April 15th, 2007 2:04 pm
Wholesaling Properties, Assigning Contracts; Seminars
Here is a comment I received from Phillip of GC Properties and Retire in 6 Years blog. Phillip is a regular reader and commenter here and makes some good points that I’d like to address:
Casey,
I just learned that the property I have under contract is worth $103k by appraisal (instructed not to be “inflated?). That means the bank is taking a loss of $27,000. Ouch! I will fix it up for $3,500 (including tile in kitchen, utility room, and both bathrooms and painting, sheetrock, appliances, powerwash, lightfixtures, etc., thanks to our contacts), put a tenant in there, and sell it below market price to another investor, exactly 1 year from now to avoid short-tem capital gains tax.
I also decided that I am going to start assigning the contracts that I get. In fact, I recently made another offer for another REO. If it gets accepted and I decide to keep it as a rental, then it will be our 14th unit. If I assign it to another investor, I can make quick cash.
Perhaps you should come down here to Houston to see how easy it is to make money in real estate - either by assigning/flipping - or by turning it to a rental property. Either way works great.
Making quick money by flipping contracts (a.k.a. “assigning a contracts” or “wholesaling”) is not a bad way to go. You find a motivated seller, negotiate a great wholesale deal, tie it up with a contract and assign the contract to another investor for a quick buck. That investor goes ahead and closes on the property in your place. Now that’s a TRUE no-money-down technique. (Well maybe $100 for an earnest money deposit or something, but what’s $100 nowadays?)
Wholesaling was one of my ideas for Paying Back Every Dirty Penny.
By the way, I bought the Modesto property from a wholesaler who tied it up and assigned the contract to me for $7K, I believe. At at that time the profit potential after rehab was $50-70K. (Assuming I would only spend $10-15K on repairs and the market wouldn’t correct too fast). So it wasn’t a bad deal. Good wholesalers bring a lot of value to the RE investor market.
I’ve personally only wholesaled one property (over a year ago - Feb 2006). I got a motivated seller lead online for a person trying to sell a really ugly house in North Carolina for $10,000. I got some pictures from her (see above), checked the comps and talked to some local professionals. I quickly figured out because of the condition of the house and the neighborhood it wasn’t worth much more than the lot value. (It was a tiny lot).
I negotiated her down to $4,000 and put the house under contract with a $100 earnest money deposit. I also made a provision for 7 day inspection time during which I can back out for any reason. Here are the contracts:
During this window I called a bunch of local investors to see if anybody wanted the deal. After dealing with a few different tire-kickers I found somebody who was willing to pay me $500 for my contract. We agreed the money would be paid at closing. They closed as promised. I made $500. Sweet!
I know, it’s not much cash but the deal wasn’t all that juicy and I only spent 2-3 hours working on it. I did the entire thing by phone, fax and email. I made about $150-250/hour. It’s all good.
As I formulate my comeback plan I may have to do some wholesaling but at a much bigger level. Wholesaling apartment complexes, commercial deals, luxury homes, mortgages/paper, etc..
As to the rest of Phillip’s comment…
I keep on saying it: I just can’t believe you spent $35,000 on real estate “education.? That was completely uncessary. With that money, you could have bought 3-5 houses (10% down, plus rehab, and closing costs) here in Texas each with $20-40k in equity that you could have quickly assigned for $3,000 to $15,000 to another investor, or kept for yourself as a rental and enjoyed the passive income of $150-400 / month.
Although I love being an anesthesiology resident, I am almost enjoying my “hobby? as a real estate entrepreneur just as much.
ASW: signhere
Hey man, you should know better than criticize my investment into education. How much did you invest into your medical eduation to become an anesthesiology resident?
You have to spend money to make money. You will either spend it on education and save on mistakes. Or you will go cheap on the education and make more mistakes in the field. I kind of did both. Sometimes even great education is no replacement for learning through mistakes.
Could I have spend less on real estate education? Yes. Some of those courses were a rip-off. But some of them were very good value. At that time I didn’t know of any other ways to learn real estate and those seminar promoters are very good at high pressure selling (that’s for sure!).
So even though I could have learned in a cheaper way I don’t regret spending that money. I learned a bunch of different investing techniques that I haven’t even used yet but will use in the future as the opportunities arise.
More importantly I met a lot of great people at those seminars and bootcamps. The relationships formed with those like-minded individuals, if leveraged properly, is worth far more than the price of admission.
So, it’s all good.
141 Comments
April 15th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Casey
A medical doctorate is much more valuable than a real estate scaminar that you invested in. Heck, a Bachelor’s degree is worth more. You insult him by comparing the two.
April 15th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
did dwight like the deal?
You left his name on there!
SWEET! WIN WIN!
April 15th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Casey my friend,
This statement just made me throw up in my mouth a little bit,
How much did you invest into your medical eduation to become an anesthesiology resident?
You invested $50k and then made $2.2 million in mistakes. How exactly did your education help you?
You have to spend money to make money. You will either spend it on education and save on mistakes. Or you will go cheap on the education and make more mistakes in the field. I kind of did both.
You blew your whole theory out of the water. You would have been better off without any “guru education.” How much money did you make selling your one condo that you lived in and fixed up? $30k? Now how much did you make post education? -$2.2 million, ruined credit, possible criminal charges. $2.2 million doesn’t even begin to cover your losses.
And you’re criticizing someone who’s going to be a doctor? Good grief! No wonder the haterz think you’re trolling. Please stay on topic and talk about your situation.
Here’s some fodder to write about - Why haven’t you done any assignment deals paying $150 to $250 per hour since you started this blog?
April 15th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
“What’s $100 nowadays?”
A whole lot more than you’ve got to YOUR name, Casey. I hope for G’s sake you’ve got plenty of life insurance.
April 15th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Ho Ho Ho - It’s Santa Flipper Clause
Casey,
My sled almost fell through the roof of this house last Christmas.
Santa F. Clause
April 15th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
There’s a difference between money well spent and the money you spent on your “education”. One would think you would have noticed that difference by now…
April 15th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Casey,
You really shouldn’t call it a comeback, since you’ve never really been at the top.
April 15th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Philip the anaesthesiology resident is using your blog to promote his online business, wherein he solicits out of state “investors” (people who have some cash to throw around) to buy property in Houston, paying his company fees to find the property, manage it, etc. It is a business he is running, and he makes it sound like the properties are worth $50K-$100K more than he is able to pay, and he can find these properties all day long.
The question any intelligent person would ask is, if these properties are worth so much more instantly, why the hell do local people in Houston, who know the market very well, not snap them up immediately. What value do out of state people ignorant of the true values add to the pictures? Is everyone in Houston, including all the realtors and thousands of “we buy houses” scaminar graduates out looking daily blind? (If so, he should have gone into opthalmology instead, there would be a lot more biz in that field with the epidemic of blindness there.)
One property he bought was listed on the MLS for $89K for 66 days with NO TAKERS. But the whole world knew about it, it was publicly advertised. They didn’t bite. OK, so he offered $78K and the selling bank agreed to sell to him.
He then touts that it is worth $128K instantly because the assessor says so, or because he has found some other property in the area which sold at similar prices a year ago. So, per his calculation he has an instant $50K gain, instantly on his balance sheet.
Yet he is willing to assign his $78K purchase contract for $4K (later he raised his price to $8K, then to $10K) to an out of state sucker who wants to scoop up this hot deal! Why???? If he has a property worth $128K right now, which he claims it is, then just sell it now locally and make the $50K!! The reason he isn’t doing that is local people who know value won’t buy it for that, just as they didn’t buy it for $89K when it was listed openly for that for 66 days. Were they stupid? Blind? Or just better informed?
It isn’t worth that, but to out of state people with money (suckers) it makes a good story and a few of them might just buy the deal. People in my area are used to buying houses for $500K, so when someone tells them a house can be bought for under $100K they would get all excited and think they found a bargain. They are dealing thousands of miles away and have no idea things are just far cheaper there, they get VERY LITTLE appreciation over time, salaries are much lower, rents are low, taxes are high, etc. It is a different world.
