The world's most hated blogger on real estate, gold, and the pains of being pure at heart
Filed under: Borrowing, Debt, Entrepreneurship, Real Estate, Wealth, Investing
Two years ago, it's fair to say, Casey Serin hit bottom. A bottom lower than most of us could go -- a bottom that would make most of us nauseous and curl into fetal position, whimpering.
A young Uzbekistan expat who grew up in Sacramento eyeing the American dream, Serin observed as a mighty wave of real-estate speculation swept over the state and the country. But when he tried to hang 10, he wiped out. Big time.
Earlier in the decade, at 23, things looked brighter. After flipping his apartment effortlessly, Serin attended a real-estate seminar that reinforced what the experience told him: that making money in real estate was a snap. He began buying single-family homes across the West, some sight unseen, and some with mortgages far in excess of 100%.
Serin was trying to play the speculation market, but he was in far over his head. Soon he had eight houses, and most went quickly into foreclosure. When the carnage was over, he was millions of dollars in debt. Through it all, Serin wrote iamfacingforeclosure.com, his notorious blog documenting his own candid, unflinching diary of unceasing failure -- a reliable lightning rod for supporters and "haterz." CNet soon dubbed Serin "the world's most hated blogger," and media like USA Today, NPR, Suze Orman, and ABC Australia took notice. It all sounded so outlandish that the investment site the Motley Fool wondered if Casey Serin wasn't a hoax.
By July 2007, he was coming undone. His marriage was unraveling. The FBI wanted a word with him. The book he'd hoped to publish about the experience was getting bogged down in bad contracts. (In one typical post on iamfacingforeclosure, from January 2007, Serin wrote about how he inadvertently signed away the rights to his story: "I impulsively chose to trust these two ladies again and figured they are looking out for my best interest and would not screw me on this deal, even though I didn't fully understand the implications" he wrote of the contract.)
For his amused, appalled audience, Serin's car-wreck of a life -- impulsive trips to Australia, awful business deals, an increasingly frustrated young wife -- made him the poster child of the subprime real-estate disaster. These days, of course, he's got plenty of company, and condemning his actions isn't so simple anymore.
In an exclusive interview with WalletPop last week over lunch at a Sacramento eatery, Serin spoke extensively for the first time since the end of iamfacingforeclosure about the rocky paths he's chosen. He still seems fully under the sway of the pop-motivational texts that helped encourage him in the first place, saying he strives to live by the living-large rules of bestselling gurus like Robert Kurosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) and Tim Ferriss (The 4-Hour Workweek).
But Serin's next plan is a jaw-dropper. He aims to go off the grid and head to the foothills of Northern California, where he will -- literally, symbolically, unbelievably -- prospect for gold.
And, he'll be fulfilling a dream of living in a van.
Serin, now 27, looks angelic, rosy-cheeked and guileless: not the kind of person who would attract such vitriol from his many critics. "I started reaching out to some of these people, and they started warming up to me," says Serin, who still has traces of his Uzbek accent. "I met some of my critics in person, and we're friends now."
Letting everyone openly hate you could be a business model, he now realizes. "Everybody's got a story. The more open you are, the more vulnerable you make yourself -- people start testing your boundaries." He smiles affectionately, then laughs to himself, comparing his "haterz" to elementary-school bullies.
Serin sold the iamfacingforeclosure domain name in 2007 and used the money to pay off his wife's debt. He's measured his past two years online in three blogs, all now defunct: one advised short-selling real estate, another was a personal diary called truecasey.com. He also invested in penny stocks, specifically GoldSpring (GSPG), and wrote about it in his short-lived blog, millionairebyChristmas.com. he also stayed active in a local real-estate investment club.
Serin's notoriety cost him one prospective job, he says -- he's a Web designer by trade -- and led a tax accountant to reject him as a client. He and his wife, Galina, divorced in March 2008, and he clearly misses her. (His situation, though extreme, is hardly the only marriage that's been tested by foreclosure.)
Today, Serin says he's overcoming depression through divorce counseling at a church and living with his parents. He's turned away from blogging and instead is immersing himself in meditation, yoga, and Eastern philosophy -- all components of his recovery. "I'm trying not to look at labels -- the primary importance is two human beings connecting," he says. "Most of the world is fear-based: a bunch of egos talking back and forth."
And he's not beating himself up over his mistakes. "I don't see myself as a failure internally, not necessarily a screw-up," he says. "It's an experience." All he ever wanted to do in the five years since graduating from high school in 2000, he says, was to create passive income and be free to live anywhere he wanted. He wasn't earning enough as a Web designer, he says, so he turned to real estate. His timing was spectacularly wrong, of course -- he got in at the peak and badly blew the game -- but even now, he says, that's all real estate ever was to him: a game.
