would make great tv…!
Oh - and I got a sure fire way of making money. Send me a hundred bucks and I’ll send you info on it. There’s only one left so let me know if your interested - wont last long !!
Loads o Money.
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Catch a Gideon
December 10th, 2006 at 8:06 am
When “flipping” a house it is usually imperative to get rid of it quickly.
Also, why take money from the deal and pay off debt before finishing the deal. You should sell the house and realize the money and then pay the debts.
I still don’t understand why you kept buying houses. At some point you realize you’re going to lose money and bite the bullet, like a bad stock purchase.
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KevBo
December 10th, 2006 at 8:10 am
Not really sure where you’re going with this post. What do real estate agents have to do with your deals? I’m sorry that somehow they (we) don’t have an intense desire to extensively market to a bunch of people needing unconventional financing to buy an overpriced home. One of the principles that I try to operate with is trying to help people get into a better situation for themselves. Buying an overpriced home, at an overpriced amount, in a declining market does not get my clients into a better situation.
You’ve also admited that you perhaps did not follow one of the guiding principles of a successful investor - that of profit being made at purchase time. I’m hoping your real estate college course doesn’t just give you a passing grade for just paying the entrance fees. You need to learn this stuff and remember it. You’ve also written that you need to learn the rehab portion of your investment strategy better. What have you done in the past three months to better yourself in this area. With three properties within roughly 50 miles of your home, you’ve got ample opportunity.
Good luck
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Free Advice
December 10th, 2006 at 8:18 am
PS after reading this blog for a month or so casey really pisses me off to the point that I think violent thoughts about him for defrauding the American public, lenders, and undermining the entire loan system as well as helping drive the housing prices up to unsustainable levels.
Jumped the shark:
How could about $500K-$600K in losses “undermine the entire loan system?” If one borrower can undermine the loan system, then the loan system deserves undermining.
The market for mortgage money is set by supply and demand. There’s a lot of money flowing in — a healthy chunk of it from hedge funds and from offshore. That’s why rates are relatively low.
Evidently there’s not enough opportunity to fund conventional loans, so investors are begging to fund subprime/stated income/NINA (no income/no assets) notes. If they got skewered, too bad. They knew the risks they were assuming.
As for unsustainable prices, who cares? Unsustainable prices will certainly fall to sustainable levels. Personally, I don’t care if the price I ask for my house is “sustainable” or not. I’ll take the highest offer I can get.
If I find a buyer who is willing to pay my “unsustainable” price, and you find that price a problem, then you (or “the American public”) can pay me the difference and I’ll lower the price accordingly.
If buyers are paying unreasonable prices, then it is they who are unreasonable. This isn’t a public policy issue such as insulin for diabetics. Nobody needs to buy a house.
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Rob P
December 10th, 2006 at 8:18 am
Now, now, Mr. Serin: here you are in your room spending the whole morning typing away on your laptop. Didn’t we agree when you first came here that you would spend not more than one hour a day on it? If you continue like this, we’ll have to consider putting the computer behind the nurses’ desk, so that you’ll have to get permission each time you want to use it. You don’t want that, do you, Mr. Serin?
Please. Don’t be silly. We’re having a wonderful lunch today, with your favorite dessert–green jello. Then, it’s naptime. Later, you have Group. You’re making so much progress in Group when you attend. Everyone likes you. And then, late in the afternoon, Nurse Ratched will be giving a workshop on crafts. Today, you’ll be learning how to make wallets!
Did you know, Casey, that many of our former patients have learned how to support themselves making wallets, purses and keychains using the very skills they learned here? It’s a wonderful way for you to support yourself and learn how to become a productive member of today’s society. Just like an adult.
I think there’s even the possibility, down the road, that you might be able to get your own apartment, go alone to the store to buy groceries and even get a bus pass–so you can go anywhere you want in Sacramento! Without having to get permission from anyone! Wouldn’t that be a “sweet deal”!
Mr. Serin, you keep using phrases like “win-win” and “attracting success”. As long as you are here letting us work with you to get better, this is a “win-win” situation for YOU! Isn’t that great? Now, please, put the laptop away and come out to the dining hall. Your friends are waiting. I think we’re having meatloaf today. Yum! You like meatloaf.
No, you don’t have to eat the peas if you don’t want to. And no, you know that we don’t offer Jamba Juice here, but I think the orderly has some apple juice concentrate.
Now, I have to make one quick phone call…
Yes, Dr. Mannheim, he’s coming to the cafeteria. Yes, yes,…he continues to talk about “wrapping mortgages”, whatever that means, but I think it’s harmless. No, there will be no need for medication today.
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Fister Hiney
December 10th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Oh hell this just gets better and better. Just when I think “Sweet Deal Serin” is out of material, BAMO he whips out another zinger. Casey you are the BOMB! I dont know if you write your own stuff or you have a staff to make this s$#t up but its the greatest. I haven’t had this much fun since Al Gore started the internet. I really get a hoot from all the people who care so much and are tring to give you good advice. What a bunch of stooges! Keep it coming, please.
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JustAnotherRationalHuman
December 10th, 2006 at 8:26 am
I don’t suppose the 30K cash at close on the Calla Way deal was fully disclosed during escrow. You say it was 100% financing, which means you lied to your bank to get that “sweet” deal. You have no morals, no ethics, and clearly no business sense. Supposedly, this post shows how to be “creative” and make money in real estate. In reality, it shows how to BREAK THE LAW to make a short term gain, which didn’t really work out for you anyway. What a waste you are.
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Dan Riba
December 10th, 2006 at 8:26 am
I like this post. It’s silly!
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Georgia Girl
December 10th, 2006 at 8:34 am
After reading the latest post, I an convinced this site is a scam. No one can be that stupid.
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Soup Nazi
December 10th, 2006 at 8:37 am
I have been reading your blog for a couple of months now. Been trying to figure what your angle is … I mean, it’s hard to believe anyone could be this profoundly ignorant. Even someone young and uneducated…
But the penny just dropped with today’s post. You’re trying to become an RE guru, aren’t you? Today’s start is amateurish at best, but even if you get better - who in their right mind would take RE advice from you? You’re not an RE investor - you’re not even an RE speculator. You’re just an idiot.
Man, you are SO totally hosed.
NO SOUP FOR YOU!
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zzzzzz
December 10th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Well I guess 28 out of 30 days isn’t bad. Rolls eyes and shakes head.
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The Man
December 10th, 2006 at 9:21 am
I think you should look into getting sponsorship from Jamba Juice. Seriously, do it.
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Unbelievable
December 10th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Turn off the moderation while you are gone for a week. We promise to be good.
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REALTOR
December 10th, 2006 at 9:35 am
CASEY, YOU’RE THE ONE WHO WILL BE GOING TO JAIL.
WE ARE STILL IN BUSINESS, haaaaaa
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REALTOR
December 10th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Casey, you are stupid, realtors have networks too and we’ll make sure that no one will show your houses to our clients since they’re all junk like yourself
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Real Estate Agents Wouldn't Help Me
December 10th, 2006 at 9:57 am
Casey,
The more you write to more you lose an support that might be available to you. You are not very smart at all. Alienating a solid industry that has successfully transacted billions upon billions of dollars of business for may happy customers is another sign of ignorant huberous. You’ll have little support when the hammer comes down on you.
Any agent who runs into someone like you is wise to steer clear. I don’t seeing anything win-win about dealing with you. So far you’ve torched your credit, your wife’s credit, you future, her future, and any leniency that might have been afforded you for your ignorance. But since you continue to spew nonsense, it’s clear that you do not intend on playing by the rules.
I wouldn’t do business with you ever. You just don’t have what it takes.
YOUR REPORT CARD
In case you disagree take a look at your report card…..Your bank account and your networth…..what does it look like and what does it say about you???? Credit score???? What does that say about you???? Would you do business with someone with that report card????
And I’d never buy any facing foreclosure t-shirts. What’s to be proud of?
It should read:
“I destroyed my financial future single handedly and wreck my wifes in the process.”
But she’s a fool too so no sympathy for her either.
Or your t-shirt should say:
“I wouldn’t do business with me either!”
Lastly I never click on the ads here and don’t intend on doing so.
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Less than zero
December 10th, 2006 at 10:02 am
You couldn’t last a week Casey. Not even a week. You really are less than zero, Casey.
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whoknows
December 10th, 2006 at 10:03 am
structuring ‘win-win’ deals? really??? how many of those deals have been ‘win-win’? This post actually had me laughing before I read what Sputnick had to say.
RE agents are a necessary evil for beginners. No two ways about it. And anyone who has done less than five round trip (buy/sell) transactions is a beginner. . . ..
Sput-nick! Sput-nick! Sput-nick!
All other posters are just posers.
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star
December 10th, 2006 at 10:03 am
While you’re at it, please list all the deals in which you did this - “We buy the house, fix it up and re-sell the finished product to an end user for a quick profit.”
It’s getting boring watching you act like a deluded fool.
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star
December 10th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Ok Casey, you’ve convinced me that you’re more spun out than ever with this statement - “We work with sellers who need to sell YESTEDAY and have no money or time to do repairs or no equity to drop the price. ”
We? What is this “we” junk? Get real. You can’t even move your own bad deals. You are not an investor. You never were. You were just a clueless dreamer who got scammed by seminars, scammed the banks yourself and then instead of doing something worthwhile with all that money handed to you, got stuck holding the bag and lost it all.