Most of these deals are full of hot air. The prices are inflated. The rents they use for calculation are inflated. The estimates of repair are understated. No mention is made that salaries are low in the area, property taxes are triple (per dollar of value) what they are in other markets, and the picture isn’t as rosy as it seems. Then after you get in, the property management fees start. And all the repairs that need to be done, and are assigned to the property managers cousin and brother-in-law who are handymen. You can’t do anything about that since you are out of state and don’t know. So you just pay the bills.
Phillip is a sharp cookie. He is using your blog to advertise his business for free, and he is getting out of state people to send money down there to invest in things they don’t understand, using his information to justify the investments (since they have no personal knowledge), and paying him to find the house, paying to manage it, etc. Later when the deals fail, he also will be able to buy the properties back from the “investors” (suckers) at a discount if they want to sell, and probably be able to flip them again to some other sucker.
This goes on all the time. You got suckered by buying in markets you didn’t understand. You bought a house in Dallas where someone told you it was a great deal; later, locals said what the hell were you thinking? They saw you coming! You bought in Utah based on someone telling you a story which sounded good. You had no idea what you were doing.
Maybe this is a future for you. Use your infamy to spin stories and get people to buy what they don’t understand. (Hint: it is best to get people far away so they don’t really know what they’re buying.) It might blow up later but who cares? You get your fees upfront. Suck fees from the deals, suck fees from the investors, and tout tout tout yourself online. Seems to work if you can find enough suckers and we as a class, they have a high birth rate.
April 15th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
The GC guy is an idiot, an he deletes comments. Buying single family houses as investments is a dumb thing to do. The unit cost is higher, it takes longer to find tenants, other costs are proportionally higher, and once vacant, 100% is out of your pocket.
Other than that, the hilarious picture of the Hooterville hovel make one nostalgic for Green Acres. I can almost picture Arnold Ziffle. One wholesale…another side splitter! Who ever heard of one thing wholesale? Isn’t it a quantity game? Casey, you must have hired some comedy writers. You cannot make this stuff up!
April 15th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
“Hey man, you should know better than criticize my investment into education. How much did you invest into your medical eduation to become an anesthesiology resident?”
For the love of god, tell me you’re not serious with this. Are you honestly comparing the likes of [NRU] and ‘guru’ seminars to medical school? Let’s see, med school gets you specialized training in any one of the various ways to heal human beings. Your seminars and courses got you a stack of binders worth $15.99 BUYER PAYS SHIPPING on eBay. Not to mention the collateral damage of making your stupid a** think that you could somehow commit multiple counts of mortgage fraud, move in with and mooch off of your in-laws, be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt with no plan to pay it off, and call it ‘failing forward.’ Right.
You know, I can accept the fact that you’re a criminal without hating you for it. A lot of people are, and as long as they don’t hurt anybody - I’ll even go out on a limb and allow for the sake of argument, categorical imperative aside, that the current state of the housing market is due to macroeconomic factors; that you personally didn’t hurt anyone - are criminals for a living. Hell, if you were blogging about making a million growing marijuana, good for you. As long as you aren’t pushing on elementary school kids, lacing it with anything mischievous, or shootin’ rival dealers, fine. More power to you.
What I can’t accept is the fact that you failed. Look, you want to cheat at Monopoly, play with loaded dice, deal with a mechanic’s grip? Fine, but you better win. The whole point of cheating is to give yourself an unfair advantage, and if you can’t even win with such an advantage, well, that’s evidence of such profound incompetence in this area that you really ought to try something else.
April 15th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
You really take the cake, Snowflake. Where the hell do you come off criticizing a physician for the costs required for medical education? It’s laughable how you would even compare your fake, non-degree “education” with the rigors of college, medical school, and residency. You disgust me.
By the way, I’m an anesthesiologist myself. I earn over $300k/year, work about 50 hours per week, and take care of patients - saving lives, not looking to make a quick buck being a lazy sack of wheat grass. My job satisfaction is through the roof. Yours?
I come to your website to laugh at how pathetic you are. And then I check my mutual funds and savings account, and revel in my assets. Can you say the same?
April 15th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
“I quickly figured out because of the condition of the house”
“I made about $150-250/hour.”
“Hey man, you should know better than criticize my investment into education. How much did you invest into your medical eduation to become an anesthesiology resident?
You have to spend money to make money. You will either spend it on education and save on mistakes. Or you will go cheap on the education and make more mistakes in the field. I kind of did both. Sometimes even great education is no replacement for learning through mistakes.”
“More importantly I met a lot of great people at those seminars and bootcamps. The relationships formed with those like-minded individuals, if leveraged properly, is worth far more than the price of admission.
So, it’s all good.”
Ahhh, good stuff Casey. Very funny. Keep ‘em coming!
April 15th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Congratulation!
Here are some links of government auction you might want to take a look:
http://www.treas.gov/auctions/.....lprop.html
http://propertydisposal.gsa.go.....efault.asp
http://www2.fdic.gov/drrore/
Good Luck:)
April 15th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
You have to spend money to make money.
You spent $30K to $50K and lost $500K to $700K. What kind of ROI is that?
You will either spend it on education and save on mistakes. Or you will go cheap on the education and make more mistakes in the field. I kind of did both.
Not kind of - you spent a ton of money on scam education, and then proceed to make (and repeat) every mistake in the book.
April 15th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
“Hey man, you should know better than criticize my investment into education. How much did you invest into your medical eduation to become an anesthesiology resident?”
You call those Real Estate Scam Classes you took education?
ROFL!
Go to college and get a REAL education for less than you paid for the scam classes Casey and learn something for REAL.
April 15th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
How dare you question a guy who went to a REAL school to be anesthesiologist? HE went to a REAL school. YOU went to stupid, useless guru seminars. HE will have a degree for his troubles, you have nothing but debt.
Take it like a man and stop acting like those seminars were some kind of smart investment. They weren’t.
ASW: Leverage
April 15th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Casey,
This morning I ran a 12k road race. I won in a hair over 39 minutes and made $200. But I’m not deluded enough to think I earn $400/hr from my running “career”…I’m lucky to run a race every other weekend, and it’s tough finding races that pay out cash (and where no one else quick competes!). While you’re able to earn a few hundred dollars here and there putting houses under contract, I’m extremely hit or miss…every once in a while you’ll get lucky and score a deal like you did on the NC house (which is 100% a dump…do people really “invest” in houses like this?), but eventually you’re going to be spending most of your time following dead leads.
And I wouldn’t compare your real estate “education” to someone who put himself through medical school. I almost spit up my hard earned post-race Jamba Juice (which was free by the way!) all over my keyboard. Please do not ever, ever compare being an important part of the lifesaving process with being an unnecessary middleman in some worthless real estate transaction.
April 15th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
“By the way, I bought the Modesto property from a wholesaler who tied it up and assigned the contract to me for $7K, I believe. At at that time the profit potential after rehab was $50-70K. (Assuming I would only spend $10-15K on repairs and the market wouldn’t correct too fast). So it wasn’t a bad deal”
Not a bad deal. Come on dude, that was a f***ing terrible deal. Not only did you lose money on it, you are losing it to foreclosure. You can’t even give yourself a C-minus on that one. F stands for failure and Foreclosure.
That POS you flipped for $500 profit, at least you did it right and only risked $100. Do more of those flips and bigger ones, and you will be on the right track.
Hang LOOSER dude. Its all good.
April 15th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Now you’re comparing throwing tens of thousands of dollars at seminars and “gurus” over a couple of weekends to spending four-plus years in medical school?????
They are *NOT* the same, Casey.
April 15th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
You’re really grasping to retain your readers, eh? Keep up the hater-bait! It’s sure to pay off eventually!
April 15th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Okay, I’ve had enough now. I don’t even care what happens to Modesto. Goodbye, Casey.
April 15th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Your definition of “it’s all good” must be very different to mine. I notice it’s a phrase you usually use after admitting to a mistake or being ripped off again.