Casey's next wild ride is partnering with an investor who owns a gold mine. He has invested in equipment that can extract fine gold and has put a claim on 60 acres of government land nearby to search for more. His more basic aim is to live off the land. Citing Thoreau's Walden and Sean Penn's film version of Into the Wild as inspiration, Casey is well-versed in the time-honored dream of living off the grid.
Serin is old enough to remember watching life in Uzbekistan fall apart after the Soviet Union crumbled, all the empty stores and poverty. So he says he wants to be prepared when the same thing happens in the U.S. in the coming Depression 2.0. Though he has grandiose plans of trying to learn how to grow his own food, he's mostly going to use this time to recoup and study for his real-estate license.
Yes, Serin hopes to get back into the game, still wants to score the inevitable book deal for his past misadventures.
"They know I'm not going to get a job, a standard job," he says of his critics. "I'm an entrepreneur."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
8-03-2009 @ 5:43PM
Arthur Wankspittle said...
Typical Casey. One minute he's expecting Depression 2.0, next minute he's studying for his real estate licence. Come on, which is it going to be?
He's only missing his wife because every "successful entrepreneur" should have one.
He's living in a van because he got fired from his last "job" and couldn't pay the rent on the tiny studio he was living in. He's not welcome back home because his parents are saddled with $50,000 of his debt.
As for being an entrepreneur, he frequently talks about it, often mis-spells it, and never actually does it.
http://www.caseypedia.com
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8-03-2009 @ 7:23PM
Rob Dawg said...
And yet another gullible reporter listens to Casey and doesn't do any research. His "mistakes" were multimillion dollar fraud not game playing and losing. His divorce was not because of the stress of real estate investments gone bad but because of deep personal flaws, lying and emotional abuse.
Good luck on getting a RE license Casey. Imagine the outcry when your name joins the ranks of the CAR.
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9-02-2009 @ 9:22PM
Dolph said...
Casey has it wrong. If Depression 2.0 is coming, no need to study for anything but maybe growing food and finding sources of clean water.
He talks about people being fearful yet here he is talking about depressions. Seems to me the kid is fearful of the end.
If a depression comes, the Caseys of the world will be the biggest victims.
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8-03-2009 @ 6:40PM
aazinko said...
Sounds pretty reasonable to me dude!
RT
http://www.anon-web-tools.us.tc
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8-03-2009 @ 7:20PM
jin said...
casey's comment about the coming apocalypse just sounds like the embodiment of "misery loves company".
get OFF the self help bs casey. it IS BS. they are based on "the useful lie".... the truth can paralyze, a lie may inspire action which at least will not GUARANTEE FAILURE like inaction.
but it is still a lie. don't go down as the poster child of the failure of the self help movement.
the world is NOT fair, you CANNOT do everything you set your mind to, resources ARE limited and the top 2% control more of the resources than the bottom 98% COMBINED! that is not because the world is FAIR or the race goes to the swiftest or that 98% of us are lazy bums.
it is a lie that the rich tell to keep the poor from the pitchforks and torches and a lie the poor tell themselves to keep themselves from slitting their own throats. but it is still a lie.
couch it as benignly as you can think, like "having external income to do what you want"... take that apart - do you think that in a world where most of the population lives hand to mouth - does that honestly sound like a MODEST GOAL?! that is the exact equivalent of "wanting to win the lottery"...!
do you think it is not in fact just buying (desperately) into nuvo "GET RICH QUICK" schemes?
all anybody wants to do is "do what they want"... ack....
"entrepreneur" is one way of putting it. inability to grow up and get a job may be another.
you are consumed in labels and hide behind them. what are you if you can't use the label "entrepreneur"?
alas - if you must continue on the path you're on, beat the drum as loudly as you can for kiosaki and their "get rick quick" ilk that you hold dear.
at the very least, you can serve as a warning to others.
but here's hoping you get your head out of the clouds and knuckle down to reality and get your life in order and stop jumping from one movement to another trying to get your fix of FALSE HOPES.
reality is prosaic, dull, monotonous, boring and WORK. fairy tails need not apply. and in my bones, i feel like the quicker you can accept that, the quicker you can start getting on with real life.
i do wish you well and hope you can recover from that which has been dealt you and that which you brought on yourself.
jin
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8-03-2009 @ 10:43PM
ron said...
well, we all make mistakes. who can fault him for jumping into the real estate game?
Its a great time to get in the game again, eh?
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8-04-2009 @ 7:40AM
ADawg said...