Why in the world would you expect anyone to listen to advice from you?
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Jill
December 10th, 2006 at 10:13 am
This is boring now. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Get to the good stuff! We don’t care how great you think you did. What is going on right now?
Has your wife filed for divorce yet? Did you declare bankruptcy yet? How many times have you changed your phone number because creditors keep calling?
Did you get physically threatened by anyone yet?
And you still haven’t told us what happened to the blue ball. We really need to know if it’s ok.
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star
December 10th, 2006 at 10:21 am
“And since I was able to get rid of Calla Way and secure my $30,000 gain”
That’s some awfully creative bookeeping there. Maybe you should consult your CPA-in-training wife on that. The ledger doesn’t stop where you want it too. It stops at the bottom line, which in this case hasn’t transpired on this deal yet.
Speaking of ledgers, where does your tax situation stand right now? Do you know, or are you just distracting yourself with nonsense above in an attempt to avoid it?
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SpaceMonkey
December 10th, 2006 at 10:24 am
“* Priority #1: take care of the seller / buyer (their win)
* Priority #2: make money (my win)
* 1 + 2 = Sweet RE Deal!”
BWAHAHAHA. Oh my.
Seriously, were you just listening to one of your “Rich Dad” CDs and transcribing it onto your blog or something?
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star
December 10th, 2006 at 10:26 am
“the sooner you can start a new, financially-clean life.”
No such thing. Although I’m sure deadbeats and former bk’ers disagree, once a person goes through forclosure or bankruptcy, it will always remain a fact. They can never say it didn’t happen. They will never be “clean”.
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Jack
December 10th, 2006 at 10:30 am
seeing as Casey hasn’t logged in for the morning can mean a few things:
- he killed himself
- he got arrested
- he is actually working on his houses today
- he is busy trying to get his Utah-ppl to pay for the house
- he is sleeping.
well.. what option to you think is most likely?
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Real Estate Monkey
December 10th, 2006 at 10:32 am
Wow Casey, I’m SO glad your snappy little system is working SO well for you! Look at all the wealth flippers like you are creating, especially with the ’sweet’ little one-page contracts that unsuspecting buyers sign, protecting you from any disclosure or recourse.
Flippers certainly create lots of value. Especially when, in their cheap rush to ’slap lipstick on the pig’ (our realtor office jargon for ‘value-building flippers’), they leave cracked water and drain pipes in walls, granite counters unsupported, and (my favorite) live cut electrical wires that burn the house down the day after the poor buyers move in.
More and more realtors in my office will no longer accept listings from flippers, as their stellar reputation of quality renovation standards do not warrant their greedy price premium.
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Time Will Tell (Astonished and bored all at the same time)
December 10th, 2006 at 10:33 am
The NAR is onboard with “Subject To” because there is money to made with clients that have no alternatives.
You go it, like the rest of the NAR’s questionalble bubble blowing, if there is money to be made, they’ll be there! That’s why so many have called them Realtwhores.
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Anon4
December 10th, 2006 at 10:36 am
What.. no mention of jamba juice?
minus 100000 troll points
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Casey Serin
December 10th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Great now every realtor hates me!
I wasn’t hating on the realtors… just saying that we work different markets! I love good realtors! Look at my example of where I was using a realtor and it was a good thing.
Come one guys, why do you always have to take stuff out of context?
(by the way, no early risin’ today, wanted to spend extra time sleeping-in with my wife this morning since I will be leaving for a week)
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Homey Da Clown
December 10th, 2006 at 10:56 am
You approved 40 more posts….still refusing to post the truth?
Oh… here’s one on your blog site appropriatley under R-E FRAUD–www.mortgagefraudblog.com
Tomorrow,
www.fbi.gov
Tuesday,
www.irs.gov
The internet is cool. Lots of public records on your family, friends, business records. All public knowledge. You can’t delete them.
I’m just one little clown. Imagine what the pros will do to you.
Love,
Homey
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Me
December 10th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Casey sez: “Now every realtor hates me”
But great for building blog traffic & networking.
DUDE!!!!
You know what you should do?
Go after Scientologists!!!
“Scientologists scammed me out of my wrap-around, claiming that L. Ron Hubbard told me to stop making payments”.
It would generate huge traffic and publicity if you could get them to react.
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El (hater)
December 10th, 2006 at 10:58 am
“But in my experience the truly creative deals happen when you work directly with the buyer/seller.”
The ONLY SUCCESS you’ve had was when you did it the standard way, that first time. All your “creative” deals you’re still stuck with!
You know what the first part of “failing forward” is? Recognizing that you’ve failed. You have to learn from your mistakes. You still somehow have it in your peanut brain that you’ve done well, so you won’t learn a damn thing.
Let me give you hint Casey. You didn’t fail at this or that stage of the process, YOU FAILED AT EVERY SINGLE STAGE:
1) You bought garbage houses in garbage areas that no one with a brain wants.
2) You bought them way too expensive.
3) You lied to get them. (”thou shalt not bear false witness” Mr. Christian. You’ve broken a commandment there.)
4) You bought them all at once due to your non-Christian avarice (one of the 7 sins no?).
5) You were too lazy to get them fixed up (and there’s another!).
6) You’ve got no talent whatsoever at getting them sold.
I don’t know why I waste my breath, but I’ll say what others have said to you many, many times. You want to learn something from your failure? Learn this:
YOU SUCK AT REAL ESTATE. NEVER ATTEMPT TO FLIP AGAIN.
People who succeed know what their strengths are. And they know the difference between “know” and “what I want to be true”.
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Sweet deal
December 10th, 2006 at 11:01 am
Casey, your work ethic is beyond pathetic. You do everything you can to avoid any real work and waste away your days blogging, reading useless personal development books or taking on countless other gimmics to shown us how much of a “workaholic” you are. Please!! I and most others who read this site don’t think for a second that if the slate was wiped clean and you were no longer 2.2 mil in debt that you could ever turn a profit in real estate on sweet RE deals. Give it up and get a job where you actually stand a chance of making some money slacker. You are your wife will have to make money at some point in life and soon. You have no business in making “sweet” deals in real estate.
The crap you spew on this site is starting to make me wonder how you haven’t gotten your butt kicked hard by someone who recognizes you on the street somewhere. Do you ever run into strangers in your travels, maybe at jamba juice or something, that give you any lip? I expect it to happen eventually.
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How Annoying
December 10th, 2006 at 11:06 am
Can we just find out who his lenders are and call them, and the IRS, and the FBI and have them “close on him” since he won’t do it himself and has the audacity to continue to preach? I am getting so annoyed with this schmuck! It’s also disgusting to know he continues to make whatever amount of ad money from his stinky shit.
Watch this get moderated!
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GC
December 10th, 2006 at 11:11 am
Senor Fecal Finger -
I think you said yesterday that 29 out of thrity days as an early riser was still pretty good, and you were impressed with yourself.
Not to piss-rain too much reality down on your ‘new math’, but since you do seem to have a vague understanding that investing is a numbers game, I thought I’d point out your poor math in this example. Up to you to leverage this new knowledge in Sweet RE deals.
You said: 29/30 days as an early riser, which is about 96.7% percent, and still ain’t too bad.
Couting today, and using your math (we’ll call it “Sweet REcalculus”), you’ve dropped to 28/30. Which is 93.3%.
REAL math:
you’ve missed two out of, what, 8 days? Thats 6/8, which is 75%. See, those other days do not exist at this point.
That may seem like comparing apples to oranges in your world (cause you know you are good for the days to come), but in the other world (your world is every bit as real as this other one, it just has a much smaller, and poorer, population),but its not.
Anyway - Idf I were you I’d be so worried about my wife smothering me with a pillow (do you have life insurance?), I wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink.
Best of luck. I am sure realtors don’t hate you. Why should they care? They get a percentage of both the sweet and the bitter deals!
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TSAM
December 10th, 2006 at 11:13 am
If your wife is smart, she’ll have someone keeping your side of the bed warm while you’re away.
Sweet!
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T
December 10th, 2006 at 11:24 am
It is painfully obvious to me that at this point Casey is merely blogging to incite people in order to generate more traffic and greater Adsense revenue.
It bothers me to think that this guy is not holding down a real job, sleeping in most mornings, treating himself to Jamba Juice, and enjoying the negative attention he is receiving from these idiotic blog topics.
IMO, he is not remorseful and cares more for publicity than he does for paying back every dirty penny. In fact, he probably thinks he is quite saavy and slick by making money off the revenue generated by all the “haters”. He is the epitome of laziness and has huge entitlement issues.
Franky, he and his wife (who I do not believe for one second is not complicit in Casey’s illegal activities) embody everything that most of us DO NOT want to be and I will no longer be visiting this site as I will no longer play Casey’s game.
This isn’t even amusing anymore. To think that Casey’s been using his CELL PHONE for internet access makes me sick. Those fees are outrageous!! How can he afford this if he supposedly has no money??? The fact is that he CAN afford it…because all of us who have visited this site have been putting money in the Serins’ pockets just by visiting.
Casey, you should be ashamed of yourself. You are not a forward-thinker….you are a con man, a snake oil salesman, and a pathetic human being.