April 15th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
So even though I could have learned in a cheaper way I don’t regret spending that money. I learned a bunch of different investing techniques that I haven’t even used yet but will use in the future as the opportunities arise.
>
Uh-oh!
More importantly I met a lot of great people at those seminars and bootcamps. The relationships formed with those like-minded individuals, if leveraged properly, is worth far more than the price of admission.
>
I’ve been to a stock siminar and most people there were clueless when they walked out, others dropped out of the course. Some even had debt! thinking it’ll pay it off, that’s why I bought books instead.
April 15th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Dear Rich Dad…how do I respond to these people so full of criticsm? What is the best way to handle that?
That depends Casey. What are they telling you to do?
They are telling me to get a job.
Oh. Best way to handle that is to get a job.
April 15th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
“I met a lot of great people at those seminars and bootcamps. The relationships formed with those like-minded individuals, if leveraged properly, is worth far more than the price of admission.”
Keep dreaming…
The proof that the money you spend on seminars and the connections made with “like-minded individuals” was not “worth more than the price of admission”. Is the mountain of debt you’ve accumulated.
You are delusional and the most hard headed person I’ve ever seen.
April 15th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
This reads like a Gary Larson “Far Side” cartoon I read once about dogs listening to people. When I read this what *I* hear is “blah blah flipping blah blah blah what’s a $100 nowadays blah blah blah blah sweet! blah blah blah juicy blah blah blah it’s all good blah blah blah blah it’s all good…”
April 15th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Is this Chapter one of your book?
April 15th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I remember visiting that guy’s blog a few months back. He’s a crook!
He’s the one who bragged that his tenant had left the place in tip-top condition but he wouldn’t be giving him back any of his security money because “that seems to be the trend.”
Sure, it’s easy to make money in R.E. when you cheat people out of their rightful money!!
Apparently he removed that post after I mentioned it here.
Casey, the way you attract charlatans is truly “magical.”
April 15th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
The better question is how much did he spend on REAL ESTATE education to start making money on it. It appears the answer is NONE.
April 15th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Casey says “What’s $100 anyways?”
The answer would be “What doesn’t Casey Serin
have in his pocket”.
April 15th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Hi Casey,
I replied to your email. Hope to hear from you soon.
April 15th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Funny thing is, he actually went on to become an anesthesiology resident. That was a wise investment.
You, on the other hand, are so inept at the fundamentals of business that you don’t know the difference between personal debt and business capital. So either you dramatically overpaid for crap seminars, or you paid for good material and none of it sank in at all, or you’re just plain retarded. But you sure ain’t edumacated.
Education isn’t about going to a big brown building and listening to someone talk for an hour and buying a book. It’s about becoming something - using valuable information and incorporating it in a truly practical manner into your life. It’s about becoming educated. That Phillip is actually trusted to administer anesthesia is testimony to the education he received.
You, on the other hand, are the dancing monkey show - begging on the Internet, running from loan sharks, daydreaming about wholesaling apartment complexes while your world crumbles around you.
And only for $35,000! Wise education choices, indeed.
April 15th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Hey Casey,
I got my real estate education on the cheap. At my local community college here in Dallas. Don’t they have community colleges there where you live ?
And I can tell you, some of the teachers I had were better than the profs at the best engineering school in Europe - which I had the priviledge to go to - when I was learning how to get a j o b.
All told, I have probably spent about a thousand bucks on RE education, including $90 per course at college and books. I’m a sucker for RE books.
That $500 bucks you made, you should have done deals like that to start with!
Loads o Money
April 15th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Casey, in the real-world RE business there is no such thing as “wholesaling”. Its a fantasy created by RE gurus to draw in losers like you with no money to invest. The single greatest skill an RE investor has is digging up bargain properties, therefore, any real investor will find his own bargains. The only people paying “wholesalers” for contracts are guru-follwoing fools such as you and the pool of them will dry up as housing markets keeps dropping and lending standards get tighter.
April 15th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
The crazy thing is that after the “bad 7 years” of housing, a whole new speculation frenzy will begin anew.
April 15th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Hey Casey,
I have a question for you. In 7 years your credit items get wiped off.
Let’s say in 6 and a half years you win the lottery (small lottery) and win $2M. What do you do? Will you use that $2M to pay off the debt ? Or will you keep the $2M and let the credit items just fall off ?
In fact even now, will you pay your debts and allow the 7 year clock to be reset each time you pay ?
Loads o Money
April 15th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
“How much did you invest into your medical eduation to become an anesthesiology resident?”
Dude, do you know how much anesthesiologists make? If you did you wouldn’t have made that comment.
April 15th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Do you know how much you have to study and work to get into medical school? Do you know about the dedication involved? Did you know that once you graduate from medical school, you get a good paying job, and there is no chance of getting negative revenue for doing the job?
Stop comparing “real education” with guru crap.
I’m glad you made some money doing wholesaling.
I think you’re good at these things.
Why don’t you make something big out of this and become successful?
April 15th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Casey:
I would much prefer to have an anesthesiologist who spent $150,000 on his/her “accredited” college education and had passed their board exams, than someone who went to a “guru” seminar to attempt to become an anesthesiologist.
This is where you just don’t seem to “get it” with regards to a formal education and your “guru” seminars. Colleges go through a tough accreditation process and are selective with those they admit. Seminars charge $$ but allow anyone to attend who can pay the fee and award a pretty certificate at the end.
Sure, there are some educational institutions who have established their own “accrediation” agency in an attempt to establish credibility - however, most people know what is a true accreditation and what is bogus.
Your NR RE school was and is bogus. The amount of credits provided for your week long seminar/classes is way more than what Harvard, Yale, Columbia or any other ivy league school would charge per credit. And the difference, there is NO guarantee a community college would accept NR RE school’s credit towards an associate’s degree, whereas credits earned at Harvard, Yale, Columbia or most anyother school is accepted and transferred to anyother school.
You went expensive and got suckered. I don’t know of any student or graduate who attended an accredited college or university (either state school or private institution) who was “suckered” into their education.
Oh, and one request, stop using the word LEVERAGE. You don’t know the meaning of leverage.
April 15th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
The easy money is gone in Houston, Casey. Just like it is in Sacramento. If Phil thinks he’ll flip sh**boxes quickly and make a killing now that the Big Boys are in charge again, he’s wrong.
Just because a similar sh**box is 1/3 the price in Houston vs Sacramento doesn’t make it a bargain. It just means it won’t tank as much.
April 15th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
“Hey man, you should know better than criticize my investment into education. How much did you invest into your medical eduation to become an anesthesiology resident?”
ROFLMAO
Ok. I realize it is difficult to compare all the myriad of Casey-isms and determine which is the most imbecilic comment of them all. But I daresay, THAT one gets my nomination for “most idiotic Casey statement of the year”.
Holy s*** . Wow. By all that is holy, you have GOT to be kidding me! […] guru classes versus a medical degree from an accredited university. Of course. Those are CLEARLY on par.
Once again, all I can say is wow. Hey, I wonder if the doctor can get away with mistakes in the operating room if he uses the following excuses:
- I’m failing forward
- It’s all good
- Sweet
- It’s not my fault! Jamba Juice forgot to put the wheat grass shot into my drink!
April 15th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Again, up judge things you do not understand, porobably too young to see it.
April 15th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Only websites that make money these days are porn sites….Maybe you can get into that, Casey! Schweeet! Bring the blue ball…
April 15th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
but what’s $100 nowadays?
>
Installment on Cashcall?
April 15th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
#8.
“why the hell do local people in Houston, who know the market very well, not snap them up immediately.”
They do. But you’re generalizing. There are THREE types of REOs: 1) the ones that are just on the market with tons of equity and get snapped up in days. 2) The ones that languishe on the market for months - and we offer very low to get it off the banks books. Our 13th unit is like this. And finally 3) the REO that is at market price or just below market price that’s not worth bidding on.
We normally bid on the first two types of REOs, we once lost a property bidding $3,000 OVER the asking price to another local investor who bid $8,000 over the asking price. It sold in 4 days. That’s how much equity was in the deal. This happens all the time.
