Facing foreclosure site finally sold off
August 1, 2007
Casey Serin formally of iamfacingforeclosure.com has sold off his domain for $50,000. He did have one offer at one stage of $20,000 and a share of future revenues but he didn’t go through with that deal. The content was not included in the transaction, making it a fairly decent sale for just a domain. It will be interesting to see if the owner can maintain page one for foreclosure.
Casey bought eight properties all with 100 per cent financing in the space of a year and attempted to flip them for a profit. Unfortunately for him the market turned and he was not able to sell the properties, even to break even. At close of most purchases he took out equity in the properties and used the cash to finance renovations and sometimes personal expenses.
He overstated his income from his job and said that he would be living in the properties. Australia is the same as the US in that interest charges are different for investment properties. It is for these factors that, now he is under investigation by the FBI, although no charges have been laid.
I got right into the story downloading all of the podcasts. Casey managed to draw a huge following of mostly “Haterz” and even built up a whole new vocabulary and a bunch of colloquialisms. The caseyhaterz forum which sprung up pretty late in the picture, has hundreds of members and thousands of threads focused solely on Casey’s story.
I don’t know what the moral of the story is, but if you commit any type of fraud it is probably not a good idea to blog about it.
Don’t let your possessions own you
June 18, 2007
I have started a new category to my blog on Mobile Living. It is to write about my experiences working while traveling around the world. I finally bought a PDF version of the the “4 Hour Working Week” by Tim Ferrris from Powells. I am not sure why, but Amazon weren’t selling an electronic version. Some of the things he writes about I am already doing, but some other things I think I believe I can work into my life and business.
I have lived overseas for more than 10 years now and have moved house more times than I can remember. I have never owned any expensive furniture. I know my family laugh at me because I don’t like buying “stuff”. Whenever I moved I tended to just buy the minimal amount of household goods to live comfortably. I have also been surprised by the amount of free furniture and electrical goods I could get from friends. This worked especially well in Japan where you actually need to pay people to dispose of furniture and electrical goods. I was even able to sell some of the items I got for free.
Space being a premium in Japan they sleep on futons, which are nothing more than a fairly thin mattress and duvet. They also sit on the floor at a low coffee like table called a “kotatsu” which has a heating element underneath the table to heat your legs during winter. Adopting the Japanese Zen minimalist approach is one way of avoiding buying a lot of stuff.
If you would like to travel more for longer period of time, it is important not to accumulate or grow attached to your possessions. You need to ask yourself, are they really that important? They could very well be the things which are holding you back, if you would like to go traveling for a long period of time. Storage is fairly expensive and unless you pack things away well, they will slowly deteriorate. It is probably cheaper to sell or give things away and buying new household goods on your return. Electronic items like TVs and DVD players only get cheaper and eventually have no resale value.
Renting your place as a furnished property, presents new problems. Tenants may not treat your furniture well and some places have laws which you need to follow, like making your furniture fire-proof. Another option could be lending items to your friends and family. Again there is no guarantee they will take good care of them.
Overseas property site review
June 14, 2007
Disclosure: The following is a paid review. You can get your website reviewed right here for just $60.
Propertymartoverseas is a European based international property website. They claim to have over fifty thousand listings in 68 countries, which is a pretty impressive volume. Looking at the properties in Australia they are mostly the type that are fairly expensive apartments that are marketed to overseas investors.
I searched next for property in Thailand and the results returned properties from a number of different countries, including India, Greece and the US - but not Thailand.
The website has property country profiles from around the world. I took a look at the profiles for property in Japan and Australia and the information is a simple introduction to the countries with some information on the current state of the market. Many countries have different laws and regulations for foreign investors and I think it would be better if they provided this kind of information on their website.
The company also publishes a property magazine which is distributed in the UK where your properties can also be listed. They also have a property news section on their site which has some interesting articles for overseas investors. The section would have more value if they provided an RSS feed.
In summary the site is a good resource for people contemplating purchasing an overseas property, but the site lacks any advanced listing features, like virtual walk throughs and property maps that are fairly standard on property websites these days.
Property management business
June 12, 2007
I just came back from a trip around the beautiful Halong Bay. One thing about traveling is that not only do you get to see some interesting places, but you also get the opportunity to meet some interesting people from around the world.
One couple I met on the trip, have a property management business in Nelson, New Zealand. They manage 180 properties in the city. They have a great deal of experience in real estate investing and property management. Some of the tenant stories were pretty amazing. Some of the properties they manage are for people on low incomes and government benefits, so I am sure you can imagine the types of problems they have to face everyday. During their trip, one of their properties became vacant after a tenant was sent to jail!
They didn’t go into too many details, but it sounded like they also had a sizeable property portfolio of their own. You could spend thousands of dollars on property investing seminars, but I believe that you just can’t compare a seminar with spending time talking with an experienced investor. He told me is part of a property investing group, that regularly meet to discuss property and investing.
I am fairly sure that wherever you are in the world you can find such a group and meet up with experienced investors. A much better option than paying thousands of dollars to a property guru.
Facing foreclosure site down
June 2, 2007
Casey Serin has finally pulled the plug on his I am facing foreclosure web site. He hasn’t given a reason, but I would guess that he was getting quite a bit of heat from his family. The site was getting a large amount of media attention, which was great for his site, but probably not so great for his family.
I bought one of his “sweet links” for $100 a month. The link was only up 8 days, but I got a bit of traffic from it. I didn’t think I would be hearing from Casey again, but he said he would refund part of the advertising fee.
Many people said the site didn’t offer any educational value, but for me it was an interesting insight to some factors of US property and lending practices. I don’t think Australian banks would let someone get into his situation in the first place. I find it totally unbelievable as to how he was able to tell the banks that he was going to live in the property when he was buying it for investment, especially when he lived so far away from the properties.