Yneone: I truly believe you are Casey’s wife or a friend of his. You only comment to be his cheerleader or to put others down. And if you’re not Casey’s wife, then you’re delusional and even more pathetic than he is.
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star
December 10th, 2006 at 11:30 am
So now you’re going to boo-hoo about everyone “hating” you?
It’s not about hate Casey. It’s about you acting like an idiot.
I’m starting to think you need to be taken down for your own good. I honestly don’t think you’ll even begin to comprehend how much you’re screwing up until you’re behind bars for a while. All this time reading your blog I have yet to see you make a smart move. You just keep digging your hole with every action.
If your wife was smart she’d serve you with a restraining order on your return.
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Bedrock92990
December 10th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Casey, not that it’s our business, but where are you going for a week? Also, you’re going to keep getting a lot of slack from people if you don’t spell “Loser” correctly. It’s NOT spelled with 2 “oo”s. It’s “Loser”. Just trying to save your butt here a little.
Are you considering bankruptcy now that your debt is massively accruing even more on a monthly basis?
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biggpig
December 10th, 2006 at 11:39 am
“wanted to spend extra time sleeping-in with my wife this morning”
That’s some great quality time with the wife Casey, especially since you’ll be asleep.
P.S. I’m thinking of buying a shirt.
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Casey Serin
December 10th, 2006 at 11:40 am
Hey Mr. Homey Da Clown, I give you credit for digging up my old personal blog from earlier this year.
It’s funny, that’s the same blog that ‘cauzed me to get denied for one last cash-back deal and actually started this whole IamFacingForeclosure mess. (That’s because I was talking about flipping houses and trying to run that loan as an “owner-oc”, the lender read my blog and saw that I really was using it as investment property)
So you think you scored a big one and have all this “dirt” on me heh? But read that thing you will see its nothing more than personal details of what I did day-to-day. There is no new information. Just more details of the same.
What exactly am I hiding?? huh?
The reason I don’t want you posting that thing is because it has names of my wife and family. I promised them to not post their names on this blog so I want to honor the promise. If it wasn’t for the names, I may be willing to post it….
Man, you seem so excited about it!
Why don’t you shoot me an email and maybe we can work out a deal.
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Casey Serin
December 10th, 2006 at 11:41 am
I’m seriously thinking of taking down all my ads… that will convince people that i’m not trolling but just trying to tell my story… yeah I will give up some revenue but its not about the money on this blog, never has been.
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Casey Serin
December 10th, 2006 at 11:45 am
By the way… the “I am Facing Foreclosure” shirts on eBid is NOT my thing. Some “entrepreneur” is trying to ride my popularity and make a buck. So if you’re buying that shirt thinking it’s going to help me out, that’s not the case. I give the guy credit for his “creativity” though. It’s probably the same guy who was trying to sell all my houses on eBid a month ago. Man, people love to leech. At least be upfront about it.
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A friend of casey serin
December 10th, 2006 at 11:47 am
Casey is a liar from the start, that’s why we don’t like to contact him. We stay away from him.
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Vague Guru
December 10th, 2006 at 11:48 am
You haters just don’t get it.
Can’t you see Casey is a modern day Robin Hood?
He robs from the rich and gives to himself.
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Me
December 10th, 2006 at 11:49 am
Now it’s time
To say good-bye
To Casey’s audacity
I-R-S
F-B-I
Why?! Becausee they like you, that’s why!
BIG H-O-U-S…. E!!!!
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Cara
December 10th, 2006 at 11:53 am
Perfect. You’re supposedly in so much debt you’ll never repay it, but you care about what a bunch of strangers think, so you’ll remove one source of income.
Again. First lawyer, then shrink (for ADD diagnosis and treatment). If you’re a troll, big deal. You’re not taking any cash out of my pocket, so I don’t care.
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Free Advice
December 10th, 2006 at 11:59 am
The FBI are all over mortgage fraud now
Oh, they certainly are. According to their site, it’s “Job #7″ (out of 10).
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Rob P
December 10th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Green jello, Casey.
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none
December 10th, 2006 at 11:59 am
casey, keep the ads man, that’s not the point - just be honest about it - disclose what you’re making. you’re entitled to cash in on it, it’s your gig.
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Jack
December 10th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
“I give the guy credit for his “creativity” though. ”
and why didnt you think of this? I thought you were the master of creative deals… yea my ass.
@vague guru:
“He robs from the rich and gives to himself.”
that was my motto when I worked as a market maker in the option’s exchange. you thief! I shouldve TM’d that one ;)
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star
December 10th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
“Man, people love to leech.”
Says the guy who borrowed 2million+ from banks, friends, family and has no way of paying it back…
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A Friend
December 10th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
To be blunt, giving up anything that gives you revenue at this point would be foolish. Mind you, this is revenue, not cash flow, 36% APR loans are foolish. I am surprised you did not learn your lessons with the credit cards. Well, actually not surprised, but I had hoped. If the ads are giving you revenue, and cash flow that you dont need to pay back, then taking them down to satisfy the needs of a few haters would be silly. They will come back anyway. I have tried to give up this blog a couple of times and it keeps bringing me back to see the latest status of the train wreck. No one is going to leave just because they think it might be fake or you might be trolling.
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wallace
December 10th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
casey, why don’t you just tell us how much money you make from the ads? attach a scan of the check you received or a screencap of your account status with adsense.
you constantly avoid telling us EXACTLY how much you make from the ads. You told us you would tell us, then made up something about how google doesn’t allow you to disclose that information (which is bulsh!t) and now you say you’re considering removing all of the ads.
all you do is go off on another tangent when you’ve been asked a direct question, which has happened not only with this issue but with every other topic regarding your foreclosure mess.
i seriously hope you get arrested and sent to prison.
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Casey the sepp
December 10th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Hey Casey, that $4500 loan you just got is ILLEGAL as well:
“”a. If the transaction is deemed to be a loan, the California usury laws apply. That means the interest rate cannot exceed the greater of a) 10% per year or b) 5% per year plus the rate established by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on advances to member banks. As of December 2004 the federal reserve rate was 3.25%. Presumably the interest in an equity purchase situation would be calculated by comparing the buy-back amount to the purchase amount – and attributing the difference to interest. The contract could presumably designate a reasonable portion of that amount to costs and fees. Note that there is an exception for loans made or arranged by any person licensed as a real estate broker by the State of California and secured in whole or in part by liens on real property. For this reason, paying a real estate agent to handle the transaction should exempt it from the California usury laws.
b. Also, if the transaction is deemed to be a loan, the requirements set out in Financial Code Sections 4970-4979.6 to avoid a predatory loan must be met. Actually, those provisions should not apply if the right to repurchase lasts for one year or less so that it falls in the “bridge loan” category. As a result, if possible, any option to repurchase should last for no more than one year. If the right lasts for more than one year, then numerous requirements regarding the interest rate, amount of points and fees and the option holder’s ability to pay to exercise the option come into effect.”"
You can’t step out of the house without breaking laws, can you, Casey?
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Free Advice
December 10th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Does that mean you never paid taxes on the $30k you got from the Calla Way house?
I refer you to:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f3949a.pdf
Since that happened in a prior tax year, if you didn’t pay those taxes, you are very exposed to one of the readers here reporting you to the IRS. The IRS pays _rewards_ for turning in tax cheats!
briguy:
Prior tax year?
Think it over. No hurry.
What year is it now?
What year did he close?
Sorry. No IRS reward for you.
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HungryBear
December 10th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
“I say “stand” because I obviously lost money on most of my deals. And it wasn’t because I didn’t buy below market. I failed in the fix-up and re-sell stage.”
Nope. You paid too much. That’s what did you in. I have made my fair share of mistakes as far as management, leasing & construction, and still had plenty of success. The one mistake you must not make is to overpay. “You make your money when you buy” is right. You should listen to the guys who have been in the biz 15+ years and are still at it, and not be so quick to discard their advice as “cliche”.
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Depression Self Help Tools
December 10th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Casey I understand you have gone through a lot, but I think you should also try to figure things out instead of promoting real state stuff..
Ed
http://www.happy-mind.blogspot.com
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FuturesTrader
December 10th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
If you’re going to take down your adsense ads, then post the revenue from them before you take them down. I’m curious what those numbers look like. This post was very provoking, especially with your spelling “looser” instead of “loser.” There’s no other explanation for you blatantly ignoring the comments of your readers.
As far as protecting your wife, I found pictures of her and her name in the various caches on the internet. I don’t want to post that information, but you’ve already lost that battle as well. It seems like you’re playing games with your wife and lying to her about just how much you’ve protected her from publicity. She has not been shielded from any of this and you need to tell her that her information is ALREADY out there so she can take any necessary precautions she has to.
What you don’t get is that a lot of people wanted to read your story and see the underdog get out of his troubles, really make something of himself, and show everyone that he’s genuinely sorry. What people are seeing is a guy who is an underdog who says he’s sorry but also someone who just continues to make things worse.
In the trading business, they generally refer to managing positions in products as “risk management.” One thing traders always talk about is that guy who can’t cut his losses short. YOU are that guy. You’re on the hook for all the interest that’s accumulating on all those properties. If you figure that you owe $20,000 per month, then it’s only going to be 5 months that you are required to pay an additional $100,000, or 33% of the value of some of your houses. So, the bottom line is, you are letting your losses grow and grow and grow.
