December 20th, 2006 10:19 pm
Avoiding Stress = More Stress
I’ve been a little out of it last couple of days.
After coming back home to Sacramento on Monday I was feeling very overwhelmed by the “reality” that was/is waiting for me:
… still facing foreclosure on 4 houses
… well over $150K of unsecured debt
… decision to file bankruptcy or not to file bankruptcy
… uncertain job situation
… utah mortgage issues
… lack of discipline and lack of progress on December goals
… being too distracted to do any more real estate deals
… serious marriage issues
… oh and on top of all that my laptop died!
So I kind of hid from the world for a couple of days. No cell phone, no email, no blogging, no comments.
The problem is that I can’t take a guilt-free break. The fires are are ranging all around me. I can’t just pretend everything is OK and hide from my responsibilities.
Now I have over 250 email to answer, over 200 comments to moderate, 25 voice mails to return and a huge pile of mail to sort. I hope there are no emergencies that I ignored by staying unplugged. The unknown dangers eat at me every minute and sabotage any hope for any down time.
Avoiding the stress of dealing with problems causes even more stress and more problems.
(It’s time to face reality…)
236 Comments
December 20th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
[…] As soon as I posted this, Casey posted. He’s fine, but depressed and overwhelmed. […]
December 20th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
I thought you were dead
December 20th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Hi Casey,
Thank god you’re still here. For a moment I thought you may have been ‘taken in’ for questioning by the FBI.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Sorry for your hardship Casey, I’ll click a bunch of ads tomorrow so you can buy some Jamba Juice, that should make you feel better.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
People have been telling you what to do for months yet you continue to delude yourself with these idiot real estate fantasies. So why bother.
Here are some questions. Does Russia allow people of Russian descent to immigrate even if they are from Uzbekistan originally? You might want to start over there. You have nothing here but a financial disaster like a permanent albatross on your neck. You could go there and do a web development job. Estonia’s Internet economy is supposedly doing well too.
Alternately, possibly Halliburton’s subsidiaries are still paying people $100,000+ a year to drive trucks in Iraq. Incredibly dangerous, but it’s real money.
Anything else is sheer fantasy.
December 20th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Casey,
Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Shaggy from Scooby Doo?
Maybe you should stop eating those Scooby snacks and realize that a bankruptcy filing is the only way out. If you file before a foreclosure, you can move into one of the houses and live there for almost a year -while you are going through the BK process — never pay a dime on the mortgage before they can boot you out. A BK lawyer will tell you this if you ask.
Use this time to offload the other houses, save cash and start over. Chalk it up to a learning experience and start over.
December 20th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
I had to get up at 7AM this morning. There was no being a Lazy Bastard! How is the early riser program going Casey?
No hating from me today… you’re actually doing the right thing and starting to face reality. Here’s what I want you to do…
1) Write out five action statements that you will complete on Thursday. These are items you MUST take immediate action on.
2) Report back to us on Friday that you accomplished all five.
3) Do not accept any more distractions from guru’s, miracle pills, early riser programs, seminars, scams, etc.
December 20th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
It would be great if you would show us a nice pic of your mail pile. Could you arrange the certifieds on top please? There’s probably quite a few from that nasty Recon Trust — now they’re the real haters!
December 20th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
Why the heck haven’t you been arrested yet?
December 20th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
Wow, no more Google Ads? I guess they caught on to all your little buddies perpetrating click fraud. Maybe you should check your email, there is probably one in there from AdSense Policy Enforcement.
Oh well, another scam you cannot pull any more…poor Casey.
December 20th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
Hi there casey,
I’ve just come across this blog and I just want to tell you that you shouldn’t listen to all the haters. At least you tried reaching succes without being afraid of the consequences this might bring. I wish you the best of luck!
http://theprofessionallife.blogspot.com
December 20th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
hey casey!
chin up
concentrate on the issues at hand and nail your goals! get some tennants into those houses and then start plugging away at your debts
how do you eat an elephant? one mouthful at a time
good luck
December 21st, 2006 at 12:14 am
Casey - perhaps you need to open your bible today my son…
Psalm 37:21: “The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously.”
December 21st, 2006 at 12:15 am
“Jesus”, that’s why I’m trying to repay it… also I didn’t borrow with the intent to defraud, which is what I think that verse is talking about…
…
Wow, looking at the comments and internet today, I’m amazed how many people thought I was arrested…
You know, if it DOES happen maybe I should have an “I’m arrested” post ready to be fired off via my PDA phone. That is if I have time to fire it off before they put on the ‘cuffs. Hehe…
Oh man… it’s getting late up in here (I’m at my parents house ‘cuz there is food here and my laptop died)… I better go home so I can whip out another 5:55 am early rise.
December 21st, 2006 at 12:31 am
Be careful going for your PDA the police might think its a gun and shoot you
December 21st, 2006 at 12:42 am
On, on they buy,
keep prices high
escape the crash
counting our cash.
“Carol of the Flippers” at FlipperNation.com
December 21st, 2006 at 12:43 am
actually I knew you hadn’t been arrested. was talking to a real estate lawyer friend this weekend; told them your story and they said you have practically ZERO chance of being arrested for what you did on the loan applications if you 1) get a good lawyer and 2) keep your mouth shut (e.g., not admitting to fraud on videotape is a start).
welcome to america 2006. I’ve wasted my life getting an education. PhD in computer science from a top 10 school in the field. 6 figure salary, but likely will never afford a house because people like you bid them up using monopoly money.
It tears me up inside when my fiance cries about it. makes me feel inadequate, like I’m a failure. And I guess compared to you, I am. You own 6 houses, I can’t afford 1.
where you might get into trouble is not paying the IRS, or messing up your taxes. make sure to get a CPA and you’ll be fine.
My point: You’ve shown me the light. Education is a waste of time. I give up. You won’t go to jail. I hope others learn from your example — that you can beat the system if you are creative and aggressive enough.
You will write a book, host a show, or whatever, and make more $$$ than all the “haters” on this board can fathom. and that’s what knaws at us. we play by the rules — work hard and save, and get screwed.
you don’t and get away scot free.
That’s what america has become.
December 21st, 2006 at 12:57 am
You haven’t been listening to me. I’ve messed with your internet connection a few times. But you didn’t get the hint. Now I’ve did something to your laptop computer, and you still haven’t got the hint.
Here’s the HINT….STAY OFF THE INTERNET!
December 21st, 2006 at 1:22 am
The Mortgage Bust Goes On:
A record-high 19% of high-cost mortgages originated during the past two years will end in foreclosure, a consequence of the growth in risky mortgage products, according to new data compiled by an industry group.
The nonpartisan Center for Responsible Lending predicts 2.2 million households in this mortgage segment, known as subprime borrowers, either have lost their homes or hold mortgages doomed for foreclosure in the next few years. This estimate comes a week after a grim survey from Fitch Ratings, which studies residential mortgage securities, showing a 16-fold increase in past-due subprime loans in the third quarter of 2006, compared with 1998.
Subprime borrowers, who typically pay interest rates 2% to 3% higher than those with good credit, currently account for a quarter of all mortgage originations.
In Pictures: Ballooning Foreclosure Rates
“This is the largest rash of mortgage foreclosures in the modern mortgage market,” says Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending.
The worst-hit areas for rising foreclosures include cities in California, Nevada, New York, New Jersey and the greater Washington, D.C., area that recorded steep housing price appreciation in the past few years. As the market cools, homeowners will find it harder to tap their homes for bigger lines of credit or to take cash out in refinancing.
Here comes the pinch: To manage household debt, Americans have used such moves to pull over $2 trillion out of their homes in the past five years. In the first six months of 2006, consumers extracted over $500 billion.
