July 28th, 2007 4:03 am
How I Got Started
How I got started…
Born September 10th, 1982 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Immigrated with my family to United States in 1994 settling in Sacramento at the age of 12. Have always been into technology and computers so naturally I started making some money by doing tech support for people and businesses. I was also learning to build websites and do some programming.
Straight out of highshool back in 2000 I got salaried position at Sevant.com. They were trying to become a Geek-Squad type of company where they send out techs to your home to help with your computer. I was the lead tech making 30k/yr. Not bad for that time location (Sacramento) and being only 18.
I got my first media exposure at this company. I appeared on Good Day Sacramento several times with Doug Brauner to do a tech segment and answer live tech support questions. This was part of promoting the company’s services. Too bad the company went out of business about a year later.
After that, in 2001 I tried to do some consulting and freelance website design work. I build my own simple Content Management System (CMS) from scratch in PHP/MySQL to empower my clients to update their own websites. I coupled that with my own hosting service and got my first taste of residual income. I figured once I outsouce the whole operation that residual income would become passive income. I was on track!
Unfortunately, the hosting / website design business wasn’t taking off like I hoped and I was getting into debt. My problem is I was so fascinated with building my CMS that I neglected marketing and wasn’t bringing in any new customers. Basically my lack of business experience showed. I knew it was time to go back to a W2 job.
I got a $35k/yr job at S.M.A.R.T. Association doing web dev work back in 2002. It allowed my to qualify to buy my first piece of real estate. A 100k condo that needed some light rehab.
The agent I used showed me how to structure a 5K cash-back at close for repairs. So I think the purchase price was 105 or something like that. I used all of the money for repairs (carpet, paint, new appliances, etc).
Believe it or not the ENTIRE transaction was as clean as they come. Used a 100% financing government-backed first-time-buyer loan. Cashback was fully disclosed to all parties and lenders were OK with that stuff back in the day.
I sold the condo a year later after trying to rent it out the last 2 months because I quit my job and my business website design business wasn’t taking off like I thought. I made about $30-35K profit. Mostly due to the hot CA market.
The profit was used to pay down some of my debt, get a new vehicle and put into savings for the next venture.
After selling the condo I took a mini vacation for about 6 months to figure out what I’m going to do next. That’s when I started reading more RE investing books to see how I can do this again. Around this time I met my wife and we got married about a year later in 2004. (Before I got married I had a short stint at Res-Com Environmental doing some web work. I think that was a 30k/yr W2. I was still doing the web business on the side.)
Then came the 50K/year programmer job was at Pride Industries. I got that job shortly after I got married because my web business wasn’t going anywhere and we were back in debt. The money from the condo sale ran out because we needed money for the wedding and we kind of lived without any income for 6 months (in Lake Tahoe!) after getting married. I thought I would kick my web business in high-gear so we can live off that but that never happened like I wanted.
The Pride Industries W2 job was good because it got us back on our feet but we were still carrying 15-20K or so debt. Part of it was a time-share thingy I bought into impulsively. I think it was like 10K with $250/month payments but we weren’t using it that much.
Then we saw a late night infomercial by Russ Whitney about how “you TOO can be rich in real estate investing”. So we went to the “free” one-night seminar where they sold us a weekend “bootcamp” at which they sold us a package of “advanced bootcamps” and next we know we’re another $15k in debt. So about 30K of debt at this point.
As you can see I was VERY motivated to succeed in real estate investing to wipe off our debt. Like I said before, buying real estate investing education on credit cards is not always smart because it puts too much pressure on you to perform and you make stupid mistakes like I did.
So off I went buying houses, starting with October 2005 Calla Way house which I should have just put under contract and “wholesaled” to another investor for a quick 5-10K assignment fee without actually buying it. That’s how they told us to start out.
But what do I do? I TRY to wholesale it but nobody was buying it from me because I had it under contract for too high of a price and the market was already starting to adjust so everybody was cautions.
So I think, hey, I have decent credit, maybe I can buy it myself and do the flip. So I call up a mortgage broker, tell them what I’m trying to do and they put me into a 100% financing sub-prime loan with high interest rate but no pre-payment penalty. I was cool with that since I’m just trying to flip and only will be holding it for a couple of months.
I didn’t know anything about stated income or any of that stuff, the loan app was filled out for me. I didn’t have any other real estate so they said I would be buying this house as a “primary residence”. I glanced at the app and signed it. I trusted my broker(s) to take care of me.
And they (mortgage brokers) DID take care of me in some ways because I don’t THINK they overcharged me on the fees or anything. But I feel they didn’t properly advise me about the dangers of using stated income loans, calling investment properties “owner occupied” and doing cash-back at close “under the table”.
Yeah I should have also been thinking for myself, but I was too desperate to get these deals done to get out of the bad Burdett property, pay off my real estate investing education debt and actually become a successful investor (to be successful at SOME kind of business, so far all my other business ventures failed, besides web dev I already tried a Vending business and some MLM type stuff).
While yes, I did make 30K on this first flip and wiped off all our debt, it wasn’t a great deal. I ended up buying Burdett Way from the buyer in order to make the deal work. Burdett was an even worse deal and need a lot of work.
I was acting out of desperation because I got the 30K as cash-back-at-close on the Calla Way deal and I was stressing out to try to sell it for what I bought it to realize the cash-back profit.
Otherwise the cash-back is really just a loan against the quity in that house (i bought it a little under market). I also didn’t want to make payments on Calla Way because that would put me back into debt.
