"I am facing foreclosure..."

[nosillies]

This "kid" is getting some attention lately, and is a little controversial. His story is here:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2006-10-2...

If there's a poster child for everything that went wrong in the real estate boom, it just might be Casey Serin.

In one year, the 24-year-old website-designer-turned-real estate-flipper bought eight homes in four states — and in every case but one, he put no money down. At his peak, in April, Serin had $93,000 he'd taken out of the homes as he bought them. By July, he was broke, desperate for one last deal.

Now? Serin has $140,000 in credit card and credit-line debt and five houses in foreclosure. Last month, he started iamfacingforeclosure.com, a blog that's drawn both notes of condolence and expletive-laced condemnation.

"I did some stuff shady, but I'm not going to hide from it," he says. "Somebody can learn from it. I've already had people contact me and say, 'Hey, I'm in the same place.'"

Note in the third paragraph that he does have his own website. On a sympathy scale of one to ten, with ten being having lots of sympathy for him, I rank about a one. But maybe someone in the Sacramento area can help him find a real job.

[hatrack]

1. I hear that some California orchards can't find workers lately . . .

Maybe he could pick up something at $8 or $9 an hour?

[babylonsister]

5. Ideally, it'd be $5.75 per hour, or whatever minimum wage is.

That's the rethug way!

[hatrack]

6. But with this year's labor shortage they've had to . . .

RAISE WAGES!!!!! AAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[toadzilla]

10. $5.15 ! n/t

[babylonsister]

18. Welcome to DU, toadzilla, and that amount is appalling.

[terip64]

2. Looks like he's on it and probably has already had some offers n/t

[bigscott]

3. gosh golly

why do i have ZERO sympathy for this idiot? As far as I am concerned he should do time as reparation for his debt - THIS is a case where bankruptcy should NOT be allowed

try keeping your real job instead of this get-rich-quick crap

[Crankie Avalon]

4. It's creeps like this who drive housing prices to insane, artificially...

...high levels so that it becomes impossible for real families to afford to own a home they can, you know, actually live and raise their kids in rather than play these "flip" games.

[nosillies]

17. I wrote essentially the same thing in the comment section on his blog

Don't know if it will be posted, though.

Get-rich-quick, usually young flippers tend to know jack shit about real economics. They have helped to create the artificially inflated home values that led to the current glut of homes on the market. Now everyone is paying the price with crazy property taxes and the inability to sell their home, if need be, without taking a loss.

[jmowreader]

21. They also screw everyone else in the neighborhood

The real objection I have to house-flippers is how they mess up comparative value for everyone else in the neighborhood.

I live in a $70,000 neighborhood. The crazy neighbor lady from hell (the one who had her lawn man whack up my maple tree--some of you remember her) has done all this shit to her house that will do one of two things:

Thing 1: push everyone else's house into the $100k-plus range, and there's no way any of us can get $100,000 for the homes we have

or

Thing 2: she'll lose her ass on all the renovations, but we won't be able to sell at all unless we're willing to drop $30k making our homes look like hers.

Either way, we're screwed. And this happens all over America with these flippers.

[pinerow]

7. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Greed is its' own reward....

[cosmik debris]

8. This reminds me of that truly awful Bankruptcy Bill.

And this guy is the reason for that bill!

[sarge43]

9. Pssst Serin

Only a member of the Bush jackal pack can get away with that kind of gaming. Welcome back to real world.

[shadowknows69]

11. Maybe next time you'll skip buying the get rich quick scheme

sold to you by at guy on an infomercial at 3AM.

[RB TexLa]

12. He lays out why he fails

from his site.


I will not work more than 8 hours a day.

No working on weekends.

I will keep all work in the office. No taking work home

[survivor999]

13. Greedy and stupid... n/t

[jwirr]

14. My sympathy for this speculator is nil but seriously he is not

a poster boy for foreclosure cases. Our papers are full of foreclosures on single family homes that are all many young couples have to their name. Many of these young families will technically be homeless when it is all done. The agencies that are trying to help them are so backed up that it takes months to get an appointment and I have no idea if they can be helped.

Predatory lenders are one of the biggest problems and if the above guy is addressing that issue - good. They lend to young couples who are low-income and do not have any other source and they charge at least 18% interest. There is no way the couple can continue to make the payments so they lose everything. There needs to be some laws made to stop this type of lender and Housing Finance Agencies (government) need to address this problem.


Edited: Oh and the economy is rocking - went over 12,000 didn't it?

[flvegan]

16. Bingo.

The poster child for what went wrong in the real estate boom is not the poor investor who now is on the losing side. That's what investing is about...some win, some lose.

The true poster children are exactly as you stated, though not all are young couples. Many are simply new homeowners that didn't have worthy credit or a downpayment until recently. Many were subject to predatory lending, less-than-honest appraisers, etc.

I'm house-hunting now, and I've met a good number of folks that are selling their homes because they "can't afford it" anymore. Many of them are facing foreclosure, which in many cases is a lose-lose situation for both borrower and lender.

[Blue Diadem]

15. My sympathy is reserved for the person/family that loses their home

not someone who bought real estate for profit. This young man's choices were business decisions and he has to live with that.

[warrens]

19. An EXPENSIVE holiday in other people's misery!!!!

I have absolutely no compassion for the little punk.

[MichaelHarris]

20. That boy

needs to lay off the late night infomercials. I bet he has a wonderful steak knife collection though.

[Javaman]

22. I think this dolt is trying to be one of those people who...

lose millions but then make millions. You always hear about the "type" but have anyone of us ever honestly met one?

This kid, and he is a kid, is a fool of the highest order.

He's of the type of losing that million first before actually making it.

[Blue_Tires]

23. must have got his financial advice from this guy!

http://www.richjerk.com/