The sharp increase in foreclosures poses “a serious threat to neighborhood stability,” said Pat Vredevoogd, president-elect of the National Association of Realtors, in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. “It can cause all homes in the neighborhood to lose value.”
The deterioration of homeowners’ ability to keep up with mortgage payments will add oomph to calls on Capitol Hill for new regulation of mortgage lenders and brokers. “There is considerable discussion by incoming House Finance Committee Chairman Barney Frank [D-Mass.] to enact a predatory lending law for these mortgage lending problems,” says Keith Ernst, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending.
The Senate Banking Committee’s agenda under Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., will scrutinize the home-buying process, too. “The amount of household and mortgage debt as a percentage of disposable income is at its worst levels in over a quarter of a century–putting countless Americans on the financial brink,” Dodd told a press conference earlier this month. “In many respects, the American Dream is at risk in a way it has never been before. I do not intend to preside over its demise, but rather to do everything possible for its revival.”
The growing chorus of concern over mortgage costs and foreclosures could ensnare more than just the lenders like Countrywide Financial (nyse: CFC - news - people ), Wells Fargo (nyse: WFC - news - people ) and H&R Block (nyse: HRB - news - people ) who peddle adjustable-rate mortgages with low teaser rates and interest-only features. On Wall Street, risky mortgages get bundled into large pools of mortgage-backed securities, which now account for 23% of all bond market debt outstanding, making it the largest single segment of the U.S bond market.
Increased regulatory oversight could lead to a demand that mortgage servicers give greater flexibility to delinquent borrowers to avoid foreclosure. This would increase a pool’s income, but it would also raise its servicing costs–something investors dearly want to avoid.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:27 am
Bo Bo, leave your fiance….if she’s not happy prior to you being married, it will only get worse later on. I have a friend who might be interested though. LOL.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:16 am
My Child,
here’s what you do.,
1. Remove this website and delete all the information here. (protect from going to prison)
2. Declare BK and go to Burker King to FLIP burgers.,
3. live with your prents
December 21st, 2006 at 3:28 am
Casey, please stop telling us what you “plan” to do, what you “need” to do, what you “will” do.
Personally, I don’t want to hear from you until you can list something — anything! — that you “did” do.
I am seriously beginning to think you are incapable of completing a single task.
P.S. Going to the gym is NOT a task, it’s a form of procrastination.
P.P.S. Going to RE “college” (that term is a laugh!) is NOT a task, it’s a form of procrastination.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:54 am
wow, I hope you are ok, you sound like you are one step away from suicide. Seriously, go see s psychiatrist. You cant keep running away
December 21st, 2006 at 4:00 am
Casey dude,
Here is my action plan for December…
1)Wake up
2)Check out the dope, oops, “farming” operation.
3)Drink some rum.
4)Party with Ricky and Bubbles
5)Hang out at the trailer park.
6)Get “lucky” with Lucy.
Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!
December 21st, 2006 at 4:50 am
Casey,
I have a friend who left his full-time job back in 2003 because real estate investing was becoming his full-time job. However, his credit card debt was spiraling out of control because he had several rentals that were either vacant or had deadbeats who only paid for 1-2 months and then had to be kicked out.
I thought he was going to file for BK but he was committed not to do that. So the very first thing he did was stop paying the credit cards.
Surprisingly, many of the credit card companies tried to call him once or twice, and then just gave up. Some collection agencies tried to keep calling him but you can read language telling them to stop calling you (I can get you the language). They are required to stop calling you if you request it, or they can be subject to fines.
My friend went through a website that offered legal help for these situations, for the credit card companies that will pursue legal action against you. It worked for him, but I suggest you get an in-person real estate attorney, because my buddy had to keep an eye on them and make sure they submitted the right paperwork, and Casey, one quality you lack is being organized.
Discover Card came after him the most. After about 18 months of legal wrangling he agreed to pay 50% of the bill. Avoiding payment of credit cards got him back on the right track as he sold a lot of the bad rentals and made more money flipping properties in his home state of Wisconsin.
He has since repaired his credit, but even when his credit was poor, he continued to do deals. He had acquaintances who knew he was good at the buy/fixup/sell stuff. It’s just the rentals that were killing him.
December 21st, 2006 at 5:23 am
Problems:
1… still facing foreclosure on 4 houses
2… well over $150K of unsecured debt
3… decision to file bankruptcy or not to file bankruptcy
4… uncertain job situation
5… utah mortgage issues
6… lack of discipline and lack of progress on December goals
7… being too distracted to do any more real estate deals
8… serious marriage issues
9… oh and on top of all that my laptop died!
Solutions:
1… Bankruptcy fixes this.
2… Bankruptcy fixes this.
3… See #1 and #2.
4… Get a real job instead of being a lacky for your buddy. It pays more than he will ever pay you, and you have some semblance of stability.
5… Bankruptcy fixes this.
6… Perhaps you should have never completely wasted a week going to another RE revival meeting. Either way, if you would focus on your $2+ Million in debt instead of finding ways to amass more debt, your problems would begin to get better instead of multiplying.
7… You need to go see a doctor and get an MRI done on your brain. You then need to sit down with said doctor to find and surgically remove the part of your brain that still thinks that you have a successful future in the real estate business. Seriously, what part of your experience in RE makes you think that you will ever succeed?
8… Getting out of your financial mess (i.e. bankruptcy) fixes this.
9… I think that this might be your “maker” sending you a message that goes something like this. “Get off your lazy a** , stop writing in you blog about how useless you are, and start working to fix the huge financial mess that you have caused for yourself.” I would listen to Him if I were you.
December 21st, 2006 at 5:40 am
Casey!
I agree that you may be suffering from BiPolar disorder or the old term that I like to use, manic depression. Its still not an excuse for all of the trouble you have caused, but its probably the reason.
To be honest, I wasnt worried that you had been arrested, I dont think it will come to that. But I did think that maybe you had done something even more drastic, like hurt yourself or your family. Several articles have stated that because of the rise in foreclosures, there will be a rise of murder suicides across the country.
Its been mentioned here before, but maybe not in a serious way. But maybe you should find yourself a real “sugar daddy”. You know. I see your picture, and although you are not my type, Im a married man, you probably have a lot of people here in love with you, most likely crushes. You are still young enough to get some guy or gal to “donate” in exchange for other services. If I was your age again, Id probably do it, to try to get out of your situation.
December 21st, 2006 at 5:45 am
Well, the old boy is back. A bunch of vapid musings and some crap-a** repetitive comments (yes, including my own) was more than I expected when I rolled into the office this morning.
I think I’m done. The comments are not nearly as amusing or insightful now; some suspiciously like Mr. Serin writing nicey-nice under pseudonyms.
Man-child in a depressive stupor. Yawn.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
December 21st, 2006 at 5:52 am
Why do you say the job situation is uncertain? I thought you were making 3 k a month?
December 21st, 2006 at 5:55 am
bo bo, you hit the nail on the head. as a working professional who ‘played by the rules’ his whole life, now age 34, making what should be damn good money by any measure (nearly six figures with tons of perks benefits etc) and I make that because I”m worth it. I generate at about 4x that much revenue for my company, yet I CAN’T GD F*CKIN’ AFFORD A HOUSE THANKS TO SLEAZY RE.SPECULATORS LIKE CASEY AND ESPECIALLY THE SHYSTER RICH DAD A-HOles.