The market in California is not ripe for buying. Unless you offer steep discounts and take that loss, no amount of flyer printing and advertising is going to attract buyers. You keep thinking some creative deal will get you off the hook, but there’s no deal that can save you at this point. Other people just aren’t going to willingly make themselves a bigger fool than you.
Finally, you aren’t like that girl who got off her credit card debt with a blog. No one is going to bail you out because you’re a man AND you’re married. The fact that you’re taking your wife down in all of this is bad in the public eye as well.
You’re really angering a lot of people, destroying people’s lives, and cheating lenders. Wipe the grin off your face and shed the optimism, because optimism isn’t the tool you need right now. You need resolve and pragmatism. The self-help books all describe things that are part of a life long process — a process that is much longer than any short-term fluctuation or cycle in the market.
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Carl Fox
December 10th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
-
Casey - DO NOT TAKE DOW THE ADS!
1. You need the money.
2. You might as well get PAID.
3. You have blogs costs.
GOOD LUCK!!!
CF
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yneone
December 10th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Casey, have a nice “trip”. I’m sure it will be a productive one. You will be in my thoughts. BTW, You should not do any blogging during that week. You really dont need the added stress as you are conducting your business. We’ll be here when you get back (believe me).
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Is The Onion?
December 10th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
This should seriously be from The Onion, “Ask a real estate newbie in foreclosure how to be successful in real estate”
Casey actually thinks we come to this site to learn from him? If I wanted to learn something, I’d listen to someone who was ACTUALLY SUCCESSFUL, not someone who failed spectacularly.
Casey, we only come to this site to see how long it will take you to declare bankrupty and/or go to prison. That’s it.
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Rabbi Glickman
December 10th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Dear Casey, are you Jewish by heritage and/or religion?
ברוך אתה ה’ א‑לוהינו מלך העולם, אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו לקבוע מזוזה
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To: Homey Da Clown
December 10th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Casey sells our information to third parties? Please post relevant information. If this guy is that much of a crook, I am not going to visit this web site anymore.
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Dave
December 10th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Casey rote: “Man, people love to leech”
Where are you living? Who gave you money to eat? Who then is the real leech on society?
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segfault
December 10th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Buying a house below-market doesn’t guarantee you’ll be in the clear. Your problem is that the market changed, and no one was willing to pay as much as you did for the house.
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Big Cheese
December 10th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Casey,
I think your definition of a motivated buyer isn’t accurate. I haven’t come across a desparate buyer in the same sense of a desperate seller. Well, besides you that is.
Buyers usually have many options: to rent, sub-lease or even stay in a hotel given CA’s property market! I will admit that while the market was rising frantically over the last 3 years potential buyers were getting worried about the cost of not making a move. Now that the market has peaked and is on the decline there is no more pressure for a buyer to make a move quickly.
Therefore your argument of making a win-win-win-win-win-win deal starts to become win-lose fairly quickly in the current environment.
Remember what I said earlier? The wrap around Utah guys are screwing you now but if they give you a reach around it becomes a win-win. Everybody’s happy. Right Casey?
I’m trying to resist, but it seems like you really want me to become a hater. Don’t be like that, man.
-Big Cheese
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Howie Feltersnatch
December 10th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Anybody want to explain why “flipping” isn’t just “ripping-off”? I mean, suppose I buy a house for $X, and then do $Y of work on it. Isn’t the house worth $X+$Y? Why do people think it’s worth $X+$Y+$Z???
Oh, and Case, I’ve just trademarked “sweet.” Every time you use it, you owe me a fiver.
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Jozsibacsi
December 10th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
I am forming a discussion group on Yahoo called iamfacingforeclosure.com
Everybody is welcome.
http://finance.groups.yahoo.co.....reclosure/
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That does it!
December 10th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
A light bulb for me has sudden come on. Before his last post, Casey was a source of amusement and folly. Now, he has dropped his guard and shown himself to be the vile little twit that he actually is. To quote:
“It’s probably the same guy who was trying to sell all my houses on eBid a month ago. Man, people love to leech. At least be upfront about it.”
How rich! Casey Serin, the guy who has singlehandedly redefined lying, deception, and mortgage fraud… seems pissed that someone is trying to make a buck off him. HA!
In reality, Casey is a young sociopath, playing his game very well. He has no real sense of shame, no real remorse; he has nothing actually going for him but blatant manipulation of people and situations for his amusement and benefit.
His self-destruction is inevitable; he really needs to be locked up before he causes more harm to society.
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John Smith
December 10th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
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“FREE CASEY!” T-Shirts will sell much better - especially when you’re in the klink.
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Free Advice
December 10th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Hey Casey, that $4500 loan you just got is ILLEGAL as well:
Could be:
The California Finance Lenders Law is contained in Division 9 of the California Financial Code, commencing with Section 22000. Effective July 1, 1995, the Personal Property Brokers Law, Consumer Finance Lenders Law, and Commercial Finance Lenders Law were consolidated without substantive change into the California Finance Lenders Law (AB 2885, Chapter 1115, Stats. 1994). The regulations under the California Finance Lenders Law are contained in Chapter 3, Title 10 of the California Code of Regulations, commencing with Section 1404 (10 C.C.R. §1404, et seq.).
Finance lenders and brokers, by number of licensees and dollars of loans originated, are the largest group of financial service providers regulated by the Department. A finance lender is defined in the law as “any person who is engaged in the business of making consumer loans or making commercial loans.” A finance lenders license provides the licensee with an exemption from the usury provision of the California Constitution.
Or maybe not.
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Casey's Blue Ball
December 10th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
How come you never ask me for advice? All I hear is faint rumblings from your buttocks.
If you would only ask, I would tell you how to make it rich, quick! Just ask, and I’ll tell you the secrets of my success.
Not everyone can be a blue ball, you know…
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early riser
December 10th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
LULZ!
Casey seZ:
“To tell you the truth, I haven’t used real estate agents that much because I like to structure my own creative win-win deals directly with the seller.”
FYI, so far most of your schweet dealz have turned out lose-lose. You use a lot of fancy words picked up from your mentor morons to basically describe how much “value” you’re creating for other people and the market.
Meanwhile you’re still screwed up against a wall like the drywall you didn’t inspect. So yeah, you really helped out a lot of people there by gobbling up worthless properties. All at your own expense.
Like your prlinkbiz friend who brags about her $500 flips that take months to complete and are on borrowed money. Suckers with no money of their own to invest, creating less income than someone working the drive-thru at Burger King. Woo-hoo!
Hey maybe that could be you new mentor. From RK to BK. What’s minimum wage up to these days? $5.50/hr? Dude you could’a been up $12,000 with your BK mentor. Instead you’re down the hole for $2.2million with your RK mentor.
Sue the RK bastard and get a job at the BK drive-thru. My percentage for all this free advice will be a double whopper with cheese every time my Benz pulls up. Silver hardtop convertible, not so pimpin’ factory rims. Extra ranch dressing on the side.
Cheers!
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Homey Da Clown
December 10th, 2006 at 3:17 pm
What’s the matter?
Squirming a little on your blue ball?
First, you are a liar. Plain and simple. Instead of posting my comments, you ran and deleted the information from that blog. WHY’S that CASEY? I thought you had nothing to hide?
You still don’t have the balls to post it. Edit out the names- you do so all the time.
Second, what makes you think that is all I “have” on you? Your family? Friends? All the scum that are in on this fraud? Are you that dumb to think your blog is the sole venue to have information accessed? Like I said, everything you have found ( so far) has been copied. (maybe forwarded, maybe not.)
Third, you are so pure and I am just blowing smoke, why offer me a “deal?” Yeah, like the 24% deal you offered your friends? Or the deal your wife has? OR one of your “sweet deals?” You make me laugh. Always the con man, thinking you can smooth talk your way out of things.
Do you think your family and friends are all going to cover for you? Sorry, there are too many lose(sic) ends to tie up. Ain’t gonna happen. They will all drop you like a bad habit.
I for one, am tired of your games.
Here’s the deal looser. (sp)
NO DEAL , Howie.
P.S. Start telling the truth- the real truth.
Have a nice day.
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Phil
December 10th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
Tomorrow I have to wake up and do another day in my cardiovascular anesthesiology rotation. I got out of work on Friday LATE (6:00PM) mainly because the first case was a Aortic Valve Repair, Transesophagel Echocardiogram, AND a frickin’ off pumb coronary artery bypass graft! And then to follow, a long-ass boring AV Fistula!
One of my tenants is starting to get upset I can tell because we haven’t fixed her heater yet. We’re working on it, but to diagnose and get estimates takes time. Plus we want to do it right.
When I read Casey’s blog, I think, damn. I’m lucky to be in anesthesiology! But I also think Casey is a smart dude and 100% can get out of this - maybe even unscathed. There’s something about his spirit that makes me think this guy has the power to be a two-millionaire. I say “two-millionarie” because these days one million isn’t that big of a deal.
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Cara
December 10th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Let me understand this. You basically TRADED houses with your buyer, and you’re saying that you “secured your $30,000 gain.” The word “creative” isn’t the right one to describe your thinking, here.