Nevertheless, I felt successful because I wiped off all the debt and we were back to square one. My credit score went up because the only thing that was keeping down were the maxed out credit cards.
But now I have this Burdett property that needed $10K+ repairs and I knew I couldn’t sell it but only try to lease it or lease option it. I tried that route but couldn’t find a tenant or a tenant buyer to cover my mortgage. So I still leased it out but I was loosing over $1,000/month on it. Keep in mind I’m back to square one as far as debt goes but I also dont have any money saved up!
But I was already too deep (I thought). To do the Burdett repairs I borrowed 10K from CashCall (those guys are quick!). And I had to make a payment or two before putting tenants in there and I would be running a grand negative every month.So I felt like I was screwed unless I do more deals.
And the only way I knew how to do deal at that time was find under-valued properties, buy them with 100% financing, take some or all of the equity at the purchase, use the money to do the repairs (if needed), make a few payments and resell it, and HOPEFULLY have money left over to keep as profit.
So I went into “massive focused action” mode looking for any properties I can find across the United States. I didn’t care that it wasn’t local. I figured that would be a good reason to go and build a team in a new area, especially in markets that were still hot (since CA was cooling down quick).
And since I would be “getting paid” upon purchase I figured didn’t need to worry about having no savings to do this business. Just flying it by the seat of my pants, basically. Being an optimist I figured it will all turn out Ok and the adventure spirit in me couldn’t wait to start flying around the country “doing deals”.
So I went only to these “We Buy Houses” websites (similar to Duane’s) and start buying leads of motivated sellers. The sellers fill out a form about their house, loan, asking price, etc and the information was being sold to “investors” like me.
Some places charge several hundred dollars a month and you get exclusive leads for the entire county. Other places let you buy individual leads for like $25. I even found a place that gives you UNLIMITED leads for $40/month for the entire STATE!
I was also working with some real estate agents to help me find good deals. But my favorite method was the internet leads because I am dealing directly with the seller and we can do creative stuff like cash-back at close and other things that I learned in seminars, investment clubs and other real estate professionals.
At this point I decided to quit my 50K/year job at Pride Industries and get into real estate investing full time. This is shortly after I bought Burdett, sometimes in January 2006.
The rest you already know about from this blog. I think there are a few smaller pieces of the story I haven’t told, like the New Mexico property (Sonora Ave) that I successfully flipped by doing my own auction. (The 5 Day Sale style.)
If I think of anything else I will add it.
84 Comments
July 28th, 2007 at 5:29 am
Casey,
Let me suggest a new habit for you: from now on, never use the passive tense when you’re talking about your own life. For example, change “it never happened like I wanted it to” to “I never made it happen.”
July 28th, 2007 at 6:18 am
Amazing how you are trying to whitewash things, and rewrite history insisting in effect that you had a valid business plan. Do you not understand that this was a fraudulent business plan, founded on the criminal activity of hiking the cost of the properties and taking cash back on the loan (which I really suspect you pocketed for living expenses, and didn’t invest in your properties as you say? You lied on the loan documents, plain and simple.
Your scheme might have worked fine when properties are increasing in value, but it won’t work _ and didn’t work _ when property values cool off. In your previous postings, you have veered from innocent investor to a very sophisticated and sly fraudster. It’s the fraud part of this that has got you into trouble. Anyone looking at the pix of the properties you posted can see you didn’t put a dime into them, and actually let them get overgrown and depressed their value even more. You also pretended on these loans that you were a homeowner planning to live in these properties, and not an investor. There are investor loans out there from banks, etc., but you didn’t want to take those because you had a fraudulent scheme, and it was criminal as I suspect you are about to find out.
July 28th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Hey Casey,
I just read the long post from previous blog.
You know, I believe it.
Hey Casey, I wish your were in Dallas last Thursday. You could have helped me pick the maggots out of a sink that the tenants had left - before they skipped town.
Real estate is great fun Casey !
Today am going to clear the dirt from the sidewalk due to all the rain! Wanna help Casey !
You need to redeem yourself Casey ! You should go to Wackostan and help poor people and stop screwing people !
You talk about mortgage brokers and how they didn’t help you! Poor you! Who do brokers represent Casey ?
Who do brokers represent Casey ?
Who do brokers represent Casey ?
I told you before, in business assume everybody is trying to screw you.
Read the BLG (building materials group) 13D filings from activist investor Chapman and the letters he addresses to the Directors of BLG. They are funny, this is how business works Casey.
You need to take your head out of the dark o****** - as Chapman said!
Haha
Its all good Casey.
Loads O Money
July 28th, 2007 at 6:58 am
casey i am interested in the Sonora Ave property, can you tell us a little more about your auction and how you did that?
July 28th, 2007 at 7:09 am
I’m not really interested in “how you got started” anymore.
I’m interested in where you will end up. Hopefully it will be in a jail cell (or a padded cell) for a long long time.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:46 am
That’s how it happens. A little at a time. Casey, you’re certainly not blameless, but the currupt and dysfunctional system we live in encouraged you all the way. I’m talking about the FIRE establishment and the media and the scumbag “Gurus” on TV. And don’t forget the established newspapers pandering to, and ecouraging, the “something for nothing mentality.” All of them, constantly feeding the housing bubble hype. I became so tired of co-workers constantly, and very gleefully, talking about their houses going up in price. If you tried to tell them that this kind of bubble is bad for us in the long run, that there would be negative fallout and people would be hurt, they’ed look at you wide-eyed as if you’re from Mars. You know, when you look at humanity and how greedy, stupid and shortsighted we can be, it’s no wonder Marvin the Martian wanted to blow up the planet Earth.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Some mildly interesting stuff… very much like a biography of Richard Nixon without any mention of Watergate.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:09 am
What’s wrong toll? Are the feds closing in so you thought your little essay will save your a** ? There is a famous saying in russian, which I will translate for you, which says Not knowing the laws, does not relinquish one from responsibilties of breaking them. Hobbit, no one cares what you knew, or what you didnt know. You bought houses and lied on your application, time to face the music. Why are you such a little weasel that you can’t even take responsibilities for your actions?