Other REO foreclosures sit on the market forever. That’s when banks are sweating, having to pay maintenance and taxes. And, that’s where you come in offering sometimes 20% off the (already lowered) asking price. This was our strategy for our 13th unit - it passes everyone by, sits on the market, and then you have a reason to make a low, low offer.
Yeah, here in Texas you can find stuff that’s $30-50k below market. Not all the time, but many times. Haven’t you heard the news about all the foreclosures? And don’t forget, you can MAKE it $30k below market if you offer low enough and they accept it.
By the way, I have an appraisal for our 13th unit. It isn’t 128k like the county appraisal district states. It appraised for 103k which is where I thought it would appraise for since other comparable 3/2/2 houses were selling at 110-117k. But ours doesn’t have a garage. Thus, 103k is a correct appraisal.
But still I got it for 76k, which is 27k in equity, and the appraised rental comps are $1075. This would have been easy to assign, and in fact when I was thinking about assigning it, I had TWENTY local investors who wanted to see it and 7 who wanted to make an offer.
But this one will cash flow for sure, and we’re keeping it for ourselves, not assigning it. Do the math yourself at 6.5% interest, insurance of $800 / year for loan amount, $3500 rehab - including tile in kitchen and bathrooms x 2 (cheap labor here in Texas!). No mgmt fees because we do it ourselves (but if we used a mgmt company, it’s $60 for every $1000 rent or about 6%, again cheap labor). Tenant pays for all utilities as well as a $250 deductible on anything that breaks (plugged toilet, etc.). By the way, our Texas laws are PRO-landlord. 3 days to an eviction. 3 months to a foreclosure. Just look at which one of Casey’s homes foreclosed first - the Dallas one.
Life is good.
There are no sleight of hand tricks here. I don’t put on any scaminars - I’m too busy with residency and my real estate “hobby” in my free time. Just simple, basic math. We don’t care or compete with the non-believers. Our main competition is the bank that owns the property and the other bidder who’s bidding against us.
A guy once told me: real estate is easy. PEOPLE are difficult.
ASW: sweet
April 15th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Casey:
Ask Phillip of GC Properties and Retire in 6 Years blog if he will take you on as a partner. If you ever like a home he will know to run away from it. Sounds like a Sweet deal for both of you…
April 15th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Are you wondering why this businessman is apparently a success, while Casey is a miserable failure?
Maybe it has something to do with him being:
1. HONEST
2. HARDWORKING (esp. doing this while in medical school)
As opposed to our lad’s traits:
1. LYING, CHEATING, and STEALING
2. BEING A LAZY GOOD FOR NOTHING
ya think?
April 15th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
“Could I have spend less on real estate education? Yes. Some of those courses were a rip-off. But some of them were very good value.”
Casey,
when I think of the word value, I think back from my basic MBA accounting/finance classes (I never finished MBA school - ironically because I learned that real estate had better value). The simple explanation is:
money received / money spent = % return
Then you can do all kinds of other computations to analyze investments like discounting a series of future cash flows, net present value, internal rate of return, etc.
But all you really need is that simple formula to determine real value. That’s why I said spending money on real estate seminars isn’t worth it (or even necessary).
April 15th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Anesthesiology: The branch of medicine specializing in the use of drugs or other agents that cause insensibility to pain.
Caseyology: The branch of real estate investing specializing in the use of “catch phrases”, “guru speak” and jamba juice that cause insensibility to success.
April 15th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
You are a day late and a dollar short as always. SFR’s are not a good investment. How much more can you lose? Are you making a career out of losing? You always come up with ways to blow it don’t you? Seems to me Mr. anastesiologist is gambling too. Prices are still dropping. Hello? Did you learn anything by buying in this market? Read my lips. Prices are continuing to drop in the housing market. They will continue their slow, steady decline for at least the next year. Stop listening to every Tom, Dick and Harry about the market. Those of us who have been successful listen to our own self.
We do not listen to hype. You’d do well to get out of the game and sit this one out in the bleachers until the storm blows over. There are no end buyers now no matter how low of a price the property is selling for. Realtors are quitting the biz in droves as well as LO’s. Read my lips. No buyers, except if you con someone. But you are good at that. Hey at least you are good at something. Heck you even made Nigel regurgitate. But you had him fooled for a while there didn’t you. Now he’s regurgitating and or laughing right along with the rest of us haterz.
We are heading for another recession. Can you say; no end buyers? Can you say; property price decline. Can you say; mortgage is more than the value and the cheap little $100 cash flow is not cash flow anymore.
People will be renting apartments and not houses.
asw= loose ethics
April 15th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
LMAO…the word I had to type in the window to prove this post isnt’ spam (I kid you not) is “sweet.”
SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!
April 15th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Casey,
You could have saved alot of money. Instead of spending in excess of 30K on so so called real estate gurus, you could have spent 1-2K and got a real estate license. Then you could have looked around for a real estate broker/investor who would be willing to mentor you and teach you the ropes and would have saved yourself ten of thousands of dollars. If you do some further research, you will find that these so called gurus haven’t even done any of their own real estate deals. They are making their money from people like you that watch their late night infomercials telling you how you can make millions.
I can learn more from the brokers I work for than any so called informercial real estate guru. They have made some very good money this last year just off of doing some rehabs. I value their opinion and their advice and , best of all, it doesn’t me a penny.
April 15th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Interested in that NC property - who do I contact?
April 15th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
“You have to spend money to make money. You will either spend it on education and save on mistakes.”
You’re 2 million is debt, a probably felon and have had 7 houses foreclosed. Just how many mistakes did your BS education help you avoid? You haven’t learned squat from any of this.
asw: failforward.
April 15th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
This Philip guy is using your website to promote his crap. He should be spending his time studying anesthesiology during his residency, not trying to make extra cash from real estate. I feel sorry for his patients. Some of them may never wake up from their deep slumber. “oops, I used the wrong dosage. It’s all good” ***SNEER****
April 15th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Hey how’s it going?
How are you currently feeling about your situation?
April 15th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Casey.. casey casey…
i really dont know what to say anymore, but good luck
April 15th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
I think you should have bought and kept that house in the name of your corporation. You might have had to live there someday, like tomorrow…
April 15th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
2mil + in debt…and its all good …pppplease Casey save us the hindsight and BS …wher are those wonderful contacts now? and where are you ! please 30k on seminars …to learn what..how to blow everybit of money , sense , morality and reality - your still living in the dream Casey ..the sad part is the dream has vacated you and many other people your just not smart enough to see it…its clear you have a much larger emotional investment than anything else ..in fact in reality it is all you really have
April 15th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
“Hey man, you should know better than criticize my investment into education. How much did you invest into your medical eduation to become an anesthesiology resident?”
Casey is the Andy Kaufman of his generation - no one could really be such an idiot. Soon he’ll announce that he is “Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World”…
April 15th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
GC Properties -
I like you, but sorry to burst your bubble. The formula you quoted is not right -
money received / money spent = % return
It’s money received - money spent/ money received = % return
Good luck to you.
April 16th, 2007 at 12:03 am
“but what’s $100 nowadays?”
It’s already been said, but I suggest it’s something you don’t have in cash. Is $100 the new $30?
I have no comment to make on what Phillip of gc is doing with real estate but I’ll bet it would have been national news if he f*****d up the first 8 people he anaesthetised.
Anyway, shouldn’t you be sorting out your tax return?
April 16th, 2007 at 12:04 am
I thought that you didn’t blog on Sundays because the SKY FAIRY would strike you down or some such nonsense.
April 16th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Hold on everyone this is old news! Look at the date on the contract, this is from last year. Casey is just trying to boost traffic again. He hasn’t just done this deal, he did it last January/February.
April 16th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Amazing. One week the house was worth $128K from the appraisal district, with you jumping up and down with 5 valid comps quoted to support the numbers as guaranteed fair value. Next week it is only $103K. What happened? $25K disappeared. Was there just a lot of hot air in the first set of numbers? Now, when will the $103K number be next revised?