A home is NOT an investment tool, that is a bankrupt (literaly) concept propagated by the Robert T. Kiyosakis of the world.
casey, you’ll never post this, as it’s vulgar. just read it and realize that real american first time home buyers hate you. I dont care if you’re bi-polar and depressed and that led you to take these ridiculous risks. you’re an adult, you have a responsibility to take care of your own mental health rather than having it propagate this mess that the rest of the world has to clean up.
Same goes for the even sleazier mortgage brokers and Re.agents, who make even more than I do and create absoultely nothing of value. What is wrong with this country? Did we just breed 2 or 3 generations of petulant, status addicted, lazy, stupid beautiful people who wanted the easy way to riches? Is it TV’s fault? The internet? Marketing gone horribly wrong? I think all these things.
December 21st, 2006 at 5:57 am
bo bo note that he ‘owns’ nothing. and is in fact in a deeply negative equity position. grit your teeth, keep renting somehting cheap, save your six figures, and get ready to buy a house for pennies on the dollar from one of these desperate updside down Casey guys.
December 21st, 2006 at 5:58 am
Declare bankruptcy Casey and start over. I think that is your best option considering your circumstatnces.
FT
http://www.MillionDollarJourney.com
December 21st, 2006 at 6:14 am
Shame on you for not having the courage to post what I wrote you. It must have really struck a nerve.
Truth stings and hurts.
December 21st, 2006 at 6:25 am
Did Google shut down your ads? Is that the REAL reason you’re down in the dumps?
December 21st, 2006 at 6:26 am
“..for the record… I did get up at 5:55 today and went to the gym…”
For the record, I get up @ 04:00 and run the streets (2.5 miles) as I have to be @ work @ 06:00
I don’t pay for the use of a “gym.”
Never been in a Starbucks and until reading this blog
I had never even heard of “Jamba Juice.”
Don’t have a laptop so don’t have to worry about
it “dieing.”
You have lots of expenses that could be cut if you were
really serious about paying everyone off.
December 21st, 2006 at 6:27 am
Ca$ey
I think you would feel better if you would just go ahead and take action. Hire a reputable attorney and move towards getting this mess behind you. You haven’t done anything to improve your situation in 3 months or so, the longer you wait the worse you will feel (and the worse the situation will become). While you are at it, you need to admit to yourself that you have absolutely no talent for RE and find a job in another profession.
December 21st, 2006 at 6:33 am
Well one thing to keep in mind bo bo is that our hero Casey does not own any of these houses, they all belong to the banks. We don’t know where Casey’s future lies, if he does get some type of publicity deal he is one in a million. But the rest that did what he did are eventually going to get screwed themselves. I’m taking a stab that you’re out in Calfornia where the worst of this is taking place. While it’s the worst it’s also the place that will probably face the fastest price correction. So hang in there with it all, save and invest your money wisely and the time will come. I know it’s a tough situation to be in but hopefully it will pass.
As for you Casey, saying “I didn’t borrow with the intent to defraud, …” What the heck do you think you were doing when you filled out those loan apps and lied on them? You think they ask those questions just to use up ink on paper? If you read a question on a loan app, intentionally respond to it with inaccurate information then it’s fraud, plain and simple.
December 21st, 2006 at 6:38 am
Bo bo,
Don’t feel too bad. Casey doesn’t ‘own’ anything except the debt associated with ‘his’ houses.
December 21st, 2006 at 6:46 am
Hate to say it, but I called it! Suck it up man.
Some advice from Wall Street (the movie):
“Bud I like you. Just remember something. Man looks in the abyss, there’s nothing staring back at him. At that time a man finds his character–and that is what keeps him out of the abyss…”
December 21st, 2006 at 7:03 am
Hey!
What happend to the ads?
December 21st, 2006 at 7:12 am
bo bo, your lawyer friend doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
Casey, there’s no need to have a “i’ve been arrested” post ready. You’ll be in the news when it happens.
December 21st, 2006 at 7:22 am
Casey has made himself an easy target, but unfortunately many people are in the same boat. This real estate mania, globally, is of historic proportions. I think we will be talking about this, in the same vein as the great depression, for many years. Easy money has a very strong appeal and has sucked in millions of people.
Casey and his like exercised very poor judgment, but without the Federal Reserve Bank, Fannie Mae and the entire banking industry as conspirators, this mania would not have occurred.
From the:
The Future Worth of a Nickel
The Daily Reckoning
Baltimore, Maryland
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
We’ll keep today’s missive brief and succinct, dear reader. We realize everyone’s attention span runs a little shorter than usual this time of year.
We did stumble upon some interesting tidbits this morning, though…
“The United States is heading into its worst foreclosure crisis in modern history,” comes the report from the Center of Responsible Lending.
The report, titled, “Losing Ground: Foreclosures in the Subprime Market” looks at the subprime mortgages from 1998 to the first six months of 2006. According to the CRL, “more than two million predominantly minority and
low-income Americans with subprime mortgages expected to lose well over $100 billion in homeownership wealth.”
Hmmm…we hate to say it, but we aren’t a bit surprised. What did the lenders think was going to happen when they convinced every pizza boy, 7-11 employee and Wal-Mart greeter to take out an adjustable rate mortgage? Eventually rates would rise to the point that these subprime borrowers simply can’t afford to make their payments.
December 21st, 2006 at 7:25 am
It’s Wall Street that is enabling all this. They securitize all these bogus mortgages and sell them to suckers in China, Korea, etc. (all the folks that export to us and have all those extra dollars they don’t know what to do with).
With all the profit Wall Street makes from doing this, they pay out these obscene bonuses.
December 21st, 2006 at 7:30 am
To “bo bo”:
I wouldn’t worry about this too much. You are in the top one or two percent of income earners. If you can’t afford a house, no one can. This is a situation that doesn’t make any sense and will correct itself in time. Unless you genuinely believe that the US is running out of land, it’s just a matter of patience.
The problem with Casey’s strategy is that it’s high risk. For every guy with a success story (that of course gets attention), there’s a thousand or so that are going to financially eat it, like Casey here. It has nothing to do with skill. Most house flippers (or tech stock day traders) managed risk by cleverly pretending it didn’t exist (houses, tech stocks, deformed beanie babies only go up up up!). The only thing that separates Casey from the guys that give those seminars is luck. If things had worked out differently it’s not hard to imagine him pretending he knew how to time markets just like they do, and writing a book about how he’s the most awesome investor ever.
So flippers don’t really beat the system at all, on the average. They’re just trading risk for money instead of work for money. An investor that manages risk intelligently will always be beaten out by some small percentage of investors that take risks like Casey has. But the low risk investor is a lot less likely to find himself in Casey’s position either. It’s a trade off.
And as far as getting rich off of books goes: Good for him, it might even be on a useful topic, such as “Recognizing and Avoiding Get Rich Quick Schemes.” He’s been stupid in the past, but he can choose to stop being stupid any time he wants.
December 21st, 2006 at 7:35 am
Uh… Bobo,
Education a waste of time…a six figure salary…can’t afford a house…fiance cries about it…makes me feel inadequate…
Yeah, right. Uh, huh.
Merrry Christmas, anyway.
December 21st, 2006 at 7:43 am
Casey, you don’t have to do this whole blogging/moderating by yourself, if you ask the people from your blog, you’ll get some good people that’ll help you with moderation of your comments and other things.
December 21st, 2006 at 7:44 am
BoBo, you’re right that IS America. A place where somebody like Paris Hilton can be famous and make money for showing up at parties. A place where cheaters are rewarded, where criminals write books, where OJ can play golf whenever he wants. We, the hard-working thought we understood the American dream, but we’re the ones left holding the bag. There’s no middle class anymore because of guys like Casey Serin. May I die painlessly before his generation takes the reigns of power in this country.