July 28th, 2007 at 8:16 am
A mini vacation, huh?
How long is a real vacation?
July 28th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Casey, this story is quite different from the one G is telling, are you calling her a liar? If so, what kind of husband are you.
Is she saying about your marriage “casey - NO DEAL” ?
July 28th, 2007 at 8:50 am
I knew that the “We buy houses” thing was a scam. I hope that you have a good lawyer. Perhaps you will have another time for reflection, if you don’t.
But where is the activity NOW, Casey? Where is the effort to get on your feet financially? Why have you just given up?
July 28th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Casey:
1. I think you are an unrepentant criminal.
2. I think you need to pay for your crimes.
Never forget those two points.
That said, however, even prisoners deserve due process, legal representation, and freedom from harrassment.
Those not yet convicted deserve at least that much as well.
So much more for those not even indicted!
Therefore, should you ever be civilly sued by Marc Anthony V********* , AKA LossMitPro, aka LMP aka cawkcobbling nuisance wanna be pretend lawyer, I hereby pledge $2,759.00 to add to your legal defense war-chest to be applied to any such suit once argument begins before a judge or jury.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Just stumbled across your blog and it reminded me of a company called Benchmark Homes that used to operate out of Dayton, Ohio. I was always curious how this company kept shutting down, going bankrupt, and starting over multiple times. Seems like this sector of business has no oversight unless it makes the news. Good luck in your future efforts to build a better business model.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Hey Casey.
I keep asking you this honest question:
If you are indeed innocent, as you claim, why don’t you walk right on up and into the FBI’s office and come clean with what you did? I see 2 SWEET out comes from this.
1) If the shady deals you did are indeed shady but not criminal, like you keep repeating, then the FBI will let you go and tell you have nothing to worry abut.
2) If you did in fact committ a crime, they will happily explain it to you with great detail and why. You will no longer be saying it’s a shady area.
Sounds like a SWEET deal, no?
July 28th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Casey,
Very interesting story. Gotta love how you describe 6 months as a mini vacation
July 28th, 2007 at 9:34 am
What about the dates with other women you had while on vaca.errr ‘business’ trips away from the wif ey? care to comment? I think you don’t have the balls to
July 28th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Everything you touched so far in your life has turned to sh*t — your beautiful properties, your wonderful marriage and your valuable investments. Take a look at GSPG, which now has collapsed to 1/10th of a cent after the company filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission notifying investors they’ve stopped prospecting.
You are not just criminal, you are a jinx.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:42 am
6 Months Vacation? Amazing!
Casey, how about my honest question, walking right on up to the FBI’s office and coming clean.
You wont have to spend any dirty pennies and can use that money to pay back the lenders instead.
The things you did were not criminal Casey, right? You have been repeating this for 10 months, only shady things at best, nothing wrong.
The FBI does not worry about shady things, so you have NOTHING TO WORRY about Casey.
Think how good you will sleep tonight knowing that the FBI agrees with you.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Casey,
When making decisions, you need to think things through, mull it over. You thought real estate investing would be a good way to get rid of debt? Why? Because some late night huckster TOLD you you would be rich?!
I make $21k gross working part-time at a job I love, and after child-support and taxes I bring home $12K/yr. Yet I’m not in debt, and have $2000 in the bank. Why? Because “a penny saved is a penny earned”. I don’t have a lot of the luxuries you seem to think are necessary, but the things I have are very high-quality and are investments. I love my life and have no regrets the path my life has taken. Why? Because at the forks in the trail, I always carefully thought through where each path might take me.
Andy
July 28th, 2007 at 9:46 am
After reading POST#21 on the last thread,
I completely understand why Duane is helping G out.
Finally, the story from G’s perspective!!
Good luck Duane, hope you fry the POS that is Casey. That story is much more interesting than this whole blog put together.
I am glad that somebody is helping out the poor girl at this point.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:47 am
I think this story ends with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head or an OD.
Which one will it be?
July 28th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Way to buy high and sell low!
Skip, hop, and jump right over the biggest RE runup in history.
What “Expert Timing”
hahahhahha
July 28th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I hope you go to jail.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Yawn? Most of this we already know!
July 28th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Like I told you on the phone Casey.
You got what you asked for, SWEET public attention. You got the Package Deal.
The Public, as you are now learning Casey is made up of very good people and some very bad people (the kind that makes you run).
Enjoy the package.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:15 am
I read the abc news.
This is very serious as you are being investigated by the FBI
Federal charge is what I read….
this is very serious indeed…
The jail that you’ll be going to will be the one where you have every right to be afraid in the shower whether you drop the soap or not.
Please please cut the hair… you’ll be an easy target as some inmates may fantasize getting bj from a long haired, highlighted blond lady.
I feel very sorry for you because you are going to be a girl in the prison.
Going backdoor will really hurt no doubt as no prisoners use a lube.
I don’t know what to say.
It’ll be very tough in prison.