If it is truly worth $103K, and you can find these daily, then flip it. Sell it for $103K instantly, with no garage, to a willing local buyer. The bank couldn’t move it for $89K, it sat there 2 months, but surely you can move it for more! Maybe some out of state investor will buy it since to him any habitable house for under $500K sounds dirt cheap and he doesn’t know better. Later, when he gets tired of the move out at midnight disappearance vacancies, evictions of low-wage deadbeats, excuses, skip traces, bounced checks, management charges for all of these things and surprise expenses he will call and say “I want out. Get me OUT at whatever price you can!” And then you might have a chance to buy it back from him around say $75K again (with a commission for handling the buy back too!) and it is ready to find another “investor” to buy for the next go-round.
Be sure to blog all about it, you’ve gotta keep up the web self promotion campaign. And continue to censor comments that raise doubts or question the numbers, you don’t want people thinking much.
April 16th, 2007 at 12:44 am
To #63:
“It’s money received - money spent/ money received = % return”
Actually, if I get $3,000 in cash flow income for the year and spent $12,000 for 10% down payment, rehab, and closing costs, then my return is 25%. Thus, it is money received / money spent. It’s probably not technically correct, but that’s as simple as I can make it for you and Casey.
Plus, in your formula you need parenthesis and to change your denominator. Don’t get bogged down in the details. Keep it simple or you’ll lose money.
April 16th, 2007 at 1:02 am
“By the way, I bought the Modesto property from a wholesaler who tied it up and assigned the contract to me for $7K, I believe. At at that time the profit potential after rehab was $50-70K.”
Here’s some post fodder for you Casey. Explain to us your pre-investment process. For example, how did you calculate the “profit potential” of the Modesto house? Did you just look at the inflated assessed value? Or did you do some hard research, figure out the numbers and run them through your formulas?
It’s a great chance to show us what valuation techniques you learned for $35,000. That could even open up some great debate on various ways to value properties, helping all of us learn. It’s Win/Win!!!!!
“GC Properties -
I like you, but sorry to burst your bubble. The formula you quoted is not right”
Maybe he should have finished his MBA. No offense man, but I’ve never heard of a person who legitimately dropped out of college because “the return wasn’t high enough”. If you really think that finishing your MBA wouldn’t have helped you be a better investor, then that kinda shows what type of investor you are. And your formula has a mistake as well. It’s actually:
net return / money spent = % return
or
(money recieved - money spent) / money spent = % return
If I invest 1 dollar and get 2 dollars back, my return is:
(2 - 1) / 1 = 1.00 = 100% return.
Of course that number is utter meaningless, because it disregards the most important factor of investing. Time. Anyone can get a 100% return on their investment, just buy treasury bills and wait for 14 years.
April 16th, 2007 at 1:41 am
The more I think about it the more I conclude that you’re actually literally sociopathic Nigel. You don’t seem to have any respect for the mental lives of others. You view other people only as a means to your ends, and you hate that they might not think what you want them to think - that your tools would disobey you. You don’t show the slightest regard for how your actions affect other people, indeed, you don’t even seem fully aware that other people have thoughts and feelings, let alone care.
I’m a philosopher. My area of specialty is ethics. This might sound dramatic, but sometimes only certain words apply: I think Nigel that you are, quite literally, evil. In my opinion, an evil person is one who views other people not as people equal to themselves, people with their own concerns and mental lives, but as objects to be used as the evil person sees fit. This is how you’ve treated Casey. You didn’t hesitate for a moment when he became inconvenient for you - you turned on him immediately, and strongly, and without the slightest sense of shame. The reason you didn’t feel shame is because, I think, you don’t fully understand that other people might draw their own conclusions about you, conclusions that you don’t intend them to have. Furthermore, since Casey has no intrinsic value as a person to you, you see nothing to be ashamed about - you turn on him because it suits you. To you, this is sum total of morality. “Good” is what suits you, as you are a superior kind of being from the rank and file “person”. They couldn’t possibly understand you, Nigel, as in your mind you’re not like them at all. Their desires don’t matter compared to your desires. And to you it would be the height of madness to sacrifice something of even the smallest importance to you for the good of anyone else. To misquote Hume, you’d rather the world die, than your finger be pricked. So from your point of view, you’ve done nothing wrong.
I don’t say this to “convince you” or however you would phrase it Nigel. As you don’t take other people to be the same kind of existence as yourself, there is an unbridgeable gap between you and everyone else. Nothing will get through to you. I’m saying this to Casey. Casey, if you have not truly broken from Nigel, I urge you to do so. You cannot trust him, and he doesn’t care about you or yours. He doesn’t even understand what it means to truly care about other people. You’re too trusting to possibly deal with someone like him. You cannot achieve happiness if you let someone like him play an important role in your life.
April 16th, 2007 at 1:47 am
@11. Gas Man
My experience with anesthesiologists, plus having 2 friends who are nurse anesthitists is that they are in the room when the patient is put under (if even that), and then they disappear and leave the surgery to the nurse anesth. It makes me sick that anesthesiologists are paid so much money for what you do. That’s why you only work 50 hours per week - because you’re never in the surgery room!
April 16th, 2007 at 1:57 am
Nice little flip you did there. One other way to make a quick, easy buck is by bird-dogging small deals like this. The only adverse comment I have is that you said that you learned it’s best to do local deals, but you ventured into North Carolina.
It would be very beneficial for you to get your RE license, just to have it under your belt. It would open the door to more opportunities. RE class isn’t expensive, and holding a RE license is very respectable.
April 16th, 2007 at 2:01 am
Casey, can you do a an article on the status of your 2006 taxes. I think that would be genuinely instructive for other people in a similar foreclosure. One of your stated goals is to make this website into a foreclosure resource. An analysis of your income tax situation would be high value content.
April 16th, 2007 at 3:07 am
The problem with $500 Sweet Deals that work out to be $150-200/hr is they are few and far between.
What is the max potentional on these deals? 1 a month? So if you arent doing something productive with your time ( like a day job) you really arent making any money. You arent going to be closing a wholesale deal every day. Maybe as a “side gig.”
Which is better, making $20-30/hr for 150-200 hours a month, or making $150/hr for 2-3 hours a month? Of course if you can get your $150 hours up to 25-30 it might be worth it. I don’t know.
As far as education goes: Anyone who has taken on the tuition and loans for a serious profession like being a doctor is going to be making 6 figures consistently. Even the “average” college graduate is going to make $1 million more than the average “high school graduate/no college.”
Of course there are always exceptions, but I’m going by typical average experiences.
Someone who takes out $50,000-100,000 in student loans is probably going to be making at minimum 20-50 Gs more per year ( just starting out) and millions over their lifetime more. Plus you can take 20 years to payback student loans. Personally mine are refinanced and I have a payment of about $200/mo for 20 years for the maximum loans for my situation. Frankly $200 a month is like couch cushion change. Would I rather make $20,000 a year and have no debt? Yeah, I dont think so.
Honestly, I am not a big “conformity guy” and I understand the desire not to follow the crowd and buy into all the mainstream thought on some things. Some college degrees ARE pretty much worthless.
But the reality is, MOST people would be better off spending a lot of money on education and having a well paying day job than speculating in real estate. Millions in debt with no income versus thousands in debt with marketable skills? No brainer.
April 16th, 2007 at 4:34 am
Casey,
Could you please answer my question from the previous thread?
Thank You
Kerriella
April 16th, 2007 at 5:00 am
If modesto was so easy a flip, why didn’t you spend the 10K to fix it and then sell it at a huge profit? Wasn’t that what all the illegal cash-back-at-close was for?
April 16th, 2007 at 5:07 am
you should have kept that house in NC. It’s the only place you’ll ever be able to own again.
April 16th, 2007 at 5:43 am
So how much did Phillip pay you to ‘write’ about his website? pretty sneaky casey.
nah, it’s ‘allgood’
-doosh bauge
April 16th, 2007 at 5:57 am
You seem obsessed with somehow proving that your +$30K in “guru” expenses was justified. When people question it, you pretend it’s an either/or situation: “Either I spend the $30K to learn how to find sweet deals at the knee of Robby Koolaidsaki or I shall be forever ignorant and bereft of sweet deals.”