December 21st, 2006 at 7:45 am
Son, the gym and microsoft spreadsheets are not productivity….a JOB is!
December 21st, 2006 at 7:49 am
Bo Bo, where are you living that you can’t afford a house living on 6 figures?
December 21st, 2006 at 7:53 am
There’s no easy way out
December 21st, 2006 at 7:54 am
you ruined your life
December 21st, 2006 at 8:01 am
You should ask your “local rich Dad” or whoever about the corporate credit thing. I don’t think ti can help if you don’t have net assets…. it’s probably just a way of getting a bunch of fees from you and then saying “oops we can’t find you a loan after all”.
December 21st, 2006 at 8:11 am
With this unbelievable mortgage credit mess, hyperinflation is coming folks. If you believe that prices are going to continue dropping significantly in realestate near term, think again. The government is broke and cannot afford the housing market to collapse. It will continue devaluating the dollar to put a floor under these McMansions. Soon everything is going to become much more expensive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation
You better get yourself a parachute made of gold.
December 21st, 2006 at 8:16 am
bo bo: you are overestimating casey’s ability to cash out on this. Chump change on google ads is not worth going into hole he has created for himself.
December 21st, 2006 at 8:29 am
bo bo — he doesn’t own 6 houses. The bank does.
December 21st, 2006 at 8:32 am
Keep your head up Casey. In a few years you’re going to be in a great spot.
I’m impressed by how you’ve handled things thus far. i’ve been telling a bunch of my friends about how you are facing these issues. I think its respectable. Keep your marriage tight! Be blessed man
December 21st, 2006 at 8:34 am
Microsoft Office Account Express 2007
FREE, unlimited no strings attached
http://www.ideawins.com/
Your free download of Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007 is just seconds away
casey you might need this OK??
this is a legit MS site.
hahha, you got me with the ’slow down cowboy!”
*******
Product Information
Microsoft® Office Accounting Express 2007 is everything you need to make your small business idea flourish. Whatever your idea, take it further with these great features:
Save time on everyday tasks
Create quotes and invoices; track expenses and employee time
Enter data once and share it seamlessly with other Microsoft Office system programs
Manage payroll and taxes with ADP’s integrated payroll service
Get a complete view of your business
Store and organize all your customer, vendor, employee, and financial information in one place
Get business insights with over 20 customizable reports
Easily share your books with your accountant through Office Live
Grow your business online
List items on eBay, track sales activity, and download and process orders
Email invoices and get paid faster with PayPal
Monitor your customers’ business credit in real-time through Equifax
Share your financial data with your accountant easily through Office Live
December 21st, 2006 at 8:43 am
For God’s sake leave the poor boy alone. Yes he made some dumb mistakes, time and time again but do you have to face the consequences for them? (and don’t give me the blah blah blah, he caused housing prices to go up etc etc bullshit). No. So shut the hell up and give him a break. I have never heard such a bunch of pious crap in my whole life. He has it bad enough and, unlike some of you people, I don’t believe in kicking someone when they are down. I don’t need to shot some person who is already at rock bottom down to feel better about myslef. And even more so, I am not so cowardly that I have to do it behind the annonimity of a computer screen.
Ya, you guys are real tough.
December 21st, 2006 at 8:56 am
If you’re so busy taking care of your financial problems, idiot, why are you wasting so much of your time on this blog?
December 21st, 2006 at 9:09 am
We were worried; even us haters.
Please don’t let the depression control you.
It’s scary, without a doubt, but you know that cliché about eating the elephant one bite at a time.
You need to keep yourself from worsening the problem by avoiding it.
And please, don’t be too proud to ask for help.
December 21st, 2006 at 9:10 am
Bobo, if “creative” and “aggressive” are euphemisms for “foolish” and “impulsive”, then you’ve got Casey pegged. Otherwise, I wouldn’t worry about him being a millionaire any time soon. If the IRS doesn’t take whatever money he makes in the next few decades, Jamba Juice will.
More to the point, when Mrs. Casey grows up a little, she’ll decide she’d rather be responsible for herself than dependent upon someone undependable, and Casey won’t have anything.
December 21st, 2006 at 9:12 am
You listed nine items that you had to work on. I would put item #8 (serious marriage issues) as item #1. Pretty soon she’s gonna be all you have left… for God’s sake, don’t screw that up too!!
Oh yeah, Merry Christmas!
December 21st, 2006 at 9:14 am
Oh, and Casey: your post title, plus the part about another loan just buying you a little more time, are the most sensible things I’ve seen you post yet. You might be learning something. (Of course, if you go ahead and get in more debt anyway, I’ll retract that statement).
December 21st, 2006 at 9:25 am
bo bo “I’ve wasted my life getting an education”
Puhleeze.
Could this be Casey?
How many reports do we hear every year based Census data/through media outlets about the correlation between higher education and earnings over time?
More higher ed = higher average lifetime earnings.
‘Nuff said. Google it, ya moron.
bo bo, you are a bo zo.
December 21st, 2006 at 9:30 am
Uncertain job situation? Does that mean your buddy doesn’t need your “network expertise” anymore? was he able to set up a router and install virus software on his own? From the job description it sounds like you were nothing more than a glorified office boy, and with your track record of not opening mail at home I wouldn’t be surprised if you weren’t a very dilligent employee.
You know what, I’m just jealous. It took about six months of working my “looser” job to accrue a week’s vacation, and here you are jetting off to Arizona for a week (and then extending it by a day!) after working for barely a month. I’m definitely in the wrong line of business…I need to get into the shady real estate world!
December 21st, 2006 at 9:36 am
“Jesus”, that’s why I’m trying to repay it… also I didn’t borrow with the intent to defraud, which is what I think that verse is talking about…
If you didn’t intend to defraud, how come:
A. You claimed they were owner occupied properties when in actuality they were non-owner occupied which would have required a down-payment and higher interest rate
B. You lied about your ability to repay the loans (stated income)
C. You never told your lenders you were buying other properties simultaneously, which if they knew about, would have turned down your request for financing
D. You didn’t inform the lender that you received cash back after closing on some of the homes (lenders don’t want to hear that you will be making “repairs” with that money - how do they know where the money is going, such as credit card and mortgage payments)
E. You aren’t making your mortgage payments. Buying all that property with the financing you got, you did know that you would have a scratch a $15,000 check each month to your various mortgage companies, right? Why would you borrow so much money when you knew you didn’t have the means to come up with that amount of money each month?
I’m sure your lenders and/or the authorities will have all sorts of other questions for you in the not to distant future. At least this blog should prepare you for some serious hard questioning you will be facing and that would scare me a lot more than foreclosure.
Getting a lawyer (bankruptcy/criminal would be ideal) should be your only priority now, not the next “sweet deal” you won’t be closing.
December 21st, 2006 at 9:45 am
I was fairly certain Casey would be hanging from his neck somewhere, but this optimist keeps surprising us time after time again. It’ll be either BK or the rope. I bet he will choose the BK.
December 21st, 2006 at 9:47 am
bo bo,
Boo hoo, and B.S. You have just described what California has become, not America. Separate the two. You can get the same 6 figure job in the Austin, Chicago, or Denver and be able to afford a nice house and two cars with no problem. In Texas you would live very well. You are locked out of San Francisco and Palo Alto. Who cares. Live somewhere real.
December 21st, 2006 at 9:50 am
Casey and I have a mutual friend; I had a chance encounter with Casey some months ago at the friend’s office. I immediately had some sense of annoyance or antagonism towards Casey; I’m not sure why, although quiet for the most part, he seemed arrogant to me and I didn’t like the way I felt being around him. I still can’t put my finger on exactly why I dislike him; he’s done nothing to me and wasn’t even particularly talkative during this brief meeting.