I don’t want you go to jail, but I think it’s too late for that.
Let’s see what this blog has brought you
1) More debt (”real estate” university, corporate credit)
2) Lost wife
3) Lost dignity
4) Lost pride
5) Lost respect
6) Name forever tainted
7) Family name ruined
8) Got to meet Kiyosaki to be called a greater fool
9) Made enemies with ppl
10) Going to jail
You failed forward all the way to jail.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:38 am
It seems you have the talent to be successful, but the motivation is not always there. You can land a great job, but sticking to it is a problem because you are looking for the quick win in every situation you are in.
if you play your cards right, you can get a pretty good programming web job, build up some funds and do side projects.
This of course depends on not being in jail.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Piece the story together Casey! Write your own book!
July 28th, 2007 at 10:53 am
Follow Your Dreams of SWEET passive income Casey.
Keep blooging, it is in you blood, I can feel it. The force is strong with you. Why work when you can bloog?
Bloog, bloog, bloog…….. Bloog Casy bloog.
We are all chearing for you young Casey.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Remember the blogger who said you wouldn’t face charges because LE has no interest in these crimes?
He is preparing to admit he was wrong.
Casey, you are so screwed.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Casey,
this is pretty much the same crap you’ve been saying all along.
“I didn’t know anything about stated income or any of that stuff, the loan app was filled out for me. I didn’t have any other real estate so they said I would be buying this house as a “primary residence”. I glanced at the app and signed it. I trusted my broker(s) to take care of me.”
translation: “I was too lazy to pay attention to any of it. I didn’t read what I was signing. It was allgood.”
BUT: you did claim before that the scaminars covered all this, but I guess now you want to say that you were too lazy and didn’t pay attention in the seminars either?
You are so full of crap, you probably leak when you walk.
@ DashRipRock - fellow (former) New Orleanian?
July 28th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Wow, you made ABC’s Nightline. That’s sweet national TV coverage. You are famous — the speculator who personifies the real estate greed that swept the nation in 2006, and how he ripped off the mortgage companies. I see they also confirm via your attorney that the FBI has charges pending, and attorney is taking two weeks to go through your mortgage records. Guess that explains the truth in lending posting of a couple of days ago. But does the attorney have all of the records, including the boxes Duane says he has, and you don’t?
July 28th, 2007 at 11:17 am
If only you’d gone to bed early and not watched that infomerical…
July 28th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Damn Casey. Out of everything you’ve done, I can’t believe you got suckered into a timeshare. I mean the 40k spent on the scam “education” is really freaking bad but a timeshare? Wow.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Well Casey - you will be glad to know that the loosers at chc.com are hard at it. Both the “professional businessmen” Mark and Duhwayne are furiously typing as fast as their fat fingers will allow. “Read me, read me” is their pathetic whine. Duane just can’t stay away - his need for glorification is unlimited. And Mark V********* is just a joke.
But it is Tracy/Nacho/T with her 1830 posts as she sits there with her huge lumpy a** sliding over the sides of the chair and spreading across the dirty floor that takes the pathetic award of the century.
1830 posts and counting… what a freak of nature this fat broad is.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:31 am
FWI:
Extortion is a criminal offense, which occurs when a person either obtains money, property or services from another through coercion or intimidation or threatens one with physical or reputational harm unless they are paid money or property. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime groups. The actual obtainment of money or property is not required to commit the offense.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:31 am
A mini-vacation for 6 months? What world are you living in?
And you make me sick when you continue to insist that your real estate scaminars were “real estate investing education.” That is an insult to every educated human being that has ever lived. Those scaminars were not education in any sense of the word, they were a farce; BS; scams. For the money you spent though, you could have easily afforded a real education, and you could have paid for it with grants (free money!!) and subsidized loans (no payments until you graduated!!). Of course, since you didn’t do that, you don’t know what education IS. You even made your wife quit the real education that she was seeking! You b*****d.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:33 am
A big hater here, BUT:
1) w/r/t @21, there are two sides to relationships, and esp. intimate relationship troubles. The fraudulence of Casey’s RE deals can be documented;it’s not a grey area. However, when one gets into the emotional conflicts of intimate relationships, and questions of whether someone has “emotionally abused” another in the absence of evidence of physical abuse—well, we need to step back carefully and recognize the limitations on the information we have. Duane, for all of his first person material, is getting G’s side, not Casey’s. That Casey chooses not to reveal his intimate emotional troubles with G in the same fashion is beyond the point.
2) w/r/t having “dates”–and possibly even sleeping with another woman while he and G were physically apart for an extended period–the horse left the barn on this one, friends, about 35 years ago. With all due respect for the individual moral standards of those, perhaps like Duane, who could not conceive of doing such a thing, the fact is that this society, of which we all are a part, has loosened its rules on this behavior enormously.
Yes–what “society” does is frequently full of s__t and does not compel our individual moral choices. Yet it is beyond question that many of those ready to castigate Casey on this point are liberal in their sexual views and would sneer at the Christian Right for suggesting that maybe–maybe–individual sexual freedom does not represent the apogee of civilized endeavor. Were the situations reversed, and had G taken a lover because of Casey’s perceived inadequacies, I suspect that commentators would applaud G’s modern/take-no-s__t/ I am Woman, Hear Me Roar/ stance.
It reminds me of the reaction, in many otherwise “liberated” and liberal circles, to the final resolution of the Duke lacrosse case. These young men were engaging strippers! OK, maybe, just maybe, they didn’t commit the crime of rape, but they were guilty of profoundly offensive and immoral conduct for hiring strippers! And there was underage drinking!