It’s not a question of whether or not you got SOME value out of all the money you spent on your “education”. You keep clinging to that, that it helped you make sweet “connections” and was a great “experience,” yada yada yada.
What you’re ignoring or simply unable to understand is that the point people are making isn’t that those courses are completely worthless, but that you once again overpaid dramatically. Instead of spending $50 on a few books and getting the same value, you spent many thousands of dollars. Instead of getting your hands dirty and learning by experience at the low, low cost of your own sweat equity, you wasted many thousands of dollars.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:08 am
I am amazed youd be so dismissive at 100 dollars. What’s 100 dollars these days?
Casey, this is what 100 dollars is to me:
1) 2.5% of my annual IRA contribution.
2) My food budget for the week
3) My entertainment or splurge, budget for a month
4) 1 year of full coverage insurance for my Kymco
5) The cost of all supplies, fertilizer, and seeds for my garden.
And many others.
You’d be suprised how much 100 dollars is. If you want to be rich you have to treat money as its worth something.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:16 am
Hi Casey,
just watching your talk on google video - you sound really reasonable, smart guy.
I can’t help but think that, yes, if the market did not go south (you started at awful time) - you would have made your money, and would have been success. So folks telling you were wrong are wrong themselves - to get rich, you HAVE to risk. Risk a lot.
I myself am too risk-averse, so I probably will not bet big anytime. That means I will not win big. But I just can’t bear the risk of losing big.
That said, your strategy was sound, it’s just that you did not have the luck to enter the market when it still was growing.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:28 am
“… but what’s $100 nowadays?”
Spoken by someone who doesn’t have a spare $100. I know how many hours it takes me to earn $100 and after my bills are paid and I have some fun money, I think about my options. $100 actually buys a lot if you know how to buy wisely.
In the months when money is a little tight, $100 can pay for my monthly car insurance bill, or my monthly internet/cable bill, etc etc.
You need to respect money, Casey.
ASW: gold
April 16th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Casey-
Well….I won’t kick the dead horse, seeing as how everyone has already jumped all over you for your completely retarded comments about the merits of “scaminars” versus medical school.
That said, congrats on your recent wholesaling success. THOSE are the deals you need to be doing. They may not be “super sweet,” or “juicy,” but as you said- they are all good. That’s much more than you can say about the 8 “juicy” foreclosures you’re dealing with now.
Remember- you invested $100, and a couple hours later came back with $500; and it was all earned legitimately. That’s a heckuva ROI. I really hope you’ll concentrate more on these “small time” deals for awhile. If you did just one deal like this a day, you’d be grossing $10K/month, and you’d have little to no overhead.
Just one thing- you didn’t make $500, you made $400. If you spent $100 for the option and then were paid $500 for the option, then you made $500-$100=$400.
Just wanted to point that out.
April 16th, 2007 at 7:09 am
“but what’s $100 nowadays?”
enough to keep g’s phone from getting shut off on your anniversary.
half of a cashcall payment.
1/6th of your rent
3 trips for one to macaroni grill for most people!!!
(1 for casey after you overdraft your account three times)
1 new tire for the vdubs
2 haircuts/colorings for our hero.
_ Murses (fill in the blank as I have never shopped for this)
1/2 hour with a bankruptcy attorney.
1/2 hour with a shrink to get you on some anti psychotics.
need I go on??????
asw=jetta
April 16th, 2007 at 7:23 am
Nigel,
You sure about “It’s money received - money spent/ money received = % return” ?
I think it’s (money received - money spent)/money spent = % return.
Example, 5% CD. If I put (spent) in $100, I should receive $105. Thus (105 - 100)/100 = 5%
April 16th, 2007 at 7:47 am
Forgot to add another way to calculate return is
( money received / money spent ) - 1
So I think GC properties just forgot to subtract 1, but his method would tell you exactly the ratio you’d receive from your initial investment.
April 16th, 2007 at 7:51 am
“but what’s $100 nowadays?”
How much were you asking for in the beg-a-thon last week?
Be careful.
And about the profit on the deal it might have been $X for Y hours of work. But to consider the true potential you have to consider how often this is possible. If it is possible to do this all the time then you $X/Y per hour rate is good. If it is only possible to do this 1 day out of 5. Then the $X/Y gets multiplied by 1/5. You always have to take into account the time it takes to find the deal as part of the deal time.
April 16th, 2007 at 7:57 am
“But as we’ve progressed, we’ve learned that real estate is a superior retirement vehicle - better than stocks, 401k’s, and IRA’s. All we want to do is share what we’ve learned.”
Again, lack of experience does not justify making broad statements. Just because one has limited experience with financial instruments, one should not assume that real estate is better.
Also, 401Ks and IRAs are not investments equivalent to stocks, they are types of accounts with tax implications, where one can invest into financial instrument such as stocks (mutual funds, futures and options, potentially other).
April 16th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Casey,
I guess your next post is going to be the ole “hey guys, you got it all wrong, I totally respect our medical pros. But there is more than one way to be successful.”
That’s what you always do when you insult a certain group.
I second post #3.
April 16th, 2007 at 8:01 am
You’re taking advice from a LL who almost illegally withheld security deposits from Tenant’s because he incorrectly claimed “that’s what is being done now?”
Birds of a feather….
April 16th, 2007 at 8:10 am
I see that Annie is in “Casey-ignore-mode”.
How does it feel when the shoe is on the other foot?
Fool.
April 16th, 2007 at 8:15 am
“At that time I didn’t know of any other ways to learn real estate……”
Hmmmm. Buy a book? Guy to the library and check on out? Join a RE investors club? Google some of these gurus beforehand? Have you read any articles on the other people that are attending these seminars? Believe me, they ain’t your future partners. Well, maybe they will be?
Get the wholesaling thing out of your head. Guess who gets first crack at exploiting a listing price that is way below FMV? Realtors and their contacts that can do quick and clean closes. That is not you.
April 16th, 2007 at 8:21 am
I don’t see how one can compare the two. One has work ethic and business sense and one doesn’t. Real estate success is not about getting lucky, it’s about applying skills and techniques over a long period of time. Real estate has produced the most wealth in this country and will forever. You need to abide by principles for succes. One man here is applying them and one is spouting about them. This is all getting boring. My main reason for continuing to view this site is because I want to see the end of the train wreck and I would like to do the author. It keeps the fantasy going. I have seen individuals like this and they have always appealed to me. Business abilities with regards to real estate is the farthest reason I come here. The entertainment and the fantasy does.
April 16th, 2007 at 8:31 am
LMAO @ #5… I always laugh at Santa Flipper Clause’s posts!!!!! Easily the best here.
Anyways Casey, your posts get dumber and dumber every time. You need to do more Real Estate courses. You should try a board game about real estate. I have one for sale, it is kinda like Monopoly but the graphics are way cooler and only costs $200!
You need more education. Go to as many guru speaches as you can because every single one, you may pick up a tip or two. See this $2.2m as a simple mistake and keep going Casey!
Oh, BTW…. try selling Quixtar. You have the attitude and youwl be a total pro.
April 16th, 2007 at 8:54 am
Hmmm, way I figure it, I spent -$120,000 getting my PhD (that’s negative because I got merit-based scholarships, and in physics they pay you to go to grad school), and eight years out of grad school have a net worth around half a mil.
College degree beats real estate seminars hands down, any day of the week. There’s nothing like a steady, secure, W-2 job my friend. I’ll take my consistent $55/hour over your occasional $150/hour anytime.
For the love of Cthulhu, Casey. Get a real job. Go to college, learn a trade, do something other than puttering around the house trying to crank out “sweet deals.”
April 16th, 2007 at 9:01 am
My brother spent 90k on his MD degree, now makes $400,000 dollars a year as an ER doctor in Boston.
You are a complete failure in every respect in your life. Professional, financially, and personally.