In the first place, you didn’t GAIN $30,000 with the cash back when you first BOUGHT the house. You increased your DEBT $30,000. This might be where you’re confusing yourself (to the point that the rest of us wonder if you’re just playing us and making this whole outlandish story up). Cash back at closing, leaving the legal and ethical questions aside, means you’ve been LENT MORE MONEY which you have to repay.
Second, all this might have even worked out for you if you’d STOPPED HERE and focused strictly on fixing the house up to sell. You could even have lived in it until you sold it.
Everyone knows (or most know) that a house is only “worth” what someone will pay for it. If nobody else wants the house, then YOU have to pay for it. That’s why most people don’t buy several houses at once without having a job. That’s why people fix up houses before they try to sell them–to make them more appealing to more people.
That’s why most rational people save up money for a down payment instead of taking out loans for more than the purchase price of a house. They don’t want to be held responsible for more debt than they have to, JUST IN CASE THEIR PLANS DON’T WORK OUT.
No “plan” for the future is certain to work out. That’s why people buy insurance. That’s why you don’t have 28/30 days success at being an early riser, but 6/8. That’s why you need to see a lawyer now if you want to survive, instead of looking for “creative financing” to save you.
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Vague Guru
December 10th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
If Casey’s takes down the ads, it would be the stupidest thing he has ever done (and that’s saying something). I don’t think even Casey is that dumb, especially when he is so desperate for cash.
Let’s face it, Casey may have failed at a lot of things, but this blog is one thing he has done that has been successful. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Casey is already making more from this blog than he is working for Chris.
I’m sure the reason he doesn’t disclose the adsense revenue is because then he can’t play the “I’m so desperate” card. Plus, I’m sure a lot of people (especially his lenders) would be pissed to find out he’s making $4k/month by bragging about his crimes and not sending them a single dirty cent.
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Free Advice
December 10th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
HungryBear:
The one mistake you must not make is to overpay.
I’ll agree with that, although there are many mistakes you must not make.
“You make your money when you buy” is right.
I don’t fully agree with that. You could easily “buy right” and then “sell wrong.”
I might buy a house for $200,000, see a whole bunch of hidden value that others cannot imagine, fix the house to demonstrate that vision and sell at a profit.
Another investor might make far less or even lose money on the house by overpaying on useless upgrades or ineffectively managing contractors.
Although your point is clear, I think it’s more a matter of having the discipline to pass on an opportunity. All too many amateurs I think get all wrapped up in making some deal — any deal.
I’m a pilot and we have a saying (well it’s not mine), “Takeoffs are optional; landings are mandatory.”
I believe that’s good advice in the real estate business.
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Time Will Tell (fake, again)
December 10th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Great now every realtor hates me!
Casey, in case you have not figured it out, you seem to have a knack for doing things without thinking it all the way through.
Once you solve that problem, you might be on your way to…..I don’t know where….but somewhere.
P.S. That’s a practiced skill, not from a book or seminar.
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yneone
December 10th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Casey, dont you dare remove the ads! You created this blog so do as you wish. I do think you should not post for a week while your away on business. Don’t even visit this blog while your away. You should not be distracted while you’re conducting business. This is way to much negativity…again, I dont know how you deal with this.
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dumb da dum dumb
December 10th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
CASEY, people are selling tshirts online because you are NOT!
the worst thing about it is that your so screwed up mentally & financially I see a post coming soon on how your spending time & money trying to get the guy to C&D instead of “creatively marketing” your overvalued soon to be forclosed properties
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Mr. Flipper
December 10th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
@Jump the Shark Again wrote:
“Subject To” schemes are very popular with the equity strippers and “stop foreclosure” people of the world. The ignorant homeowners will bite at anything that seems to be the panacea for their troubles.”
MF: I can’t tell who you want to insult more, the “subject to” buyer, or the “subject to” seller.
——————
@Free Advice wrote:
Mr. Flipper:
It seems the NAR is now even offering its members a course on the subject of “subject to” financing (though anyone can buy it).
From the blurb:
Whether you are an active or passive “Subject To” Mortgage Investor, you must know the key success areas to learn and master. Beginning investors often learn these difficult lessons the hard way.
MF: This is true. Like any business, one must know what he/she is doing. Also, “word flies” in this age about who’s doing what to/with whom. So, flakey or even dishonest players have a hard time staying in the woodwork, so to speak.
As an aside, there are good and bad players in any business. But the extrapolation that “subject to” investors are intrinsically advantage-taking illustrates just how pervasive the “boogey man” mentality is. Its exactly like the witch trials in the 1600’s where they “knew” the high school girl was a witch, because she sank in the water after being bound, gagged, and shackled. “Yeah, she was a witch alright! Look, she can’t swim!”
—————-
@Time Will Tell (Astonished and bored all at the same time) wrote:
“The NAR is onboard with “Subject To” because there is money to made with clients that have no alternatives.”
“You got it, like the rest of the NAR’s questionalble bubble blowing, if there is money to be made, they’ll be there! That’s why so many have called them Realtwhores.”
MF: I’m no fan of the NAR! You can always tell when someone from the NAR lies… their lips move.
That said, I don’t say “subject to” is OK because the NAR says its OK. Just the opposite. I say its OK despite the NAR’s approval.
The NAR has a long history of attempting to hinder the RE competition, especially investors that don’t buy and sell through them. That includes heavy lobbying against private investors rights to buy and sell without a “license”; attempting to de-ligitimize those businesses that help FSBO’s sell their homes without the use of a “licensed” “agent”, and generally trying to undermine the credibility of any effort to buy/sell/invest in RE that doesn’t include going through them in some way or other.
No, the NAR wants to control everyone and everything having to anything to do with RE so that they can both increase their influence, control, and require ever more fees and cash from those that want to do business in real estate.
The NAR is like a really dishonest, self-serving UNION organization.
They are an anathema to creativity and problem solving. That’s why I say that their stamp of approval on “subject to” (or any alternative transaction method), just means they can’t legitimately compete “conventionally”, so they’ll try to co-opt them instead.
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GoogleAdsenseTerms
December 10th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
Your not going to take them down. You’ve said that before and actually put up MORE.
https://www.google.com/adsense/terms
From Section 7
However, You may accurately disclose the amount of Google’s gross payments to You pursuant to the Program.
So spill the beans Casey. How much do you earn on this site via Adsense. You have no qualms sharing you are 2.2 million in debt and it’s funny that you willingingly committed fraud to get it, but when it comes to sharing your Adsense, you hem and haw.
You were quicker to post your bank account, show everyone where you worked to the extent you could be tracked down and had to remove both those posts, but are shy about your Ad earnings? If it was so little you would’ve told already. The fact that you have so many ads and consistently have money coming in, says you make quite a pretty penny. Way more than just enough to cover your hosting costs.
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Prefer to remain anonymous
December 10th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
I don’t like realtors.
Realtors are grossly overpaid for what they do. I understand this sounds harsh but the real estate “bubble” and its relationship among realtors, appraisers and mortgage brokers (lenders) cannot be over emphasized.
Yet its not emphasized anywhere in the current law and has only begun to creep up in the mainstream news - after the fact of course.
Realtors make car salesmen look like angels. No matter what they say make absolutely no mistake the only thing they care about is selling the house at the highest price possible for themselves. This is in their own best interests. They do not - I repeat DO NOT, care about you as a person, your future, or your welfare whatsoever. Make that sale and get me my money. You can spend the rest of your life paying off an overpriced house.
I’ve been dealing realtors for a long time and I cannot help but think realtors are having an effect (to a certain degree) on holding up prices in the current market. They simply have not fallen fast enough. They say prices are now down to 2004 levels. However lets not forget - 2004 was an enormous bubble in itself. Realtors are crooks. I really do hate them.
Realtors function as “gatekeepers”. And anytime I talk to a realtor in today’s climate and mention economics, the market and lowering the price; almost immediately they get defensive and sometimes downright rude. So much for the cheerful I want to help you salesmen act.
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Prefer to remain anonymous
December 10th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
I cannot believe this. GA foreclosure rate up to 99%! This cannot be true. That’s just too much. Is this a joke?
http://www.elliottwave.com/fea.....spx?cat=mw*aid=2767*time=pm
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BT98
December 10th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Georgia Girl — After reading the latest post, I an convinced this site is a scam. No one can be that stupid
I was back and forth on that. Now I am firmly believe that Casey and his story are geniune. The only sad part is Casey is unable to feel the pain and fear. He has an amazing ability to live in a fairy tale world of sweet deals and tune out all the rational thinking and sound advice. He suffer MLM poison at tender age of 14 and late night TV guru at 22. Now he is unable to think for himself, all the sounds in his head are motivational rah-rah speechs. He is now -500K net worth and still think one more deal can solve all his problems.
I give up. I think I just want to flip to the last page to see how it ends. Not pretty I presume.
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Friend of casey
December 10th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Casey is leaving for mexico, he doesn;t want to pay back the $ and go to jail in usa. He likes to have fun in mexico.
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dean
December 10th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
This is getting ugly. You’re going to take down the ads to try to get traffic up and then they’ll be up again in bigger force.
Either way you slice it, you’re a con. If your story is true, you conned your banks, buyers, and friends.