Gimme a break.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Make a run for it Casey, just like you said you would do if things got hot.
Remember, you said you may go under the Radar if things got bad.
Think of your FREEDOM - it’s the most valueable thing you have.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
My response to Duane LeGate and his interference in my marriage will follow on the next post.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Duane stalked my wife and I three years ago and tried to get between us when we were falling on hard times.
Things worked out with my job and we are happy now and didn’t lose our home (without his help).
I’d be very careful and don’t believe a word he says. My wife and friends compared notes afterwards and found he was generating much of story himself.
I’ll see if I can find his communications from back then and post them here. I don’t believe he was using the same message board handle as now.
Again, becareful.
Andrew
July 28th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I’m thinking of launching a new Casey-related website to be called www.caseyambivalents.com. It will be a middle of the road site for people, such as myself, who don’t have any strong feelings about Casey either way.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Newsflash Casey!
YOU are the one who interfered in your marriage!
July 28th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Boring. My guess is you have to come up with content for the new owner until August 3rd, hence the meaningless posts.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
That is why they are called “busy bodies”. He has too much time on his hands, so he concerns himself with your family life. Give him the Blue Ball treatment, Casey. Lock them in a vise. He has lots of assets — your lawyer will like that.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Casey, I liked the w***’s story on the haterz site better. Somehow with all the spinning and trolling you’ve done in the past, I trust her story more. Nice attempt at trying to regain control of the story but you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Casey, what about my sweet suggestion I have you about going directly to the FBI?
Sounds like a win-win cituation.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
I love how you toss around the word ‘our’ so lightly in so much of your discussion here, particularly in terms of ‘our debt’ and ‘our credit cards.’
‘Interference’ or ‘Intervention,’ I wonder? If there was lasting and enduring emotional abuse, it’s not really ‘meddling’ in someone’s marriage to try and stop the abuse.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
“I took a mini vacation for about 6 months”
MINI vacation. Uhu.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Cover your nuts.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Well, I just followed the recipe in The 5 Day Sale book with a few tweaks of my own. It worked very nicely. It took me actually 7 days to get a contract for 90-95% of market value WITHOUT any agents. It was really sweet. The buyers closed in under 30 days.
After the travel costs, repairs and mortgage payments I probably only made 5-10K on that deal. But hey, that is actually a HUGE success compared to my other deals.
I was gonna brag about this deal at some point on the blog but never got around to doing it. So I’ll just give you the short version here.
Basically what you do is do ONE open house Saturday and Sunday and promote the HECK out of it everywhere you can: flat-fee MLS listing, flyers, road signs, newspaper, etc.
Promote your open house as an AUCTION and for the price put 60% of its true market value. That gets people’s GREED GLANDS going, as they say. People can’t help but want to see why this house is being offered so cheap.
The trick is. In the price you need to say, “$X or the highest offer”. The “or the highest offer” shows people that its really a starting price and you will sell it for as high as it goes.
What’s important is to also say that you are going to sell it THAT WEEKEND to the highest bidder. The sense of urgency helps a ton.
The book says start your marketing on Wednesday, do your open house on Saturday and Sunday and Sunday night do your Round Robin.
I chose to start the prior Sunday and market the auction for the whole week. So mine was more a 7 day sale.
By the way, I forgot to mention, this strategy is also called The Round Robin Auction. You will see why in a sec.
So people come to your open house. You give them a packet of information on the house: home inspection, any other inspections, detailed description, seller’s disclosure all filed out, etc. You want to give them all the info they need to make a decision.
In the kitchen you have a clipboard where you have people leave written bids. The bids are non-binding to either party. It’s just to express intent.
Do this saturday and sunday and by sunday, if you did your marketing right, you will have one or more sheets full of bids. The bids may or may not be as high as you want them, but that’s not the key. You just need enough names and phone numbers of interested buyer to do the ROUND ROBIN sunday night.
This is the fun part.
By the way, part of your info packet that you give them at the open house explains the process. So they know they need to be by their phones sunday night.
So you start calling down the list from lowest bid to highest. You tell the lowest bid what the current high bid is. They have a choice to beat the highest bid or to drop out.
Most people will drop out because they thought they can pickup the house for pennies on the dollar. However, there WILL be 2 or 3 real buyers in any given weekend that really WANT this house and are willing to pay upto market value for it.
So you keep calling around for a couple of hours until you have a couple of strong bidders left. Those bidders (real buyers) will take the price up to the true market value or close to it.
Everybody still wants to get a deal of course. However, since you’re saving money by having no agents (not having to pay 5-6%), even if you give them a small discount you still come out ahead. ESPECIALLY when you consider you didn’t have to make payments while the house is sitting on the market for months.
Plus you get SEVERAL offers this way. If the top bidder can’t close you can go to the next one and so on. Its’ selling a house on drugz!!
So for me it worked just as advertised! I was very pleasantly surprised.
I had about 150+ parties come through the door that weekend. I had about 30 or 40 bids on the bidding sheet. My round robin lasted for several hours in to the night and I had to finish it up Monday night.
Here is something else crazy that happen. The top bidders loved the house and they wanted to close ASAP but there is a problem.
Their old house is on the market but they need to wait to sell it before they can put money down on the new one.
So I did something VERY creative. I called up my list of bidders and told them I have ANOTHER house for sale! The second highest bidder on my original house ended up liking the buyer’s old house. And they ended up buying it!
So my round robin auction solved two problems in one shot. I love killing two birds with one stone. Leverage! Efficiency!