Although I’ve not read every posting on his sight I can still predict his next move and the inevitability of the finish. Why? Because his story isn’t new, it really isn’t even interesting. The only difference between Casey and the next schmo is that he has captured the attention of the media by way of a few “right” contacts, my friend in point.
Casey’s intentions of blogging have nothing to do with the greater good and all to do with creating a mass media frenzy around his circumstances. He’s an opportunist. His intention is to capitalize on his mistakes, get some TV appearances and write a book. Why not? It’s worked for Robet Kiyosaki and countless others ( http://paulandres.blogspot.com.....-down.html ) why not Casey Serin?
Negative attention is the easiest way to get the media’s interest – many corporations have used similar tactics; what can anyone do? There is no putting the milk back in the glass after it’s spilled onto the table and run down to the floor. Ooops, my bad and an apology are all one needs.
I feel annoyance and some jealousy towards Casey Serin. Annoyed by his contempt for the system; jealous that it’s taken me 20 years to acquire 4 homes by following the rules when I could have purchased a hundred by this time had I worked the system. Do I applaud him for having the courage to attempt something I didn’t or do I have disdain for his bucking the system?
Which side do I remain closest to; the good side (I come from good people) or the evil side that hopes Casey never makes a dime from any media endeavors? I do know that Casey is not the first or last to manipulate the system to his advantage but is that enough to remain complacent? Why do I care? We should all care because in the long run it affects all of us.
December 21st, 2006 at 10:13 am
Casey,
Glad that you are ok. it got me worried for a while. Don’t feel too bad, it’s only money and you are still young. Just BK and start over. You can later sell your book rights, movie rights, domain name. The ad sense cash flow is an icing on the cake. Also, the consensus is that you are too lazy to hold a regular job. I am a immigrant too, I came here when I was 15. I tell you the best way to survive in US is find a good paying job and work, invest in 401K, and retire comfortably at old age.
The curse of man–you must toil under the sun in order to eat–has not been lifted. So get rich quick does not work fundamentally because of the original curses. Just like the other curse, child labor still painful and dangous for woman–not lifted either.
So don’t try to circumvent the system. You are not going to get rich, but might end up in jail or worse–dead in an alley.
Just do what normal folks do and enjoy the fruits of your labor under the sun. That’s the best deal anyone can hopeful if you read bible like you say you do.
BT
December 21st, 2006 at 10:15 am
That sucks, but it could be worse. The scuttlebutt on the World Wide Tubes was that you’d been arrested.
December 21st, 2006 at 10:18 am
Yeah, hiding from your problems and waiting them to get worse is genious. Good Job!
December 21st, 2006 at 10:31 am
Just keep the PDA in your back pocket and you can fire it off without a problem. Last time I was in cuffs, I had a knife in my pocket the whole time.
Casey, you might want to go get a bipolar disorder analysis just to have it on hand in case you do end up in court. “I was crrrrazzzy, your honor!!” Delusions of grandeur are one of the symptoms. Just saying. Lots of napping too. Much experience with friends. Way too much.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And happy new year.
December 21st, 2006 at 10:33 am
Oh, and I like that “Write 5 action items” thing from AZ above, with the Report Back To Us requirement. We’ll hold you accountable - you don’t want to see people railing on your failure in your comments section, so write ‘em down and get ‘em done. Even if they’re small.
December 21st, 2006 at 10:35 am
@bobo - “we play by the rules — work hard and save, and get screwed. you don’t and get away scot free. That’s what america has become.”
Not sure where you ever got the impression that playing by the rules get you ahead… You think people like Bill Gates or Sam Walton got to where they are by playing by the rules?
Playing by the rules will get you what everyone else has, which by its very definition cannot be “ahead”. The challenge is to know how much to bend the rules, if getting ahead is important to you. It’s just not clear if our friend young Casey has bent the rules too much…
December 21st, 2006 at 10:42 am
Dont let your problems get you down. Just think of all the time you will have to reflect on your decisions while sitting in prison.
During sentencing, try to request a Prison that has a nice view, like McNeil Island in Washington State.
If you are the adventurous, outdoorsy type, try Tent City in Arizona. God bless Sheriff Joe.
December 21st, 2006 at 11:02 am
bo bo why can’t you afford a home with a 6 fig. salary?
I have a 5 fig. salary and I own a home and a rental property that I am renting out that is cashflowing $146.00 a month. I purchased it October1st and rented it out November 1st after putting in $18k in rehab. The $18k came from a cash out refinance on my personal home.
Casey is not bidding up your homes so you and your fiance can’t afford it. If the houses that Casey bought are your homes he is putting them on the market for a discount for you to purchase or after the foreclosure goes thru and the banks no longer want to sit on them they will get discounted even further for you. They will keep getting discounted until a buyer decides it a good value.
If anything he is getting you a huge discount with his loss. It all depends on your perception and what your willing to pay and what you value the property at.
Granted some people play the greater fool when it comes to Real-Estate but that is a risk that they take and like all risk at can be minimized with research and doing some do delegence and not being the greater fool.
December 21st, 2006 at 11:02 am
>> “also I didn’t borrow with the intent to defraud”
Looking at your financial situation, do you maybe think that paying for movie tickets with borrowed money you say you may BK away “intent to defraud.”
To me it’s kinda like robbing a bank but telling the police you really really want to give it all back later . . .
December 21st, 2006 at 11:28 am
Gday,
Ozzie Tim here.
I was just cheering it up with some makes and we came along to the topic of you. Seems that Mick found your blog and been keeping us all posted about you and your circumstances. Mick says your’e a whacker who’s as good as cactus, seeing the spot you’re in. Mick thinks you’re a brown-eyed mullet and you are two steps back from being a dero.
Mick and I were enjoying some amber fluid the other day (no, I don’t drink with the flies) and I said to Mick: “Bloody oath, mate! Casey’s back of bourke from solvency, but he’s no bludger!” Now my friends will attest that i’m figjam (but really conch). This bloke needs to straighten out right now or he’s going to be in a jail cell before July. That’s good oil says Mick (but he thinks you’ve got kangaroos loose in the top paddock).
Now I told Mick that I just thought you were not the full guild. I told him that you ought to see if the oldies could lend a hand or maybe buy some scratchies (yeah, right what am I, some dipstick? Not). So how are you going to get square with the world? Well, you could start making a quid. No not that bird-dogging stuff, go back to what you’re good at, the web design stuff. It stands out like shag on a rock that that’s the place to start. Get some moolah flowing in and then enjoy coldie (not too much or you’ll have a liquid laugh going on).
Now I’m no knocker here, and I’m not gonna skite, but I think you’ve been sprung and now its time to get dinky-di or you’ll cark it. Some of the posters here seem to think youre dag or a drongo. You call them “haters”.
Looks like you made a big blue and wound up upside down by taking all the money out of the deals up front instead of at the end. You’ve got a lot of yabber, but not much yakka, time to change your ways and you’ve really got to put your focus on making a quid, you know?
Go back to your lenders and see if you can nut out a way to restructure your loans. Tell them: “no drama, we can nut this one through. I’ve learned some lessons but I’m ridgy-didgy, no dero”. It’s no piece of piss to be true, but London to a brick you’ll be able to make it right. That’s what you’ve been saying all along, right?
You sometimes come off a bit bludger but you’ve come back of bourke to this point (learning your lessons on the way) and now it stands out like dog’s balls that you have very, very few choices. You can either BK which you’re not keen on, work the deals out (Buckley’s chance), walk away and become a dole bludger (the hater’s will hate you for that), or put all of that knowledge from last week at the uni to work (hope you were dux there mate!)