If your story is made up, it’s a con to sucker in traffic for ad revenue.
Which is it?
If you’re sincere about helping others, make yourself anonymous, have a legitimate charity host the site and donate any proceeds to them. This way a trusted third party can be involved instead and cut down the outrageously high volume of suspicous posts in this blog.
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Jackie Treehorn
December 10th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
Phone’s ringing, dude.
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Michael
December 10th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Umm. Excuse me.
The “reward” they pay is pathetic. To even have a chance at collecting your “winnings” you need to 1) hire a lawyer 2) pay him by the hour 3) juggle the IRS red tape with him which will go on for a YEAR or more. Even then it is only dependant on the amount of tax money actually RECOVERED by the government which in Casey’s case would be quite a sorry amount.
And guess what? Half the time they don’t even pay you. Yes you heard right. At this point in time you have to go out AGAIN and re-hire your lawyer at which time the government hires its own lawyers – with UNLIMTED resources. Which is ultimately all decided in the government (aka kangaroo) courts.
Meanwhile you are billed $300/hr +as they literally fight over words in like “is” “or” and “and” in the context of your case and the maze of the IRS regulations.
Afterwards assuming you even win you will receive (drum roll please!) 25% of the net total RECOVERY not to exceed 250k. I know how the treasury department works.
Unless you are reporting multi national corporations for tax evasion that YOU had private knowledge about AND they decide that the situation was not public knowledge but something YOU only had access to AND they would not have caught them be it NOT FOR YOU. in realation to the information you provided - you will not be getting anything expect your lawyer’s invoices.
I know all this for a fact. Unless you are reporting wealthy individuals and corporations AND have the money and time to risk you are shooting yourself (and Casey) in the foot for no reason.
What an uninformed assertion you just made.
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Kevin
December 10th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Casey,
Maybe you could give a few more specifics for that first $33,000 deal. You mentioned having to purchase the buyer’s property. It would be nice to know if you actually made any money on your first deal. Try to project forward — look at the money trail and figure out if you were ever able to turn a profit, given the properties that you were required to purchase/sell.
Also, you would need to factor in the amount of money spent on fixing it up as well as the amount of time spent (assuming you could make $30/hour at a real job).
If you held the initial property for
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I think casey jumped the shark
December 10th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Response to free advice responding to me..
Yes it is people like him that have contributed heavily to the fuckup in the housing industry right now…read what I said. I didnt say it was casey himself that did it..if you knew how to read and comprehend it says that he helped.
Now onto Mr. Flipper’s ill researched retort.
Nar’s is not currently nor has it ever encouraged it’s members to participate in subject 2’s. It IS A VIOLATION of Nar’s code of ethics and IT IS A VIOLATION of each states administrative rules as governed by their states Real Estate Commision(er).
Let me fill you in on some common sense. With a subject 2, it causes the original sellers to be in MATERIAL BREACH of their contract and it TRIGGERS THE DUE ON SALE CLAUSE. Realtors ™ and Real estate brokers (realtors that choose not to join NAR’S and therefor are governed only by their state broker laws) Prohibit a member or licensee from participating in a sale that causes a material breach.
You are confusing subject 2 as casey does with defrauding the lender and their options with a DISCLOSED WRAP AROUND MORTGAGE. In a disclosed wrap around mortgage (yes it is a type of subject 2 existing financing), the lender is fully aware of what is happening and has to approve the buyer.
In the shady subject 2 or modified subject 2 or Illinois land trust or living will trust or intervivos trust …there is no disclosure to the banks and secrecy is key….Each buyer is to have their bundle of rights transferred to their property when they buy it and having an underlying mortgage that is out of their control is against the code of ethics as well as licensee admistrative rules.
Now it is perfectly legal for someone to put their property into an intervivos (revokable) trust and in fact it was the compromise of the mortgage industry when they wanted the due on sale clause. See Garmin st germane (sp) act of 1986.
now when people like casey come along with his fresh from ron legrand seminar (who coincidentally is a huge piece of crap who ran some girl over and left her for dead on the side of the road–lucky it wasnt my daughter..he would be dead ron legrand or atleast ron legrand with 2 broken legs and a busted jaw) see johntreed.com for more info on caseys idol ron legrand…..
so anyway when you do the assignment of beneficial interest in that TRUST you trigger the due on sale clause and it causes a MATERIAL BREACH between the seller and their lender in which Licensee’s and Realtors are forbidden to do.
NAR’S has a over 17 pages in their code of ethics and standards of practice (which I have a copy of right in front of me and just read again twice so it would feel that much sweeter when I tell you that your full of shit).
So before you retort to something you obviously have no clue about….do your research (especially when someone has all of the information they are referring in their home library).
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By Their Fruits Shall You Know Them
December 10th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
Rabbi!
Yes, yes yes, but we both know it’s permissible, even admirable under the Talmud to fleece the goyem.
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BT98
December 10th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Casey,
I just realized why you are so optimistic again and I think I know the purpose of your trip. Let me be the first to wish you luck on this trip and reaching your goals.
BT
ps I hope Mr. Flipper is right.
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Brown Trowt
December 10th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Maybe your best bet would be to expose and ultimately sue these “gurus”. They definatley have deep pockets from reeling in suckers like you.
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Free Advice
December 10th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
If you figure that you owe $20,000 per month, then it’s only going to be 5 months that you are required to pay an additional $100,000, or 33% of the value of some of your houses. So, the bottom line is, you are letting your losses grow and grow and grow.
FuturesTrader:
That’s a misperception. You’re not losing $20,000 per month by not making your $20,000 per month mortgage payments. You’re just behind on payments you should have been making. You don’t lose the $100,000 of payments you didn’t make.
Yes, I’m sure there are late fees. And yes, I’m sure this is one screwed up situation.
But if Casey is “losing” money each month, it’s because the value of his property is falling — not because he didn’t make payments.
As far as his credit cards, that’s another matter entirely. That’s not amortizing credit, that’s revolving credit. That can multiply rapidly — especially if he’s charged the universal default rate (as I imagine he is)
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Tim, from Monterey Bay area
December 10th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
“Suckers with no money of their own to invest, creating less income than someone working the drive-thru at Burger King. Woo-hoo!
Hey maybe that could be you new mentor. From RK to BK.”
This is pretty funny, considering how folks here usually abbreviate “bankruptcy” as “BK.”
“From RK to BK,” indeed.
Or perhaps “From RK to BK to BK.”
“From real estate flipper to hamburger flipper.”
Sweet!
(Unlike some here, who have called for gurus and sages like Tom Vu, Tony Robbins, Carlton Sheets, and Robert Kiyosaki to be prosecuted for their usually-silly advice, I know that the First Amendment is quite clear about their right to spout whatever they wish. Those who actually commit the kinds of fraud and “shady deals” they often advocate are the only ones who are actually prosecutable.)
–Tim, from Monterey
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Wikifortune.com
December 10th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
Mr. Casey, please keep the ads. You need any extra money you can get.
I’ve clicked on your ad twice today.
Sir, it’s time for you to file for bankrtupcy, and stop your infatuation with finding sweet deals.
The world is not as sweet as you think it is sir.
Go to Starbucks and think about it.
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Free Advice
December 10th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
On one post by “Prefer to remain anonymous”
I’ve been dealing realtors for a long time and I cannot help but think realtors are having an effect (to a certain degree) on holding up prices in the current market. They simply have not fallen fast enough.
Then in the next post by “Prefer to remain anonymous”
I cannot believe this. GA foreclosure rate up to 99%! This cannot be true. That’s just too much. Is this a joke?
Why would that be too much? That means Realtors have lost that magic touch you perceive they have of propping up the market.
At last the cartel has been broken!
Oh, and why would you deal with Realtors “for a long time” when you hate them so much?
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Fall_Of_The_House_Of_Bubba
December 10th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
I like how everyone talks to everyone else, it is like a family.
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Shawn Michael Scott
December 10th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
Cassie,
You are missing it.
Why don’t you just become a realator? Think about how man of them are millionaires by just being the middle man. That is probably too easy for you though to figure out. You would rather be the sucker buying the properties and then renting out these ghetto-plexes.
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WHAT!!!
December 10th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
This is blog is a joke. Enough already, this kid is making a ton of money off these comments flying back and forth. His story is not real.
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LOL!
December 10th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
Where to start!
I can’t get over the ‘paid off the 30k credit card which pleased my CONSERVATIVE wife.’
24 years old 30k credit card debt is conservative? (24 years old still in jc?)
Unfortunately for Casey, and his wannabe CPA wife, she is liable for any debt taken out by the ethical ‘I want to protect her credit’ genius win-win Casey during their marriage.
She is just as complicit in this thievery as he is, I don’t want them to go to prison, just pay it back, live in poverty for 20 years paying it back. I am sick of their smug arrogance, lies, backtracking when caught, and that stupid YNEONE.
Yep, I’m a hater! I hate thieves, liars, scammers……
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misc.
December 10th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Casey, when will you realize you’re the first against the wall?
The economy is going to take a nose dive, and you’re our canary.
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Homey Da Clown
December 10th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
“To: Homey Da Clown
December 10th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Casey sells our information to third parties? Please post relevant information. If this guy is that much of a crook, I am not going to visit this web site anymore.”