The only minor issue with this whole thing is I got screwed out of $10,000.
See I actually put the buyer’s old house under contract and assigned the contract to the other people for 10 grand. Well for some reason their lender didn’t like assignments so I had to drop the assignment and put them in touch directly with the sellers (which are the buyers of Sonora Ave).
We made a verbal agreement that I will get my 10 grand after close.
I never got the money. I’m still a little bit bitter about that but mostly over it. You would think I would learn the lesson by now… apparently it wasn’t painful enough.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Casey, since people complain about you not receiving their emails, I’ll post this offer here. Email me if you want a free copy of my startup guide for entrepreneurs. I’m just listening to last night’s talkshoe episode where you mentioned interest in non-real estate entrepreneurship. Email me if you want me to send you a copy.
I wish you the best, man.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
The intervention isn’t working. He still thinks the gurus are gods. It should not be about his family life, at any rate.
I think Casey is mostly right about many points. Financial independence is a worthy goal — but most people call that retirement. He would not be the first to retire young on real estate either.
Perhaps someone will clean up on the disasterous bubble right now, but that someone probably has good credit. Otherwise, real estate should return in about 10 years.
Casey does not like to look at his glaring defects. He ignores them, and rationalizes his every move.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Casey:
Why is it G can not have friends of her own?
Why is it you say Duane is “interfering” in your marriage?
Why is it you don’t want G telling her story?
You’ve been saying enough about your marriage and relationship and other stuff for over 10 months. Doesn’t G get the opportunity to let people (your audience) know her thoughts and feelings regarding the relationship and how things came to be?
G WANTS HER STORY TOLD. She has every right to decide how she wants that story told, in which forum (i.e., internet, divorce court, a book deal of her own). She also has every right to decide who she wants to assist her in telling of the story.
G does not want you contacting her any more.
She does not want to attend your family’s wedding celebration next weekend.
She does not want to talk about the taxes.
She does not want to talk about your criminal defense.
Pony up the sale proceeds from the blog, let her get square with her creditors, and let her walk away.
And stop talking about the debts being 50% hers (I believe what you said last night was “community property state…”). All of your loans, credit card and credit line debts were taken out in support of YOUR BUSINESS.
IMHO - you failed to incorporate or establish a “true business” because you knew that you would not be able to declare the properties as “owner occupied.”
These were YOUR BUSINESS DEBTS. Your business FAILED. It is your responsibility to fix the mess - not G’s.
And few final points:
First, the blog is a marital asset. 50% of the sale proceeds and 50% income earned is rightfully G’s. Either pay now or pay later. And, if you say later, the money’s gone… well, any divorce court judge would look closely to see if you committed fraud against your wife.
G***** ’s filing for legal separation does not release you from sharing with her any and all proceeds from the earnings or sale of the blog. What the legal separation did do is create a financial line between you and her so that any added debt you take on are yours and yours only.
And, regarding your criminal defense. Do not talk to G***** . Do not have your attorney talk to G***** . It could be considered “witness tampering.” You are in enough trouble as it is.
One final note: Last night you said that you’d never gone to a hater site before….. LIE! The night of the beg-a-thon you took a screen shot of your computer showing everyone your paypal donations. There was a tab showing that you had a window open on the EN site.
I will post this at EN and CH.C in the event you feel you need to “mute” me again.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Hey Kid;
Where do you see yourself in 5 years.
You’ll be pushing hard on 30 then, hobbit.
Care to make a prediction?
July 28th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
So you’re saying “1″ day after you turned “19″ was “9-11″?
July 28th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Ten cents and my right n*t says Casey will be doing a border run real soon.
I’d head north if I were in his shoes. Lots of open spaces. You can go work a fishing boat and maybe muscle up a bit (d*mn you are one bony boy). Winter up there is tough, but it will make a man out of you … finally.
July 28th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
How can you do this transaction, particularly the sale of the buyer’s home, without being licensed by the state as a realtor or a broker? Seriously, does the issue of legality never cross your mind?
July 28th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
But that never was a problem for you at any rate.
Assuming that is legal (I dunno), in future I hope you know to put such things in writing.
The reason you don’t learn is all money is easy-come, easy-go to you. You haven’t worked for it, and you just kept borrowing more, so it doesn’t hurt as much.
Have you tried collecting from that Texas guy you lent money to?
July 28th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
The auction attempt sounds interesting, if it’s the right geographic location and the right market. For example, I live in the midwest, and this type of marketing wouldn’t fly. Unlike what we see on TV, bidders don’t ever go over the listing price, and especially thousands over the listing price in bidding wars. That type of thing just doesn’t occur everywhere.
Regarding the $10K you lost when you found the buyer for your buyers’ home……you learned a hard lesson, and that is to put EVERYTHING in writing. Don’t say it, write it!
July 28th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Your Wikipedia entry does not have the sales price of this house and neither zillow nor realestateabc will look it up. Could you post how much you sold it for?
July 28th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Casey first I want to thank you for maintaining this blog for the past year and a half or so, it has been a fun site.
I hope you do shut the site down, as you need to get on with the next act in your life and get this stuff behind you. You are still very young, though you may not feel young at the moment.
Look around you, there is nothing but negativity. Nothing good can come from it.
Shut the door and start over while you still can.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
This sums you up to the max…
“I took a mini vacation for about 6 months to figure out what I’m going to do next”
Casey face reality. You are a Lazy A** always looking for the easy way. Its just that simply. THATS YOUR BOTTOM LINE AND THE CORE OF ALL YOUR TROUBLES…
July 28th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Hi:
I saw Casey on the news the other night and became interested. I hadn’t heard of him, but something in his demeanor, speech and attitude grabbed my attention.