In my opinion, you are rooted just about every way possible.
Hope it all works out.
Hooroo. Ozzie Tim
December 21st, 2006 at 11:48 am
Ozzie Time here.
Just forgot to say Merry Chrissie!
Hooroo. Ozzie Tim
December 21st, 2006 at 11:55 am
“The unknown dangers eat at me every minute and sabotage any hope for any down time.”
Oh… boo hoo. “Any hope for downtime”? Your whole life has been one long easy downtime on the backs of everyone else. You’ve never had to live a minute of “uptime”. Ever.
But that may change in the coming year. Party’s over pal.
December 21st, 2006 at 12:00 pm
But if your most recent check from Adsense (Oct?) was only $60 for a month - no big deal, right??
Of course - you were telling us the full and complete truth, correct? If you were, then $60/month is nothing.
You were telling the truth, right …………………….. ???
December 21st, 2006 at 12:00 pm
An annual salary of well over 100K is needed to comfortably purchase houses like these where I live: http://marinpos.blogspot.com/ and I wouldn’t exactly call them mansions.
December 21st, 2006 at 12:15 pm
OH MAN! Bummer dude! Man, we wuz jus tryin to help a brother out….sorry bout that….No income streams now, huh? OUCH!!! I’d collapse in bed too man….until I started jonesin’ for a wheet grass shot or some fresh Jamba Juice….later dude!
December 21st, 2006 at 12:20 pm
“Man am I starting to have a hard time getting anything done”
Only way out Casey - declare BK.
December 21st, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Poor Casey.
I gotta admit, the vitriol from your fans is a bit much. I mean, dang, you’re already going to suffer for years to come, regardless of their comments.
Take it easy, dude.
At least you’re 24.
It’s a lot harder to start over when you’re older.
December 21st, 2006 at 12:33 pm
“Man this really sucks… Google banned me from AdSense, probably for click fraud on the part of my blog readers… ”
Yeah, that does suck. $60 a month is still $60 a month.
Are there other ad networks you can look into?
December 21st, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Man, Bobo, you sure pushed a lot of peoples’ buttons…
Casey if you’re banned from AdSense, then there’s no reason not to post the Oct-Nov earnings now. And on a positive note: you’ve actually inspired me to get some stuff done today. I keep telling myself, “Don’t be a Casey… don’t be a Casey…”
December 21st, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Geez Casey. For once in your life take some responsibility and start eating that elephant already……
First bite: Mail all the keys back to the lenders with an apology note and ask them to prepare deed in lieu papers.
Once this is done, you will start to see the light.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:06 pm
I know of several lenders that have recently shut down. Typically it is because they are forced to buy back several hundred million dollars of loans they made and then sold off which went bad.
Lenders are asking for more comps on appraisals and more appraisal reviews. However, 100% loans are still readily available in the subprime market to anyone with a 580 or above credit score. 90% is the FNMA max on cash out loans and has been for some time.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:19 pm
300k per year and priced out? I somehow doubt that. They might be priced out of what they ‘want’ or what they think they deserve.
300k = 25k gross per month. Even by the STRICT old time approval standards of 28% of gross monthly income for a house payment (very conservative), that qualifies you for a payment of 7k per month. At that monthly payment, they could qualify for 100% financing at 7% (jumbo loan) for 30 years on a 1,050,000 loan amount.
This does not take into account other debt, bad credit, and some other variables, but simply speaking, they are not priced out of ANY markets in this country, unless as I said, their WANTS are too high.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Casey: Cheer up since you can flip out of all the homes in the Spring while stupid PhDs like bo bo keep working like suckers since they don’t know how to flip homes.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Jim,
Here in North Texas (DFW area) you can get a brand new 3/2/2 in a nice town with a decent front and back yard for $130k easily. Older homes you can find 3/2/2 for around $100k to $110k. But even here there are pricey areas. I looked at a 3/2/2 townhome in a ritzy area of Dallas for $400k, and there are plenty of upscale neighborhoods throughout the metroplex where you can find houses in the $300k range, but those are mostly McMansions with 3000sf, 4/3/3 or better, media room, formal living and dining room, giant kitchens and master bathrooms, etc.
I see tons of people making $100k living in $300k houses (again, these are either really nice, new houses or in exclusive areas) and driving BMW’s and Lexuses. Around here a “300k house” means a REALLY nice/big house or something very close to downtown Dallas. The California houses that Casey is selling for $300k would sell for less than $100k around here (unless the land values are very high — again, very close to downtown Dallas etc.).
Just to give you pictures, here is a nice house that I just found in Fort Worth for $110k (local realtor’s site, no affiliation whatsoever, just found this guy on Craigslist):
http://www.strangeteam.com/Nav.....1115127%26
Nice neighborhood, 1800sf, looks nicer than any of Casey’s $300k California homes — for $110k!
December 21st, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Man, and I thought my life was rough…
I was worried that maybe some of the crew from New York “Unplugged” you. It does sound like you’re learning though. Look at A.J. He sleeps in ’till who knows when and has life on easy street. Life ain’t gonna be so easy soon though. He’s about to get a quick lesson in how to “talk to people”. I think I’ll let Paulie take him out and show him how to earn.
Things are good with me. Just bought a new Rolex for my Goomah. Got a new nav system for the boat. Almost like the Golden Days.
You need a crew. Get some hard pipe hittin mooleys and go to work. That Jamba Juice s*** is plugging up your colon and cutting the oxygen off to your brain.
I’f I was you, I’d lawyer up and then maybe take a trip down south. Go heavy!
December 21st, 2006 at 1:43 pm
I agree with an earlier post, if your struggling for even a regular cash flow not including your debts what business do you have belonging to a gym.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Almost everyone here keeps saying the same thing: “file BK and get on with your life”, as if BK is some magic wand he can wave at his mountain of problems and make them disappear. It’s not. Filing BK will only trade one set of his problems for another. Hint: the BK court judge will not look too kindly on the fraud Casey has committed.
Fraud-ridden mortgage loans aside, Casey has lots of other problems that BK has no hope of ever fixing:
1- Lack of education
2- Lack of discipline
3- Lack of experience with the real world
4- Lack of resolve
5- Lack of a backbone
6- Inability to deal with reality
7- Being a spolied brat with a false sense of entitlement
8- Willingness to blindly follow those peddling fool’s gold as a way to get rich the quick and easy way, caused by all the above.
Filing BK is not going to fix Casey’s character flaws and is hardley the end of the disaster he has created for himself and those close to him. The best solution to his problems is having reality replace his fantsy world. And this will probably have to be forced upon him by Federal or State authorities.
How to tell if he’s been transported to the real world? As long as he thinks RK is his guru savior he’s still living in his fantasy land.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:59 pm
@Jobu,
They live in Palo Alto, where the cheapest run-down, fixer-upper single-family home was $1.55 mil last time I checked (that one sold quick, too).
I guess they could move to Milpitas but… why? The schools suck and the traffic is awful etc. etc. Who wants a million-dollar albatross around their neck when they’re 28 and prices are dropping??? (ok, except for Mr. Casey).
@Mr. Cow-tipping, NC is nice but my company is here so I’m stuck with California until I either succeed or go bankrupt trying…. but in the event that does come to pass some years from now, I’ll definitely be on the next plane out east.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Try to enjoy the holiday, seriously.