Casey, you are not too swift. You deleted my comment about the IP adresses. Then you post under an alias trolling for info. Convenient you left that part out in your lame reply.Why not answer the man.
I suspect things will be turned up a notch when you return, assuming you aren’t bailing alltogether on G. Too bad, she’s a very pretty girl.
Love,
Homey
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Max Stein
December 10th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
For Adsense haters,
They pay CPM! So even if you don’t click the ads, just by coming here Casey gets paid.
It looks like he’s doing well…http://www.onlineadswami.com/2006/12/failed_as_a_realtor_but_not_as.html
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Lips and Noses
December 10th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
Free Advice: Holp crap, what are you the the stinkin Cliff Clavin of the blog…blah..blah..blah.blah
“I’m a pilot and we have a saying (well it’s not mine), “Takeoffs are optional; landings are mandatory.”
And I bet if they have to fly with you for more than three hours they also have a saying that “parachutes are mandatory.”
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LOL!
December 10th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Go back to yhe previous post, Mormons facing foreclosure dot com. Too funny
Oh yeah, Mr ethical deletes the best posts
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LOL!
December 10th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
you are so slow, its costing sweet deals
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Bork
December 10th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Every single house I bought was from a motivated seller who needed a fast, as-is sale to solve their problem. Yep, and you paid them top dollar. Realtors are for NORMAL people, not ‘tards like Casey.
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Casey the sepp
December 10th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Hey this John Treed guy just owned Casey years before Casey even started his RE Career:
“Misconception: If you do “win-win” deals you are a good person
Fact: The “win-win” concept is meaningless. All negotiations have both elements of mutual interest (”win-win”) and elements of a zero-sum game. In the zero-sum game portion of the deal, only one side can win.”
“The dishonest investor market segment
Many other guru customers are not dumb. They understand perfectly. But they are just as dishonest as the bad gurus. They have no qualms about taking advantage of seniors or young couples. They would love to trade stocks on inside information or collude with fellow buyers at foreclosure auctions. They may be in denial about their ethics. They long ago worked out their rationalizations about “win-win” deals and so forth. I have no interest in the unethical market segment, either. But again, the Internet now delivers them to my Web site, where they often rail at my stripping away their fig leaf of respectability. If they would spend as much time figuring out how to make an honest buck as they do rationalizing unethical behavior, they would succeed and sleep better.”
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so sorry sarah
December 10th, 2006 at 8:16 pm
Casey. you have thieved and abused the stupid for g immigrunts
lending standards. Your personal denial of free speech is really pissing me off.
What are you afraid of Mr. Ethical One?
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Wilson the volleyball
December 10th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
Casey,
I got to your site from your high school buddy, Mr. Stanford aka “Rammit Dammit” also a “blog” site. I know you are real as is your debt because I’ve seen the legal documents (via govt websites) that identify you and your wife on the home documents. I had to check it out since so many are claiming you to be fake.
Unfortunately you remind me of a brother of mine (I have 5) who is constantly looking for the “easy” way out. He asks me how I got to be “comfortable” (meaning no debt and a net worth of over 700k). I explain to him that I got there via hard work and time. I’m 40 now and only once did I fall for a “get rich quick scheme” that cost me $3k. I think you need to cut your losses, then change your blog to about how you are spending some time doing good in our society. Quit looking for the easy way out. For every 1 person you hear that gets lucky and does find the easy way there are probably 1 million who tried but failed. My brother like you got married young but his wife left him after two years when she saw that there was no future with him. She got tired of him trying to find the easy way out. I’ll never forget his phone call when he asked for my assistance and I said NO.
I don’t hope that you go to prison but I do think you should at least be sentenced to something like 10 years of community service on weekends. I would suggest that they make you build homes for Habitat for Humanity. Maybe that way you can learn what it costs to build a home in both physical and financial terms. Quit looking for the easy street and don’t follow the so called gorus (cattle) or gurus (self-proclaimed). Since I know you are real then I do believe you will be like the hacker (illegal) who is now the security expert (legal) or the mortgage fraud guy (illegal) who now delivers speeches /writes books on what not to do (legal). I know that’s your goal but I think you need to do it in such a way that it doesn’t cause people to start to leave your blog in droves. If you start to offer true wisdom then they will stay.
Been following you for less than a week.
Good luck and Godspeed,
Wilson
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yneone
December 10th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Question. If Casey were to somehow miraculously payoff his debts, are there still consequences for his actions? Obviously, I am not in the RE business but I have an interest in the field.
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so sorry sarah
December 10th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Stop stealing my moderation you fool.
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Jacks
December 10th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
I think you are still in denial. On every house, you got ripped off and paid more than what it was worth. You overestimated actual value and underestimated the costs and work involved in rehabbing. And you took cash out and borrowed more than 100% of value.
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Frank
December 10th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
“Some “entrepreneur” is trying to ride my popularity and make a buck.”
“Man, people love to leech. At least be upfront about it.”
***********************************************
Looks like Casey is a big fat “HATER”
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FuturesTrader
December 10th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Free Advice:
That’s a misperception. You’re not losing $20,000 per month by not making your $20,000 per month mortgage payments. You’re just behind on payments you should have been making. You don’t lose the $100,000 of payments you didn’t make
Never knew that. Why wouldn’t interest compound upon itself if he’s not paying down the principle?
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FuturesTrader
December 10th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
Free Advice:
Clarification on my last post — I meant to say that you are right and I am wrong, but figured there’d be interest paid on top of interest and that alone would become a fairly hefty chunk of change when talking about ~10% interest on 2.2 million dollars. But if the lenders don’t charge interest on top of interest, that’d surprise me because it seems like it’d be a raw deal for a lender. It just seems like something that’d be worked into a loan system.
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Richie Tatum
December 10th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Casey, you forgot to offer some advice for this scenario:
1) You dated your realtor in college.
2) You still think she’s hot.
3) She’s also very successful.
4) You use her services to become an equally successful house flipper.
5) Your first flip fails because she is secretly screwing you (again).
I mean, that’s what I’m going through. How about some relevant information about those types of scenarios?
-Richie
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Carmen Sandoval
December 10th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY PROFESSION!!!
Realtors have been around since the dawn of time. In every ancient tale of creation, there are stories of realtors being created before average men, because someone had to sell them the land to farm.
It’s true. In the middle ages, we sold castles with moat upgrades and helped serfs get into starter farms. Without farms, no one would have survived the black plague. That’s right, realtors actually stopped the black plague. And don’t you forget about it.
Watch out when you’re in Phoenix, because I read in Realtor Monthly Magazine that your “no-realtor-flipping-transactions” are actually illegal. Check the books. Only realtor-negotiated transactions in the state of Arizona. It’s a fact. That’s why Phoenix is growing so quickly. It’s posted the highest rate of growth since the years following the Louisiana Purchase.
If you’re not careful, you could get yourself on the Nation Realtor’s blacklist.
Sincerely,
Carmen Sandoval
Realtor to those Flipper Nation guys
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lol
December 10th, 2006 at 11:54 pm
It must suck to cheat and still lose badly.
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Prefer to remain anonymous
December 11th, 2006 at 1:52 am
Carmen Sandoval -
Realtors are paid obscene commissions for very little work. They function as middle men. They follow rigid standard procedure so much that they do not add have the same level of “value added services” that they did in years prior when the real estate market was more “normal” (1980) and houses were harder to sell. Realtors always work against the buyers best interests.
Realtors in CA (and other states) are making 6% (average) commissions on 500k and 1000k houses. That’s 30 - 60k cash in your pocket for BS’ing, giving a home tour, and processing paperwork. With the resources provided today I don’t need you.
I really hope it becomes a free liquid market with internet broker providers competing against each other driving down prices. Where sellers and buyers can hire their own appraisers and perform there own transactions. Then just use your license to process the paper for a processing fee. And be glad, you don’t even deserve that much.
Most Realtors I’ve known are not even college educated. But they excel at using their mouth:
“In the middle ages, we sold castles with moat upgrades and helped serfs get into starter farms.”
This does not even deserve a reply. It’s ridiculas. First look up the definition of a serf. Farms were owned by dukes, lords and kings. What a bunch of BS. But certainly more so with the following comment:
“Without farms, no one would have survived the black plague. That’s right; realtors actually stopped the black plague.”
Wow. Just when you thought you heard it all. I guess lying all day takes its toll after a while huh? Historians are split. The plague burned itself out. However cats played a big role since mice and rats were the primary culprit. It was noticed that the majority of people who had cats (as pets) didn’t get sick.
“If you’re not careful, you could get yourself on the Nation Realtor’s blacklist.”
Does this comment deserve a reply? No. But allow me to explain this to you in laymans terms. We don’t need Realtors anymore. You’re obsolete. You’re in the way. You’re paid too much money. We don’t want you. We don’t need you.
Your “profession” has outlived its usefulness.
Give me internet access and connect me directly to the buyers and sellers. And if your nice I’ll give you a processing fee.
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Mr. Flipper
December 11th, 2006 at 3:05 am
To “I think casey jumped the shark” who wrote:
“Response to free advice responding to me..
Yes it is people like him that have contributed heavily to the fuckup in the housing industry right now…read what I said. I didnt say it was casey himself that did it..if you knew how to read and comprehend it says that he helped.