I’m a psychologist who works with individuals and couples, many of whom have typical problems with debt, unrealistic expectations, addictions, and virtually everything that runs the gamut of the human condition.
Assuming Casey has done what he claims, he seems to suffer from several personality disorders. He shows all the hallmarks of an addictive personality and very likely a sociopathic disorder as well.
A person who feels remorse would have stopped his dysfunctional and damaging behaviour long ago in the cycle.
Remember, one can and should feel remorse for ONES own self as well as others. And remorse is not well thought out platitudes and promises, it is real behavioral change.
Casey does not seem to feel remorse, other than in the most superficial and rehearsed way.
Not only that, but each failure seems to excite him into another adventure.
Without going into technical jargon, theory and clinical precedents, this type personality is one that basically AVOIDS success.
Only the excitement of chaos and failure is exciting to them.
I know this sounds “crazy”, but the last thing these personality types want to do is settle down, work at goals, be consistent, conform, and adapt to reality. IOW, getting a job within his skill set and having a regular job, paying his bills, contributing to his life and loved ones’ lives would be BORING and non-stimulative, i.e. Real Success is the Death of the Dream.
So basically these types function in a dream world in which they consider EVERYONE ELSE to be asleep. Everyone else is the loser, the person with a BORING 9 to 5 job. The sociopathic type finds anything and everything else exciting.
Of course they don’t actually recognize they are excited by failure. This level of self-realization is not within their capabilities. Hence, each new adventure is another excitement opportunity, when in fact its merely a variation of the same failure tactic they’ve already mastered.
Usually, these types do not change on their own, but require a major “bursting of their bubble.” This can be a divorce, a firing, the death of a loved one, jail time… whatever causes a “dent” in their armor plate. Unfortunately, most often several “crashes” have to happen, followed by a seemingly “sudden” realization or epiphany.
A “light bulb moment” if you will.
Frequently, by this time, these persons have lost a great deal in life. Not only time, but opportunity, reputation, assets, relationships, and have to build a “new” or “real” personality from the ground up.
I will not kid you, this is very, very difficult, and many people of this personality type are simply either not up to the task or never recognize their disorder.
Those who don’t change tend to escalate their behaviors, and elevate their self destruction sometimes to include the imminent destruction of others in their involvement including (as I mentioned but not limited to drug and alcohol dependency, violence, trouble with law enforcement, criminal associations, prison, homicide or suicide and so on.
I hope Mr Serin reads this brief assesment and decides to get help. He is still young, energetic, and that’s somewhat to his advantage.
Normally I would not have said these things except it is anonymous advice, and I saw the TV show and after finding Mr Serin on the net, realized the likelihood of what I suspect.
Good luck to him
July 28th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Casey tells us his own personally selected, vetted and scripted version of ultimate success that he can hope to ever obtain:
“The only minor issue with this whole thing is I got screwed out of $10,000.
See I actually put the buyer’s old house under contract…”
Be.
Waugh.
Haugh.
Haugh.
Haugh.
Be.
Waugh.
Haugh.
Haugh.
Haugh.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Just stopping in to say goodbye. I’ll be away the next few days and will miss the final few posts between now and when the blog shuts down. I haven’t been here that much anyway. I usually go to one of the other sites to see if anything interesting has happened. I’m sure I’ll be doing that after next week.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Yawn……….
Snuuuzzz*
July 28th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
It’s amazing the hate that Casey’s had directed towards him. Why all this hate for him? Is it simply because he’s an easy target? Well, for myself, it’s just not as easy as that. What about Greenspan and his easy money policy? Didn’t his asinine interest rates contribute the F&*$’n housing mess? What about the poor little bankers. Are they really the victims. Or, are they very much responsible for looking the other way and opening the spigots full blast?
Whoever is to blame, I think we’ll all be feeling the fallout from this speculative and easy money fiasco before too long. Wake up haterz, Casey is just guilty of naivety and gullibilty (and greed too). However, many, many others are as well. I know lots of greedy self centered people that love to watch “Flip this House.” They’d love to try and do the same as Casey, if they had the nerve. Some of them have in fact succeeded in extracting money from the economy for doing nothing more than holding onto a house fro a while.
If Casey had succeed in flipping houses for profit a lot of the haterz on this blog would be cheering him instead of vilifying him. But it seems that people love to hate losers and especially love to kick others when they’re down.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Great blog casey, it’s very infomative
Facing the real world must be extremely tough, but alteast you’re facing it now not later when you’re 60 and retired.
And why would the fbi want you? dont they want terroists more?
claw your way out comeback kid.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
You quit a 50K/year job???? Damn, dude, most college graduates don’t make that kind of money. Sorry, now that I know that, I think you are a fool. Way to flush you life down the toilet. Enjoy that sweet passive income…
July 28th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
I’d be interested in hearing more about your life before you moved to the US. What did your folks do in Tashkent? Did you live in a house or apartment? What was school like? Were you completely culture shocked when you moved to the US?
July 28th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
When I listen to your talkshoe show, I find it funny that every caller is saying that you did this RIGHT and you did that WRONG. I don’t feel that the words RIGHT AND WRONG apply to anything you have done.
