Bob Shallit: Investor's tale of woe winning big audience
West Sacramento investor Casey Serin has blogged his failure at "fixing and flipping."
By Bob Shallit - Bee Columnist
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Casey Serin has had more than his 15 minutes of fame. He's been on the cover of USA Today, in the New York Times, on National Public Radio. Now The Bee.
The reason for his renown? The 24-year-old West Sacramento resident has been singularly unsuccessful as a real estate investor. And, unlike most people who've lost a ton of money, he's been happy -- eager, really -- to talk all about it.
Last year he launched a blog (iamfacingforeclosure.com) that chronicles in painful detail every mistake he's made since deciding to get rich "fixing and flipping" -- buying homes, making repairs and then selling them for a profit.
The site has caught fire, drawing thousands of people who follow Serin's every move like a soap opera.
"It's like a train wreck," he says of his story and the national attention it's attracted. People can't help but stare.
His investment tale is riveting. While working as a Web designer a couple of years ago, he saw one of those late-night infomercials on making a fortune in real estate. He spent $15,000 on classes right away. For a time, it seemed like money well spent.
He made $30,000 on his first "flip." But then, instead of taking things slowly, he acquired eight homes -- in Sacramento, Modesto, Utah, New Mexico and Texas -- in a span of seven months.
All were bought with no-money-down loans. And they were acquired just as the real estate market was turning south in each of those communities.
Bottom line: While Serin eventually was able to sell three of his homes, he went into foreclosure on five, with debts approaching $2 million.
"I realized I messed up big time," says Serin, who was born in Uzbekistan and moved with his family to this country when he was 12.
He started his blog with the idea of finding buyers for the properties. There weren't any takers, but he did find readers fascinated by his troubles.
So, he says, "I just started sharing my story."
On the blog, he's talked about the errors he's made, posted copies of correspondence with banks and included responses from his followers, some of whom are venomous.
"I'm amazed ... so many people want to kick you while you're down," he says.
Why bare all to the world? Part of it is self-serving. He hopes to find partners who can help him stay in the real estate game.
Part, he says, is altruistic.
"Maybe," he says, "some people can learn from my mistakes."
hpbromine at 5:39 AM PST Wednesday, January 24, 2007 wrote:
So This Is Our New Celebrity?
So now we can achieve fame and notoriety for being stupid? What a world.....what a world.....
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bigdaddycool at 7:52 AM PST Wednesday, January 24, 2007 wrote:
comment to hpbromine
Sometimes it's a fine line between entrepreneurial ambition and "stupid", as you so eloquently put it. This young man did more than most; he got in the game and for that his tale is worthy of chronicle. I used to own a business. I turned it into a very profitable entity and then sold the parts for exponentially more than I could have earned from continuing to operate it (for the record it was a "multi-venture" corporation - which is a fancy way of saying that I owned multiple businesses; some retail, some service, etc., even did a few house flips myself.) I often heard that I was "stupid" for not being more conventional in my employment choice. "Stupid" might not be inaccurate, as much as it is crass and oversimplistic. BTW, I say "used to own a business" because now I'm in semi-retirement..............very comfortably...............with vacation homes at the beach, Lake Tahoe and Scottsdale................at the ripe old age of 37..................
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mjp2222 at 8:03 AM PST Wednesday, January 24, 2007 wrote:
Interesting read
He's only 24, has the guts to execute, and confidence to admit when he's wrong. He'll be fine in the long fun. People always like a story about someone who makes the effort and goes big - even if they lose.
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claudia8793 at 9:06 AM PST Wednesday, January 24, 2007 wrote:
get rich quick, he believed the American dream
In the movie "The Pursuit of Happiness" , the most memorable line to me was, "Protect your Dream, don't ever let anyone tell you you can't do something, not even me". This guy may have been only 12 when he moved here from a former Communist Country but I am sure he was influenced by his elders and ancestors and the history of his country. I took the same risks as he did, and although I sold just in time to avoid foreclosure, I did lose money and wish I had done it differently. But I would not know what I know today had it not been for that experience. Did you know that most millionairs have filed bankruptcy at least once on their life. The only difference between successful people and those that are not, is determination and attitude. Do you see the hard lessons as lessons or do they define you as a loser? Don't ever give up and if you learned something from an experience, it is not a failure but a learning experience. America is still the land of opportunity.