April 16th, 2007 at 9:14 am
What is $100?
It’s $100 more than you have.
PS - Where did all the comments go?
April 16th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Way to go, Casey! That $500 goes a long way toward offsetting your $910 loss to date on GSPG.
More importantly, if you worked on that sweet deal for 4 hours, you are now earning more than $250,000 per year! (And your mother said you’d never amount to anything.)
Way to go!
April 16th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Whew. What a weekend! It seemed to go by in a flash. Now its back to the grindstone. Monday morning here I come.
After my sweet™ success™ in North Carolina, I am seriously considering the texas offer. I feel confident that my little stumbles™ are behind me now. The value of my guru’s™ education is starting to payoff™. I think I might contact Dave in Davis to see if I could take another roadtest of the BioBunny™ to Houston. Because the Txas market never overheated like California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada did it is a nobrainer™ that Texas is poised to be the next big fast way to riches™.
G™ is a little skeptical. She thinks my success in NC was just dumb luck and that I should get a real job. I told her that it was not a random event, that the failures™ I experienced really did allow me to fall forward™. I think I should do more.
Since I had so little time invested™ in the NC assignment, and I did the whole deal from start to finnish™ in a little over a week, I feel confident that I can easily handle 5-7 of this type of deals at any given time. Using my new one-touch™ organising system, I am more organised™ than ever.
I recently received an email from a blog follower in Guam. She said that because of the big hurricane their™ awhile back, there is an extremely active real estate market. I think I should consider fome assignments in Guam. She emailed me some pictures of some hot deals, and I think that with prces between $11-19,000 for large estates I should get involved. I mean where’s the risk? With technology today, she can just email me the photos and I can get an internet connection for my phone to develop a new network of highly qualified professionals™ in Guam. I am a little uncertain of property lwas in Guam so maybe some of you could post here to get me up to speed. I wouldn’t want to impulsively™ jump in to™ quickly.
If I could be doing 6 US based deals (I hear the east cost is the place to be, or Texas or Montana) plus another 4 in US Territories, if each averaged $500, less maybe a $50 finders fee, I could make $3,000 a week. That would be sweet™.
I haven’t told G™ about Guam yet. I want it too™ be the BIG surprise.
I can tell. I am going to be very blessed™. This is the brake™ I have been waiting four™.
What do you think?
Also, to you haters™ out their™ getting a but harsh on my comments about anaesthesiology. What I was trying to point out is that anaesthesiology dates back to the days of ether well over a centurty ago, and is not that complex. I seemed like a wast of valuable equity™ to spend on a college degree that would take years to use instead of leverageing™ that same equity in real estate.
What’s missing?
April 16th, 2007 at 9:43 am
Hey man, you should know better than criticize my investment into education. How much did you invest into your medical eduation to become an anesthesiology resident?
You have to spend money to make money. You will either spend it on education and save on mistakes. Or you will go cheap on the education and make more mistakes in the field. I kind of did both. Sometimes even great education is no replacement for learning through mistakes.
Get a grip Casey. You didn’t spend money on education. Learning to lie on a loan application doesn’t constitute education. BS seminars don’t count except to the people conducting them.
I’m getting tired of your continued obliviation to the real world. You are still trying to make something out of the sweet deal in the sky without bringing anything to the table.
There’s a lot of money in RE, but you have to be able to bring something to the table (cash & contractors, or cash and sweat, combined with the ability to see what any given property requires to bring it to market). You don’t like to work (except in terms of searching for the sweet deal that will turn your fortune), have no cash and cannot follow through on the slightest detail. Speaking of detail, have you straightened out the Highland UT payments that diverted? Have the buyers figured out what you did to them yet?
I’m not a hater, but not an enabler either.
April 16th, 2007 at 9:47 am
For those of you catching up, Phillip is the guy who bragged that he was going to keep his tenants’ security deposit, even though they did nothing to damage the apartment, because that was the “current trend,” but eventually decided not to after several people pointed out that it would be stealing. In other words, he’s an honest, ethical businessperson–only when he’s called out on it multiple times–just like Casey.
April 16th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Casey made $500 selling a contract to a shotgun shack over the phone ONCE. To him, that qualifies him to start “wholesaling apartment complexes, commercial deals, luxury homes, mortgages/paper, etc..” It’s the exact same thing, just mo’ money.
Anyone who knows how desperate you are for cash and how stupid you are with contracts (i.e. anyone who types your name into Google) is not going to be easy to negotiate with. Anyone who negotiates from a stronger position (i.e. anyone else) is going to push you around like a ragdoll. I say you’ll take $500 cash for any deal anyone offers you.
“You have to spend money to make money.” Shouldn’t that be “spend other people’s money to lose money”?
Hey man (another Caseyism?), I’m sure you’ll find many business contacts and “like-minded individuals” once you’re behind bars.
April 16th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Only a fool would think of flipping houses on the downturn. Sales are down 20% in many areas and prices are dropping Don’t believe the ‘median price’ quotes you see in the paper. It’s the median price OF HOMES SOLD, not homes on the market. Since first-time buyers are priced out of the market, the median price goes up simply because no cheap homes are moving. It also doesn’t take into account kickbacks. You can easily make the median price show an increase even if all homes on the market have dropped in price 5% or more.
Some people will manage to make money on the way down. The people who really understand how the game works and/or get lucky. Casey’s the bigger fool that these people will sell to.. they’re becoming much rarer these days, so of course they’ll be all over him with ’sweet deals’!
April 16th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Casey,
Looks like a solid enterprise, you have a business line of credit now you should hit this Texas market and buy up some of those properties quickly before this catches on and competition gets too fierce. It is excellent money enough to actually have a stab at paying off some of your debt. $150-$250 an hour is a solid job you could show all your haters out there you are on a solid come back. Don’t let this option slip away like so many others have strike while the iron is hot.
Keep living the dream
-Roger
April 16th, 2007 at 10:33 am
money received = $100
money spent = $80
GC Properties
money received / money spent = % return
100/80 = 1.25%
Nigel Swaby
It’s money received - money spent/ money received = % return
(100-80)/100 = 0.2%
I guess you guys are filthy rich!
lol lol lol
April 16th, 2007 at 10:44 am
The GC properties guy did not get ANY RE seminar education. Instead he went to medical school… You on the other hand spent $30K+ on guru seminars, but Philip is kicking your a** in RE.
What does that tell you about the value of your RE seminars?
He is right, you could have invested the $30K instead in cash flow producing RE.
April 16th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Did you realize that you have a lot in common with President George W. Bush, in that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, you’ve touched has turned to S__T!!!
Time to bail on your US life and head back to Russia!
April 16th, 2007 at 11:22 am
—-
You have to spend money to make money. You will either spend it on education and save on mistakes. Or you will go cheap on the education and make more mistakes in the field. I kind of did both. Sometimes even great education is no replacement for learning through mistakes.
—-
You still have yet to reach the point where the final results of your mistakes come back to you. Your mistakes may yet prove fatal to your overall plans. So I would not be so quick to say you have learned from your mistakes and are moving on. A lot of those mistakes have not had their full impact yet.
Open questions are how you fill out loan applications now you have a number of defaults. Do you have plans to fix your credit rating as your current rating is going to severly impact the rate you can get loans/mortages at.
Also business loans do not have collateral like house loans to depend on. Missing payments and failing to follow through on required contact obligations could see things stop a lot quicker with business loans. Especially if the loan officer finds this place.
April 16th, 2007 at 11:46 am
nigel, you’re a freaking idiot. Return is
(money received - money spent) / money spent
April 16th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Casey…did you do this deal back in February? If you did (thats the date on the second page) why in the world did you wait until April to bring it up like it was some really recent thing?
ASW: credit
April 16th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
ASW: Sweet
No kidding! Check this one out. I expect a finders fee, cash only of course.
http://www.metrolistmls.com/
MLS # 60105895
2321 N St, Sacramento, 95816
April 16th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Nigel,
Sorry, you got it wrong too.
ROI = Return/Investment.