I think that you’re screwed, but maybe a nice frugal Christmas will bring you a little peace.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Casey,
Business meetings do not end at 2AM. You are obviously dealing with someone who deals with nonstandard businesss practices, and these people are called crooks. You have good intentions, you may even be right about a lot of things — I have two freinds who are “rich” because of real estate. But they both have college degrees, and they both deal in cheap multi-family rentals — nothing more than they can afford, and close enough to collect the rents. Both are very frugal. You have very poor judgement, but at least you are open to feedback, and that is very good. Get out of the cult. You only need yourself, not a guru, rich dad etc.
Do realize that you can get out from under this rock in six months? I did it — all my problems are over, and money is in the bank. My family home was forclosed, and I was lucky to sell it before the bank did. Maybe, for you, even less time, if you mial the keys like dumfounded says. A forclosure is like having a BK on your credit report regardless. The last thing you should be concerned about is credit, frankly — if you learn ONE lesson it is how bad credit can be. You are too honest for that — the people who trumpet leverage are the BK artists who go around stiffing people. Listen to the good advice that you get here.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:17 pm
@ bo bo
If you can’t afford a home with a 6 figure salary where you live, you need to consider moving.
You also need to dump that whiney a** fiancee of yours.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:25 pm
that I ignored by staying unplugged. The unknown dangers eat at me every minute and sabotage any hope for any down time. Avoiding the stress of dealing with problems causes even more stress and more problems. (It’s time to face reality…) 19 Interesting CommentsFiled under other Casey Serin: I’m a 24 yr old real estate investor from Sacramento CA. After going to a few seminars I bought 8 houses in 8 months in 4 states with no money down looking to fix ‘n flip. I made
December 21st, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Jim
December 21st, 2006 at 1:59 pm @Jobu,
Snip
@Mr. Cow-tipping, NC is nice but my company is here so I’m stuck with California until I either succeed or go bankrupt trying…. but in the event that does come to pass some years from now, I’ll definitely be on the next plane out east.
Yea I am lucky I have one of those semi generic non location specific skills. I know of old friends from the Bay area who moved to Brazil.
BTW NC has a lot of available high tech talent. Especially Raleigh (not Charlotte we are a banking city) and ironically in a lot of aspects raleigh is better. Cheaper fewer problems with traffic and what not. Better located by being 200 miles from WA DC instead of ~400 like charlotte. essentially a lot of NE and CA transplants here. 1/2 the freaking state is out of state plates.
Anyway you’re probably able to rent for 1/4th the house payment now, so enjoy it while you can. High tech and IT jobs have drifted across the ocean from CA anyway so the million dollar shacks will soon become crack houses cos all the jobs went. Then go buy the one that seems to have seen the least meth. That’s my plan. Buying Casey’s Sac house for 20 cents on the dollar. That’s why I am following this train wreck. Oops … I said that out loud … bwaaaaa … dont you copy my idea …
Cool.
Cow_tipping.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Casey,
You probable has too much to do in your december goal. But remember no one can do everything they plan to.
The trick is to prioritize what is most important to you each day and do that most important task and is OK to leave the rest for another day. Remember the 80/20 rule that if you do only 20% of what you plan for the day, you are doing very well over time. 80% of all thing around you are not important at the moment. Just like 80% of the comment in the blog here is not important to you or anyone.
By the way, in stressful time, good rest and keeping up good health is vitally important. You will need a clear mind to make good decision and a healthy body to execute the task.
Hence forget the 5am sleepy morning, instead sleep well and shoot for the 20% accomplishment.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Casey,
I admit it was somone from this site that got your Google Ads Banned.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:53 pm
looks like there are a few places in Palo Alto under a million. As i said before…your starter home isn’t neccesarily your dream home. If you are waiting for that then you will be a bit older.
here is the link to all sales in Palo Alto from january through july of this year:
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/....._sales.cgi
December 21st, 2006 at 2:58 pm
…as if BK is some magic wand he can wave at his mountain of problems and make them disappear. It’s not.
Of course not. BK -sooner- is in his readers’ interests and his as well. BK is a forgone event. The discussion is one of sooner and voluntary versus later and involuntary.
Things Casey is stuck with:
Liability due to -proven- and -prosecuted- fraud.
Taxes.
Damaged relationships.
Things Casey can dissipate:
CCard debt.
Future debt accrual.
So far in these three extraordinary months by Tim’s estimate his efforts have yielded $60-80 thousand in additional debt. Freakin’ tax late penalties from Dec 11th are $600 alone. I know, noise, just like the $37 (1jj) Jamba Juice overdraft. The Jetta Junker (1JJ) barely qualifies as worth tracking. He shoulda “bought” a “business car” and tried to claim it as part of livelyhood. That’s the stuff a good lawyer coulda tole him in SEPTEMBER. Too late now, the best he can hope is to squirrel cash. Not advise, just sumptin’ I herd on da street.
I’m frankly tired of Casey running up a bill on my tab. Begs the ethical question; you see a robbery. Is it your problem? Jean Valjean Casey ain’t.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Ahhhhhh sorry to hear about your adsense revenues being cutoff. But I hope you get my 50+ clicks before they cut you off. So does that mean you’re ready to post your revenues now? Why so secretive. You post your bank statement, your 2.2 Million Debts, but not your ad revenue. WhY??? Afraid of losing the sympathy of your fellow readers. You definitely are a shady crook. You say how you aired out all your dirty laundry and whatever happens is what happens. But staying up late with business meetings??? I call BS. ONly up to no good and more con planning to do huh? What is this ResCom Scam that I hear about too. Shady…Shady…Shady.
Well don’t worry Casey. There will be at least 2.2 Million others that will be joining you in the future. So get that book ready. Ohhh I’m sorry. Minus your 5 houses. I guess that will make 2,199,995 people joining you soon
http://realestate.yahoo.com/Re.....ec892.html
December 21st, 2006 at 3:17 pm
Tim, you have a point there…. it’s a good idea to make a simple spreadsheet of everything that I owe right now just to get an idea of the “big picture” before I spend a lot of time entering receipts.
I think, like you said, it’s somewhere in the $200-400k below water when everything is accounted for.
And yes I do feel like I am doing the “head-in-the-sand” thing sometimes…
December 21st, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Harry,
You’re either the most awesome troll ever or the most overpaid retard on the planet. Either way, congratulations! You’ve clearly reached some sort of pinnacle in life.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:39 pm
“but I think somewhere someone suggested that you are a Mormon.”
Close, but there’s one extra letter that snuck in by mistake.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Make Tim go away.
He has no sense of humor, he’s repetitive but the worst part is that he jabbers on for so long. DAMN.
I’m unemployed and I don’t spend as much time on Casey as Tim. If I had millions, I’d be out doing something else.
Come on, kill the deadwood!
December 21st, 2006 at 3:47 pm
@Aaron: I looked at your link. I couldn’t find ANY single-family homes in Palo Alto under a million, although there were a few in EAST Palo Alto which, believe me, is a totally different story (Think Oakland vs. Berkeley). Except there are no safe areas in East Palo Alto unlike Oakland which I’m told has some neighborhoods that are not a total ghetto. But I digress.
When a young couple who “only” make $300k/year are effectively priced out of middle-class housing in their town, I have to wonder who, exactly, is buying all this real estate? At least, I used to wonder until I read Casey’s blog…. then I realized that there are people in the world who apparently cannot even do simple math, and who have no qualms about committing financial suicide to “own” a piece of real-estate (even if it is only for a few months).
December 21st, 2006 at 3:48 pm
Casey,
The RE industry burned the banks in the last crash from ‘91 to ‘95. The banks were smart and waited til everyone was in the black and then lobbied to revamp the BK laws since ‘97 and have worked to get passed dozens of new BK laws totally unnoticed as everyone partied throughout the recent RE price run up.