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d32632 at 11:14 AM PST Wednesday, January 24, 2007 wrote:
What was NOT mentioned.
The article failed to mention that he readily admits to what amounts to mortgage fraud, specifically so called "liar loans." Overstating his income and ability to repay the mortgages. Those of us who are following his blog are waiting for the other shoe to drop, specifically any criminal charges.
Why are we interested? Simply because it is people like Casey who have contributed to current housing bubble and resultant artificial inflation of home values.
7 out of 8 people found this comment helpful.
stransp at 11:30 AM PST Wednesday, January 24, 2007 wrote:
The kid gets too much credit...
for his entrepreneur spirit. He knew if housing prices went south, he would just walk away. The real question is how he was able to borrow the money?
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cfar at 3:23 PM PST Wednesday, January 24, 2007 wrote:
The problem being, we all pay for his mistakes, higher interest rates, tighter lending, etc etc...
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JWWiltshire at 7:07 PM PST Wednesday, January 24, 2007 wrote:
He admits his crimes
Read his website: Casey admits he lied on the mortgage applications. He stated that he was going to live in all of the houses, his income was far greater then it actually was, and took the loans as fast as possible so they would not be picked up by the credit agencies until the loans were ALL granted (if a lender noticed three previous loans in the past 90 days, they just might have not funded the loan.)
We ALL are paying: higher rates for our legitimate loans, higher prices for the homes on the market, unrealistic expectations from sellers.
Casey is just more open about the scam he was involved in. He deserves credit for his honesty, and for giving us a look inside the dark side of the recent housing boom.
4 out of 4 people found this comment helpful.
mikenyc2001 at 1:50 PM PST Sunday, February 4, 2007 wrote:
CASEY IS A LIAR
check out
http://exurbannation.blogspot.com/
for the real 411 behind casey, his wife, his fake MLM RE University job, the true involvement of his wife, his inlaws in prison, his previous cached blog showing hour by hour details of his hard work inspecting contractor work, his frequent naps, his willingness to sign anything, his contract assigning the rights to his story to PRLINKBIZ and the nolimitsladies, his worship of GURU's, his previous chain letter get rich quick schemes, his corporate credit scheme to pay off his loans, his previous 'investor' emails garanteeing 24% return on RE investment, when he really wanted to use investor money to pay off his creedit card debt hoping to find another flip to pay back initial investors, can you say PONZI scheme......theres plenty more just GOOGLE it.
his website is full one one sided woe-is-me investor fantasy!
4 out of 4 people found this comment helpful.
kevnmarty at 9:01 PM PST Monday, February 5, 2007 wrote:
No mercy for Casey
At first glance, Bob, Casey's story is fasinating. But after reading some of his blog, it is very obvious that Casey is not one to hold up and admire. I would hope that you would have done a little more research on this guy. This guy freely admits to multiple counts of mortgage fraud. He claimed on his loan application that he would occupy each property, while closing five or six deals in roughly a month and a half. On many of his deals he received money back from the seller without reporting it on the HUD1 statement. Yet you somehow neglete to mention any of this info.
I would much rather read an indepth piece of journalism of the whats and why this type of action was allowed to happen. What do state and federal agencies think about it. I only hope that the next words in the Sac Bee about this 'crook' tell the whole story and not just some glossover about the website and people's fasination with the trainwreck.
3 out of 3 people found this comment helpful.
droid411 at 3:09 PM PST Tuesday, February 6, 2007 wrote:
Lazy scammer and thief.
This kid works so hard at avoiding work that he would be quite successful if he actually worked on something positive. Another Lonely_girl15.
beerzie at 7:13 AM PST Wednesday, January 24, 2007 wrote:
Wow. How tactless.
hpbromine, the poor guy admits his failure and isn't seeking fame. Why, indeed, kick a guy when he's down? At least he's not giving up. Show a little sympathy.
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