Now onto Mr. Flipper’s ill researched retort.
Nar’s is not currently nor has it ever encouraged it’s members to participate in subject 2’s.”
MF: I’m going to set off “free advice’s” “ass-hole” meter again, but Mr. “Jump the shark”, “if you knew how to read and comprehend”, I said the NAR is “organizing material” to help its agent successfully market subject to transactions, not that they have already done so.
In the meantime, may I suggest you curb your bloviating?
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Billy Jack
December 11th, 2006 at 3:35 am
SWEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!
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Ethical Realtor in DC
December 11th, 2006 at 5:02 am
Where do I begin??? So much delusion and so few facts…
1. re. your first “sweet” deal. You found it while it was listed with a Realtor. The seller then pulled it from the Realtor and contacted you directly, thus cutting the Realtor out of the deal? In almost every state, that is a breach of a basic listing agreement and unethical or illegal on the part of the seller.
2. Almost every Realtor is happy to work with people doing no doc loans and 100% financing - it is par for the course and you are out of touch and are buying the BS that these dumbed down courses sell you in order to make it seem as if they are selling you something of value.
3. Sellers set the price, not Realtors. Most Realtors try their darndest to get the sellers to set a realistically low price and it is the sellers who have overinflated views of the value of their homes. Why would any smart Realtor want an overpriced listing that will cost more time and money to sell? The difference in commission is negligible and the time, $$, and energy spent on an overpriced house is frustrating.
4. When you say “we” referring to investors and “they” referring to distressed sellers, I think you have it a bit wrong. You are in the latter category, my dear friend. You are the desperate seller, a real investor will make money from yoru desperate sales.
5. Win-win deals. If you ahd succeeded in creating win-win deals, this blog wouldn’t exists. The person you bought from won, you lost by overpaying for places in a declining market.
It is funny to hear such a failure try to teach successful people like many of your amused/bemused readers what successful real estate investing involves. I’m sure it is not your intent to give me a reason to hit my head agaisnt a brick wall, but you do, every tiem I read you…
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digg - Who dugg or blogged: Over $2.2 Million In Debt At The Age Of 24
December 11th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Kramer auto Pingback[…] Over $2.2 Million In Debt At The Age Of 24 […]
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black
December 11th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Casey is on lender’s blacklist and realtor’s blacklist
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Carmen Sandoval
December 11th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Dear “Mr. to remain anonymous,”
How dare you insult me. You used my own words against me. That’s it. You’re blacklisted. No real estate agent will ever let you buy or sell a house again.
But you might say that you don’t care if you’re blacklisted. You will never use a realtor. Well, we have a plan for people like you.
If you try to buy a house, we will use our collective international powers of persuasion to prevent it from happening. We are very important, and we have very important friends. Like the IRS. That’s right, IRS, baby. Who do you think sold them their headquarters building in Washington, D.C.? That’s right, realtors.
Also, we are best friends with Steve Case, Steve Jobs, and Al Gore, the three people who run the internet. We just called them and your internet service is about to be cut off. How will you buy a house without access to Zillow?
Have a nice day,
Carmen Sandoval
Realtor extraordinaire for all flipping projects
PS - I lied. We won’t fully cut off your internet. You will still have access to a dictionary service, as it seems you need to brush up on your spelling. I mean come on. “Ridiculas?” Reallly? Like “jolly old saint ridiculas?”
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Prefer to Remain Anonymous
December 11th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Here is an email I recently wrote to a realtor in Oregon after looking at outragously overpriced property on thier internet site.
“Hello Realtors.
I was just reviewing your listings and I have the following question:
What employment industries exist in this region that would help lend credibility to your steep asking prices in the falling Real Estate market?
As expected - NO RESPONSE.
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Realtor in Oregon
December 11th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
to: “Prefer to Remain Anonymous”
We only need casey, the fool to buy it. We only need one buyer. Casey will buy it. We know it and you know it.
broker, ( we make you broke ) haaaa
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Les
December 11th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
yneone said:
Question. If Casey were to somehow miraculously payoff his debts, are there still consequences for his actions? Obviously, I am not in the RE business but I have an interest in the field.
The answer is NO.
Casey broke the law. He is not a 5 year old child who “shoplifted” a candy bar and was walked back to the store by his mother to return the bar and say “sorry, I’ll never do it again.”
Casey repeated the same crime “over-and-over-and-over” again. If/when he is charged with a crime he will be ordered to pay restitution to those he frauded.
The choice Casey has is to admit to his crime(s) now and work out a deal or wait until the hammer drops.
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Flipper Nation - Meet the Team - David Kimball
December 11th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Kramer auto Pingback[…] A recent conversation between Carmen and a blog commenter on Casey Serin’s I am Facing Foreclosure blog: […]
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Jobu
December 13th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Ga Foreclosure rate is UP 99% (from last year, I think), not UP TO 99%.
Casey, if these were win-win sweet deals, you would not be in the mess you are in.
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Bubble Watcher
December 13th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Not to be ruthless or anything, but #2 in your two point plan is the only point that matters.
Good real estate investors take 1, the finished value of the product they are ultimately going to sell, less 2, the cost to get the product into selling shape–INLCUDING a cost contingency, and some sort of profit for the effort in rehabbing the property and some sort of contingency for time risk and potential erosion of market values to come up with 3, the MAXIMUM price at which you should be willing to pay for the property in the first place.
If you can’t get the property for your price or less (sometimes substantially less), forget it. What the seller wants for their property, or what their current situation is may help you craft how you make your offer, but should have no bearing what-so-ever on the price you should be willing to pay.
If you can’t sleep at night after a tough negotiation, where you look out for your own interests primarily, you shouldn’t be in business.
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Cali Realtor
December 13th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
{We don’t need Realtors anymore. You’re obsolete. You’re in the way. You’re paid too much money. We don’t want you. We don’t need you.}
Whoever thinks this is retarted. True, some people don’t need a realtor to buy a home, but about 98% of the population does. There is much more to the transaction than most people know, and not only that, there are legal ramifications that I am sure most people don’t want to deal with. That is why we are here, to hopefully stop anyone from screwing up the buying and selling system. Most people don’t even know how to do their own taxes, how the hell do you think they are going to figure out how to buy or sell a home, (that they don’t even fully own yet by the way)
And that 5-6% commission is not all the agents money. We have to split it with the other agent, then we have to split it with our company, then we have to pay more fees, then we have to give 40% to the government. So you tell me that we make too much money to make sure that the buyer and seller finish the transaction properly. MORON. The only reason that you say all that is because you are pissed you can’t be a Realtor.(for whatever reason)
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Agree with Cali. Relator
December 13th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
Yes, morons can not pass the tests to have a license…
Smart Realtor
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Jobu
December 14th, 2006 at 7:10 am
While agreeing that real estate agents provide necessary services in many cases, there are a couple issues that I feel reflect negatively on the industry.
1. Many (not all) claim their commission is due to providing contracts and expert advice to help borrowers with the legal process but almost all contracts have a disclaimer advising the parties to seek legal advice.
2. Most (not all) feel they deserve 6% commission regardless of the work involved or price of the house. Why does an agent settle for a 6% commission on a 50k house (3k total divided by all parties) that takes 6 months to sell while feeling entitled to 6% of a 500k house (30k) that sells in 1 day when it’s a seller’s market? Someone in a seller’s market who anticipates multiple offers the day a listing hits the MLS would rightly have an objection to that level of commission, IMO. Of course, that seller would need to attempt to negotiate the commission rate prior to signing the listing agreement and not object after signing an agreement.
Agents, shed some light on this please.
Bartender, Jobu needs a refill.
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Realtor from Mars
December 14th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Some are bad, some are good, The Best one can get a very good price beyond seller’s dream in a seller’s market or buyer’s market. It’ll cover the 6% commission so the sellers are selling their house for free but with good profit.
Everyone can sell a house but some know what to say and some don;t know what to say it at all.
Good agent know what to say to have buyers pay the high price for the house.
FSBO waste a lot of time and might be in trouble after the sell.
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RentalCashflow
December 15th, 2006 at 9:29 pm
Casey, I must say that you definately arent the one to be talking about what realtors should and shouldnt do. The standards realtors work with are called laws. They are the little things you avioded to put together your “creative deals”. I was an agent for 4 years, and I can tell you why cash back at closing is a no no. Because 99.9% of the time a buyer gets cash back at closing they spend it, and they spend it on somthing other than the subject property.. Do you know what happens then? You should! Your a living example. They try to sell the home, but gee what do you know, there is no equity. So they have 3 options. Stay in the home, and keep making payments. Sell the home and bring money to the table. Or the third and final option go into forclosure.
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Pacific Beach Housing Bubble Blog
December 20th, 2006 at 12:17 am
links from Technoratitime they have to spend getting clients now. Some 2% of Californians have a license to sell. This is NOT good for the customer because you really don’t want to pay for their advertising and efforts to get you to walk in the door. A lot of people say “you don’t need agents”, and view them as a waste of money. I agree to a certain extent, but I think there is definitely value to getting an agent to SELL a place for you. If you are buying, you should go through a discount broker and get back 75% of the buyer commission.
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rookie investor
December 21st, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Casey good luck to you.As time passes you will become more knowledgable and hopefully pass on your experiences to others and so on.
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