Here’s a briefing on the new laws:
There used to be Chapter 7 and 13. 7 Meant you pay back what you can and 13 meant you walk away from everything. Not so anymore.
Now your situation will be reviewed by the court and if the court decides that you have any assets now or in the future, they are all up for grabs and up to a judge to decide what you will pay back. There is no more “walk away” free and clear.
Oh the surprise that awaits so many in your boat!
Here’s a list of items on the table that never were before:
* Present income
* Future income
* Assets - cars, boats, all personal property
* 401K - All present and future retirement funds
* Inheritance and/or trust funds
* Much, much more!
One of the biggest factors deciding what will be paid back will be based on what point did you realize that you were in trouble and did you continue to borrow after that point?
Good luck and thank the banks who lent all of this money out so easily. They also wrote and lobbied for these new laws.
Cheers!
December 21st, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Center for Responsible Lending is a joke. Those #’s are so out of whack its not even funny. There will be an increase, you bet, but what you are going to see more is an increase in auto repos and cc chargeoffs, which is fine because those crooks at Capital 1, Providian, et all pray on people offering them more than enough credit.
Then again none of his would be a problem if people learned how to be reponsible
December 21st, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Good to hear you are now talking about doing a simple spreadsheet, a balance sheet. Excel is easy to learn, and there are even easier to use freebie/open source spreadsheets which can handle Excel formats. For a computer-savvy person, should take no more than 2-3 hours to learn to use it, basically.
But doing it manually works well, too. Though the additions and subtractions will not be automatically, and “scenarios” are harder to do (scenarios meaning: different assumptions about final sales prices, tax rates, commissions, etc.), the gist is still there.
I’ve been running a “mental spreadsheet,” in my head, using the numbers you provide in your “properties” section, and from comments about price reductions, etc.
I’ll summarize _my_ picture below, minus any of the hard numbers. This fits the format I’ve used in my own balance sheet of assets and liablities, with an emphasis on _TIME_ running in the “normal” direction (horizontally, in the columns):
(Rows are easy to do in ASCII such as we are using here, but columns will get screwed up by tabs and proportional fonts, etc., so I’ll just indicate the columns by “JAN FEB MAR…SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB….”. You can of course use an even finer granularity, such as “week” (as in “WW50″ for the 50th week of the year, etc.) Or a coarser granularity, such as by quarters. (This is how most businesses report, publicly, but this is too coarse for your uses, and even corporations have monthly and weekly snapshots, reported internally.)
Here’s the rough idea of the kind of spreadsheet or table I would use: (don’t duplicate what I am using, as I can already see changes I would make even as I type these rows and columns in….the beauty of doing an Excel or similar spreadsheet is the ease with which fine-tuning can be done, or rows and columns added, or merge, all while the underlying calculations are preserved)
Rows \ Columns JAN FEB MAR APR …. NOV DEC
Burdette, Sacramento
Purchase Section:
Purchase Price
Commissions/Costs
Details (broken out as you wish)
Carrying Costs Section:
Loans
Loan 1
Loan 2
Monthly maintenance, bills
Monthly taxes
TOTAL DEBT SERVICE
Income Section:
Rent
Rental Costs
TOTAL PROCEEDS (IN)
NET MONTHLY:
Sales Section:
Asking Price
Estimate of Likely Sale Price
Commissions/Costs
Net Sales Price
Taxes
TOTAL MONTHLY:
TOTAL SALES PROCEEDS
TOTAL LIKELY NET PROCEEDS
Larchmont, North Highlands
(repeat, as above…with a spreadsheet, this is straightforward to do)
…ditto for rest of properties
And past properties, such as the Calla Way propertyy, should be included.
The beauty of a balance sheet, especially one done via a PC-based spreadsheet, is the ease with which “oh, I just remembered I should take into account blah blah” can be added as an extra row or column.
Also, you can start with a VERY simple table of rows and columns, just the properties as the rows and some of the various financials for each as the columns….this is the kind of “mental spreadsheet” I am referring to when I say I’ve kept one for your properties.
A spreadsheet also saves labor by not having your re-invent or recalculate each time some assumption–such as the expected sales price–changes.
It allows very fast recalculation (this is really a simple spreadsheet, so recalc will be nearly instantaneous) based on “what if”scenarios…”what happens if Rio Rancho gets sold for $410K?” “What happens if my tax rate is capped at 25% vs. what if the IRS treats the gains as ordinary income?”
(Each of these can be added as a new row or column, and changed at will, with the new results calculated.)
Also, as you learn things about likely commissions, tax rates, etc., this becomes a place to put them.
And it is very likely that your “pile of receipts” for travel, lodging, etc., is a relatively small part of your big financial figure. Most of your losses are for the reasons we’ve talked about, not a 4-day stay in a motel in Dallas, for instance.
(Still, you can make estimates of these costs and include it in the table, as I outline above. As the estimates firm up, or get tabulated in Money, you can get closer to the true picture.)
This kind of balance sheet, a summing up of your main gains and losses, is what any bankruptcy lawyer is going to want to see. (And, no, it is not wise for you to pay someone else to do this, as they will not have the knowledge you have and communicating to them all the minutiae will take too much time and be too prone to error. The idea of the spreadsheet is to give you a “skeleton” on which to hang the varous bits and pieces of your financial puzzle.)
Good luck. I would start tonight, were I you.
–Tim from Monterey
December 21st, 2006 at 3:56 pm
I love all the doomsday posts here, I work for one of the largest sub-prime mortgage originators in the country. We just had a great year, the companies that are suffering are the fly by night ones, good riddance. This is like eliminating all the unprofitable dotcoms. The ones that remain have strong business models and will continue to be successful. This is just like any other business.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Ca$ey says:
And yes I do feel like I am doing the “head-in-the-sand” thing sometimes…
Sometimes ? Make an appointment with a BK attorney tommorrow !
December 21st, 2006 at 4:26 pm
I live in the SF bay area.
All you “priced out of the market” whiners making 6 figures are ridiculous. Priced out of nice accomodations in SF, probably, but not in many of the decent burb cities. And why can’t you swing a home on that salary, probably a combo of 1 to 3 things:
1-Student loans
2-BMW, Audi, Lexus or some other luxury vehicle.
3- living your $$-$$$ lifestyle.
I won’t fault you for 1, but you can’t complain about not being able to buy a house because of it.
Casey, remember, being busy is not the same as being productive. Your trip to Pheonix cost you time and money and probaly is not going to get any of your 4 houses sold.
BK all the way around, send in the keys.
December 21st, 2006 at 4:30 pm
“Tim…. it’s a good idea to make a simple spreadsheet of everything that I owe…”
No, no, no.
Good Idea: Clip coupons.
Great Idea: Open mail.
Absolute necessity: 30 minute spreadsheet.
Bad Idea: Movies.
Really Bad Idea: Collige to get “riche.”
Fatal Mistake: Full speed ahead.
Which ones have your attention? Better yet, why are you reading my recreational musings? You need to be working Excel like a hedge manager.
Here, I’ll save you the trouble. The spreadsheet needs only a dozen datum in a 3×4 matrix. Ignore all else and track three months of 4 properties’ realistic sales price. You “bought” futures contracts on margin. I don’t expect you to understand that tech talk but even if you paid cash for all your “assets” you are ummmm, in a difficult place. You have to pay people to stop the bleeding. You don’t even have any bandages. This isn’t all that bad… yet. It just seems you can’t make a decision until things do get that bad.
Don’t get discouraged. Dis-couraged is losing courage. Time to show courage.