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SCAM ALERTS:
Unfortunately, during this economic downturn, many scam artists try to take advantage of homeowners and their difficulties. You must be cautious of any advice you find on the Internet. Carefully research any company that you use. To help you with your investigations, here are some reputable organizations to visit:
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History Looking for Casey Serin's blog?Sadly (or maybe happily), Casey's blog has been shut down by the man himself, in August, 2007. He decided it had become too much of a circus and distraction, and an impediment to moving on with his life. So we at IAFF have acquired the site to make something new of it. (View the archives of the old blog pages.) About The Previous OwnerCasey Serin was a self-described "24-year-old would-be real estate mogul." His case was almost the epitome of bad timing, excessive optimism, and unrealistic expectations (as well as lack of real-world experience). He entered the real estate market at the peak of the bubble (mid- to late-2005) as an investor, and got in over his head on eight properties. Casey (by his own account) made heavy use of stated-income and 100% financing to acquire his properties, setting himself up for no margin of error and maximum damage. Last we checked, three of his properties were sold (not all at a profit), and five were in some stage of foreclosure. He was in debt more than $2.2 million. The FBI was sniffing around, as were creditors and a number of other real estate and foreclosure sharks attracted to the bright light of Casey's spectacular debacle. In September of 2006, approaching desperation, Casey bought this domain name and started a blog at the site. The aim was to try to sell the properties, find help, and hopefully help others to learn from his example. The barrier was low, since Casey's 9-5 trade was web development. The blog rapidly became a media circus, gaining early exposure from the HousingPanic blog (which is run by a proud renter, so it is of course still around), which soon spread into mainstream coverage. In this environment, it turned out to be impossible for Casey to actually solve his problems. The fact that the market kept going down, of course, didn't help. So Casey's internet following watched in horror (or delight) over the better part of the subsequent year as every lead that promised to get him out of his bind fell through (even we were surprised). A critical wiki site was even set up to poke fun at what it saw as Casey's sanguine ineptitude. Finally, determining in July 2007 that all the attention was not helping, and having bigger fish to fry (such as keeping his marriage together, dealing with the FBI, and dealing with multiple law suits and lawsuit threats), Casey decided to shut down the blog and sell the domain name to raise cash. He followed through on this one (we were as surprised as you are!) We wish him the best of luck. Background ResourcesMore miscellany on Casey's story:
CoverageCasey generated a lot of media attention. In fact, towards the end, he had earned the moniker the "world's most hated blogger"! WOW! Below are some noteworthy stories on Casey's misadventures in real estate (and, uh, in blogging about his misadventures in real estate):
—Aaron Krowne, July 30, 2007 |
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