Return, often refered to as profit = Amount Recovered (received) - Amount Invested (spent)
ROI = Amount Recovered - Amount Invested / Amount Invested.
To be really accurate about assessing opportunities, the ROI should be annualized. A 10% ROI in one year is better than a 15% ROI in two years. The former is a 10% Rate Of Return, the latter is about 7.25% ROR.
Likewise, a 10% return in six months is a lot better than a 10% return in a year.
And realistically, to make smart decisons you need to compare the ROR to the risk. This is what separates the men from the boys in any industry. The big boys tend to be really good at investing in projects that provide good risk-adjusted RORs.
-btc
April 16th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
GS Properties & Nigel:
Did we both forget math class?
It’s: (cash received - cash spent) / cash spent = % return
Your return is the excess you get back over what you put in, divided by what you put in.
April 16th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I’ve been lurking here for a few weeks, and the first time something comes across where Casey could actually monetize the website, he makes it a free entry, that will drive traffic to this med Students RE investment system. So, opportuniy knocked, and you failed to monetize it…
Also Casey, the first “sweet deal” you should be looking for is a steady income, and then a primary residence.
April 16th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Did somebody buy the Ted Kaczynski’s shack (the Unabomber)? That looks pretty much like it, by gum.
April 16th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Mortgage defaults in California near decade high:
http://tinyurl.com/yp6wqz
April 16th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Casey, you are trolling us with these inane comments. Some of here are doctors, like myself. College and medical school are beyond your comprehension so don’t make any comparison. Higher education requires dedication, hard work, and a hunger for excellence. See, education is where you go to learn skills that make you a productive member of society, and an employable one as well. With my degree I am highly employable, or can work for myself, until the day I retire or die. Those courses just fed your greed and taught you how to play the system very poorly, you are no more employable today than you were before the scaminars.
See, I have been to some of those guru courses in my younger days, basically what you received could be purchased for less than $20 from any book store, it was just presented to you by perky cheerleaders. So you paid $30k+ for $20 of information and the rest was all fluff. Next you’ll be telling us of the handful of magic beans you purchased. What you have paid for, cannot even be compared to college or medical school, at best it would be like trying to compare a sidewalk flea circus to cirque de soleil.
April 16th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
“…I will fix it up for $3,500 (including tile in kitchen, utility room, and both bathrooms and painting, sheetrock, appliances, powerwash, lightfixtures, etc., thanks to our contacts),…”
All for $3,500.00??
Reminds me why I never believe anything I read on the
internet without verification.
Like Casey’s book deal
April 16th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
“Some of those courses were a rip-off.” - Casey.
Try this website first Casey, before you dump money equivalent to a downpayment on edjumacation:
http://www.realestatecoursereviews.com/
Every real estate guru known to man is reviewed by laymen, unfiltered (as far as I can tell).
April 16th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Casey,
I think I might be able to help. I’ve been in your position. The way out is claim bankruptcy, screw everyone else, and then start over. I’ve done this a few time and it seems to work pretty well.
Call me. Let lunch.
T-Man
April 16th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
“I made $500. Sweet!”
Reminder: 500 - 100 = 400.
You’re welcome.
April 16th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Hey man, you should know better than criticize my investment into education. How much did you invest into your medical eduation to become an anesthesiology resident?
Casey- an anesthesiology resident isn’t an itern at Jamba juice.
He will make 150k+ out of school, and could be making 300k+ in a few years.
Now what exactly will your education deliver? Will anyone hire you based on your education?
April 16th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
P.S. This blog has been entertaining as far as flea circuses go, but that’s all it is, free entertainment.
April 16th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
To clarify, yes this deal was done over a year ago Feb 2006. I’m bringing it up now because it’s an example of a wholesale deal I’ve done
April 16th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
The taxman cometh…….
April 16th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Houston is different. There are some serious ghettos in Houston that would make a Chicagoan nervous. Real estate for under $100K in a big city like Houston? Wake up and smell the gunpowder. You can put all the lipstick that you want on that pig.
April 16th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Between the time I started reading your blog and today, I have thought about and started studying a Master’s Degree in Telecommunications. 1 year, close to $20K’s in fees, and I’ll have dual Masters, plus an engineering degree.
I’m sure you’ll somehow compare this to your path-e-tech RE investments, and tell me how dumb I am.
I’m waiting.
April 16th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Mr GC must use his medical credentials for some false claim on authority. (They teach that in Rhetoric 101.) His investment strategy is full of holes, and his math skills poor: both do not bode well for a good businessman. So, I even doubt those credentials.
April 16th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Since I read here how RE is such a superior investment, I went over to ask my neighbor how he’s doing on his condo investment. He bought a 2/2 condo in 2004 for $210K.
Rent $850/mo
HOA Dues $165/mo
Taxes $1500/year
Insurance $0, he carries the fire ins as part of the HOA and stupidly doesn’t buy any liability ins
Maintenance, near $0 so far
Vacancy & Advertising, this has been a problem. $500 to put an ad in the paper for a month. Few calls. Vacant 4 mos, then filled. Then tenant disappeared. Then new tenant found.
Anyway, so how’s it going? His realtor says he could sell it today for $195K, less commissions and expense of sale, perhaps he’d get $182K. That would be a $28K capital loss on a $210K purchase price, over 3 years.
He’s had big tax writeoffs every year he’s had it, because of course he’s losing money. The rent does not cover the expenses, and he has roughly $750/mo negative cashflow.
Very typical investment in this area. In addition to his $28K capital loss, he would have real losses he’s realized per year from expenses.
He manages it himself. If he didn’t you could add another $80 a month or so in manager fees to what it costs him to own this investment.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
“To clarify, yes this deal was done over a year ago Feb 2006. I’m bringing it up now because it’s an example of a wholesale deal I’ve done”
That does it. I’m out.
Good luck.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Did we both forget math class?
It’s: (cash received - cash spent) / cash spent = % return
I stand corrected.
Thanks.
April 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Nothing against Phillip but when
Phillip and other guru testimonial saps always refer to the deal they are doing or going to do, and how much they will make in the future. Seldom do they speak of done deals and how much they made on a done deal. When they do speak of a done deal, if they made anything they, inflate the profit by not including all the expenses, opportunity costs and true time involved.
“I made $500 flipping” that’s $250 per hour.
The fine print should read: I spent 1000 hours in education
and searching for deals last year. The true return on his $500 assignment is .49 per hour. If you include all the expenses the return is negative.
April 17th, 2007 at 10:14 am
To #132:
We never recommend buying condos because they are difficult to make them cash flow due to the maintenance fee. You have no control over this fee and the board can make special one-time assessments, raise the fee every year, etc.
Also, to get any decent rent in a condo, a prospective tenant for that same price can move to a nice apartment complex with a lot more amenities down the road.
We recommend only buying foreclosed, pre-foreclosed, or short-sales SF homes or multifamily.
April 17th, 2007 at 10:54 am
“You have to spend money to make money. ”
A penny saved is a penny earned. If Casey had not taken 30K or so in RE classes he might have lost 4.4 million an not 2.2
April 17th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Philip, please tell Casey (and the rest of us) about how you were going to keep the good tenant’s deposit despite the fact that they didn’t damage anything and were great renters because everyone else was doing it and your investment buddies were doing it and you could get away with it. Of course, after numerous people called you out on your blog, you came back and said you decided not to keep it.
Win-win for everyone except the law abiding tenant. Is that the way you do business unless caught?
asw: blueball
April 17th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
So where is the CashCall update? You are obviously online this afternoon.
You know…you really should not bite the hand that feeds you. How did you get the money for that last CashCall payment? Food for thought…
April 22nd, 2007 at 7:31 pm
http://www.iamfacingforeclosure.com/210/pool-maintenance-in-foreclosure/ http://www.iamfacingforeclosur.....hcall-not/ http://www.iamfacingforeclosur.....-comments/ http://www.iamfacingforeclosur.....contracts/ You may also recall that Nigel provided this excellent site giving the alternative and positive take on Casey Serin here. Unfortunately haterz ruined it because they’re a bunch of jerks.