Perhaps it is these lax lending practices that have fueled the US’s property down turn. Australia’s property market only continues to gain in value creating the situation where young people are unable to afford a house of their own.
Scottsdale Property Site Review
April 22, 2007
Disclosure: The following is a paid review. If I have access to the internet, I will generally try and accept all reviews that I receive. A review on this blog costs just $60.
Scottsdale Fine Properties have requested a review of their site and business. Having never been to Scottsdale it is a little hard to comment on the area, but it is a city I have heard of a number of times. Scottsdale is in Arizona and adjacent to Phoenix.
Scottsdale was named the most livable city in 1993 and is one of the top golf and resort destinations in the world. The prized lifestyle does not come cheap however and Scottsdale is ranked in the top ten markets for luxury home sales in the US. Many famous celebrities call the city home.
Afer reviewing the Scottsdale Fine Properties website, they seem to offer a personal service to both buyers and sellers in the area. They offer a One on One service to meet the needs of high profile people, who privacy may be an issue. Lesley Martinson runs the One on One program and has 17 years experience and an impressive half a billion dollars in personal sales.
Their website has listings for property all over Arizona. You will need to register with the site to view detailed listings. It is amazing that you can still buy a 3 bedroom house in Arizona for $45,000. It is virtually impossible to buy a house in Australia at this price. Even in the remotest parts of Australia, I think you would still struggle to find anything for less $100,000.
Scottsdale Fine Properties specialty is of course luxury properties and their exclusive listings are mostly several million dollars. So what can you get for a cool 10 million dollars?
This property is on 2.34 acres of land, has 4 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. I wonder why you would need 10 bathrooms? The property would suit a person into sports with a tennis court, pool, batting cage, basketball court and a chipping green. It has capacity for 10 cars and what I would love most, “gentleman’s den with office, wet bar, full bath.”
My only criticism of the site is the black background. A plain white background is much easier one the eye, especially on a property website.
It is going to be a little while yet before I will be signing up Leslie’s One on One property service, but you can be sure when I have a couple million in the bank, I will be giving her a call.
Property on the increase again in Australia
April 12, 2007
I have BBC news in the place I am currently staying in and heard a report that Australian housing prices are on the increase again. There is currently a shortfall in rental properties in the major cities.
I just recently increased the rent on my apartment to $10 a week. It is the first increase in rent in a number of years. I still think the rent is under market value, but the tenant I currently have has been there for at least three years now, and has been fantastic.
The increase in rent values has brought investors back in the market, thus pushing up prices. This of course means that an increase in inflation is going to put pressure for the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates.
It’s a pretty vicious cycle, but the overall effect can only be good for existing property owners.
Correction: Yes, that’s a $10 week increase in rent. Not a great deal, but it is an extra $500 a year in income. I wrote that post just after eating a delicious Sri Lankan curry. The food was good, but I was thinking I need to get back to my guest house pretty quick.
Paying off your mortgage early
December 5, 2006
Adventure Money has put together a great article comparing the differing advice of two financial gurus. It is a great idea for a blog series.
I started out trying to put all my savings into paying off my mortgage. It worked well initially as it gave me a great deal of satisfaction seeing my loan go down. Later I realized that I wasn’t increasing my overall wealth, especially as housing prices started to level off.
I know when I first got my mortgage, I wasn’t earning very much. The repayments were more than the rent I was previously paying. Gradually over time, my salary increased and I was putting my savings into paying off the principle.
I later moved to Japan and rented the property out. It was a great feeling having someone else pay off my loan. I eventually realized I had all of this equity just sitting there which I wasn’t getting much return on. I was able to refinance to then buy further properties.
I haven’t had any recent valuations, but I know I could easily buy more property if I wanted, just by recycling the equity. As long as property values continue to increase, which they generally do in Australia and New Zealand, it is probably one of the easiest ways to accumulate wealth.
One word of warning though, never refinance your loan to buy a non-appreciative asset like a car, holiday or house renovation. I don’t think it is even a good idea to restructure your debt (credit cards, personal loans)using your mortgage.
Here is one way not to manage your financial affairs.
Disclaimer: This is just my opinion, seek professional advice before making any financial decisions.
New tenants for Tokoroa
May 2, 2006
Last year I bought two houses on a 1000 meter section of land.
Earlier this year, the tenants vacated the properties and have been vacant since. This is a vacancy of over 3 months!
The town has a population of just 14,000. When the properties are let, the return is fairly good, but if I cannot secure a long term tenant this property is definitely an under performer.
I believe I have made a good capital gain on the propety. I am still thinking what I should do. If the tenant pays the rent on time and doesn’t cause much trouble, maybe I will keep it, but if I have any more trouble I think I would be better off to let if go.
Helping a colleague make money in property
April 1, 2006
One colleague at my company was interested in how I was investing in property in New Zealand. He kept talking about the rising interest rates, falling property prices and so on. He was interested, but so negative. I don’t know why, but I kept telling him that there were many good opportunities available.
I gave him all of the details of who to contact, but he said kept saying he was too busy to contact. When I suggested I don’t mind sending an email, he said that was fine.
To cut a long story short, he has signed a contract to buy a duplex in the south of New Zealand. The purchase price is a few thousand under the valuation of the property, to which the bank is lending 90 per cent of the valuation price.
He is very happy with the outcome. One of the tenants has even paid rent in advance. I have no idea why. I have introduced him to all the contacts I have made. I don’t benefit anything financially, but he is happy with my help.
I don’t know what I really want to say, but I am just happy to have helped someone from my own limited experience. I have started to create a guide on buying property in New Zealand, which you can access on the right hand side of this page. I will keep updating it as I go.
I am happy to provide any assitance if anyone needs help with realestate, as long as I can write about it here.