If I was in your shoes right now Casey, I would sell your blog and give 75% of the money to G***** because she deserves it more than any lawer or attourney. With the other 25% of your profit, I would spend on 99cent tacos to stay alive and karate lessons for your up and comming “mini vacation” to the booty-house. I mean seriously, I dont think Johnny Cockrien could save you from recieving jail-time, let alone whatever slack-jawed-yokal of a lawer you hired. Wouldn’t you rather be sitting in jail and knowing that you did everything you could to help g***** pay HER/YOUR dept instead of sitting in jail and knowing that you gave all of your funds to some A-hole male pathalogical lying scumbag lawer who spent it like typical lawers do (on crystal methamphetamine and kiddie-porn).
The force is with you young snowflake. Choose wisely.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
But it is Tracy/Nacho/T with her 1830 posts as she sits there…
Oh yeah, I wandered over to CHC and Tracy is a freakin’ nutjob.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Stacey -
Here’s my advice to you:
You need more English classes - for being foreign-born, your English skills are quite good, but could be a lot better. You’re going to gain more credibility in the business world with better English skills.
You need to get educated - go to college. Get a degree - I guarantee you that you won’t regret it. Since you like to borrow money, you could finance it with student loans.
Come back to the business world when you’re a bit wiser, better educated and have a few more world experiences under your belt. Strange as it seems, a few gray hairs don’t hurt either…..
It seems that you have what it takes to succeed in business, but you lack the maturity to pull it off (at this phase in your life at least).
That you would consider 6 months of vacation a “mini vacation” pretty much says it all.
Good luck. Ha - we have the same birthday, except that I’m a few years older than you…….
July 28th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Casey, we have a rental property in the east bay area we are trying to sell. We inherited it, no mortgage, its a total POS, what do you think we should do?
July 28th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Casey, I’m very disappointed that you are shutting down this blog and that apparently, it is too late because you have transferred the domain. I wish you well, and I will always be there for you to help you. In fact, as soon as you announced that you are selling the blog, I have registered for 10 years a domain that you can use if you ever change your mind. I would have liked to keep this offer private, but since you no longer answer my emails, I have to make sure that at least you know about that. I did not pay for Web hosting, but I may do so if you ever use the domain.
Many things can happen within 10 years, but I wanted to make sure the domain name is available any time if you ever need it, even years later. Had you answered my emails, you may have been able to choose a different domain name at my expense. But I chose one you will probably like (check your email or ask me what it is). And I will continue to be a supporter if you need me, or allow you to contact me again in the future if at this time, you just want me to live you alone.
By the way, if you ever need the domain, the exact arrangement remains to be discussed in private, but if you get to use it while I retain ownership, nobody else will be able to take it away from you or make you sell it. If it makes a difference, I will add a token contribution from me.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Great Post, #64
July 28th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Dear Richard,
Your expert opinion and long-distance diagnosis is curious, without you ever having contacted the patient. With your professional ethics and respect for confidentiality, I recommend that you consider a new profession in the United States Senate.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Mmm-hmm.
So you were naive and you trusted your mortgage broker and none of it’s your fault, ‘coz you just “glanced and signed”, and hell, nobody told you it was wrong, and IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT?
So tell us, Casey: when did you start going to the RE investment clubs? What “tips and tricks” did you pick up there? How did you find your brokers — were you referred to them?
And how does your new “nobody told me, everybody was doing it” story gibe with this from last year?
“Nobody told me.” Right. Sounds to me like people did tell you; but you chose to ignore them.
And as others have said, you signed the forms. You warranted that the information on them was accurate. If it wasn’t, or you didn’t understand, then you shouldn’t have signed; you should have asked questions.
Finally: is your defense lawyer — named in the Nightline article –licensed to practice in California? This would seem a bare minimum requirement to handle your case…
July 28th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
One more thought before I go… Case, you really need to pay your ex’s debt first. Seriously. It’s going to f*** up your life in ways you can’t even imagine if you don’t.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Why didn’t g*** have a job hen she was in college? Why would it be up to Casey to provide for her 100%. Don’t most people have at least part time jobs while in college? It seems as if she didn’t have to quit college, but it was just a matter of her poor planning in thinking that she could go to school full time with no job and hope her husband’s (and her) deals would work out.
I think she had less responsibility for all the houses going into foreclosure, but she did go to the seminars and helped with renovations. She knew most of what was going on. How else would Casey buy multiple houses in a row without her having a clue that they couldn’t afford it? I’m thinking she wanted to cash in on the RE bubble too and if they did make money she would be claiming 50% of as hers. I’m not a supporter but the girl seems to be trying to jump ship and play dumb to get out of any accountability in aiding Casey.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
For you people that think the FBI is going to throw Casey in jail…
They won’t.
You know that 1/3rd to 1/2 of your salary you send to the government every year in good faith to do their job? They don’t do their job, and they never will.
Enoy the next April 15th!
July 28th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
“68. Jack Frost — Why all this hate for him? Is it simply because he’s an easy target? Well, for myself, it’s just not as easy as that. What about Greenspan and his easy money policy?”
I don’t consider the thickness of the windows a factor as to whether I decide to break into a store and steal the goods or not.
I was raised to understand we just don’t do that.
So, it could be 1 mm thick, and plain glass, or it could be .5 inches thick with pressure sensitive alarms, and I couldn’t tell you nor care about the difference, because I am not going to bust in.
See how that works?
You are welcome.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Yeah, Casey. Give your wife some large cash. That will ingratiate you and show contrition. She may allow you back into her life.
Sure, you may discover that she is shallow and respects only the bottom line, but then again, you married her. You two are a perfect match.