This guy is a total failure. omg. http://www.caseypedia.com/wiki/Casey_Serin
Looks like good ole' Chalupa pulled a Casey herself by trying to fix'n'flip a perspective over Serin's fail life--and failed at it. GG.
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8-03-2009 @ 7:53PM
MouseAndPencil said...
Declan at CNET has interviewed Casey since IAFF went down. Nice claim, too bad it's false.
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8-03-2009 @ 9:49PM
RayRay said...
Yeah! What Jin said!
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8-03-2009 @ 11:27PM
Gary E. Sattler said...
Andrea, I admire your writing ability.
Just think what you could do writing about someone who has actually accomplished something worthwhile.
Casey's story could be summed up in a personal statement which might read as follows:
I come to Amerika to play the system - or to be a hippy - I know not which.
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8-05-2009 @ 2:32AM
Jane said...
Well, we shouldn't make ourselves miserable by just a simple speculation. We could do our share to help our real estate industry back to its track. Thanks for sharing. I know a real estate coach who could also help many in the real estate industry make money despite the current crisis.
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8-04-2009 @ 2:30AM
Casey Serin said...
Andrea, wow, what a great article!
I just now saw your email because my solar panel I bought as an experiment isn't as robust as I thought so I am throttling my usage of the laptop to once or twice a day. The 12v powered mini fridge, my other experiment, actually requires way too much power and depleted one of the batteries. I can still run my engine from time to time but the gas is getting pretty low. I'm still figuring out the power situation.
Back to the article.
I like your fairly accurate description of what I've been up to in the last few years. I also like some of the perspectives you used to paint the facts, you made me laugh at myself a few places. Great for self reflection. Thank you!
It's too bad it didn't work out for you to come out to my spot in the forest like we where thinking, but maybe next time you're on the west coast... if I'm still in the wild.
My adventure is going crazier than I thought, hehe...
I'm very much Into The Wild, just like Chris McCandless, and I am not very well prepared and didn't know what kind of crazy adventure this was going to be. And I'm kind of trapped since my van may be slightly damaged in trying to make it out here and also because its not 4x4 it may not make it back up the steep road.
Biggest thing is that the creek dried up. That means I have to ride my mountain bike 5 miles back up hill to the little town to buy water but I didn't save any cash for that, figuring I'l boil the creek water and try living off the land. I'm doing OK for now without food because I'm sort of fasting and doing some cleansing after months of eating whatever my heart desires. I have enough distilled water at the moment.
All I have are some lemons, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, sea salt, some special tea and herbs... and I cheated with a couple of bottles of wine that I picked up on the way here, they're long gone now. The good thing is today on my exploration ride I found many blackberry bushes with delicious ripe nuggets that I've been feasting on all day... they're wild and healthy!
The fairly uncomfortable part are the mosquitoes who love me like i'm a piece of candy - they come in waves during different times of the day. Then I'll admit to having occasional mild fears of the wild animals or crazy peolple who may be wondering through the forest, since there are other claims and private land out here. I'm a bit scared of the snakes too.
But as I face and overcome my fears it gives me confidence and a closer connection to the forest and nature. I just scared away a bear who was prowling through the bushes earlier today by beating my machete against a shovel while standing from a commanding position on top of my van. Crazy stuff.
From a practical side this whole thing is pretty uncomfortable, like squatting for #2 in the forest and burying it with a shovel. Also we're not allowed to have camp fires out here so that limits the "coziness" quite a bit and food options (I wanted to try grilling squirrels, hehe). And with no creek I have been saving my water and have not bathed yet and just have been barely brushing my teeth and hands.
But maybe I'll still find another body of water out here or better spots to camp. I have been exploring the trails on my mountain bike on quite a bit. The roads are overgrown so think at places that it requires going on foot with a machete-in-hand. Pretty wild, that's fore sure. Still haven't found water but got a good feel for the area. My local contact out here should be coming out soon to show me around, we are hoping for a creek that still have not dried up. Unfortunately without any water, it will be hard to do much prospecting for gold since panning is a water-intensive process. We do have some other methods we're putting together, so we'll see. No production yet. Btw, a correction, i'm the sole investor on the gold projects out here.
Overall, I'm loving this adventure with all the setbacks and dis-comforts. I feel there is a good reason for me to be here. Maybe its some kind of a late-twenties pre-mid-life crisis? I just want to accept and take life just as it comes, staying true to my heart and the impulses of the moment. That means sometimes being ok with doing nothing and being aware of my current laziness and lack of motivation towards work... and being OK with it until I have the presence to take a new course or have until I have suffered enough... whichever comes first I guess.
Either way I know that ultimately I'm completely whole and good just as I am. I'm realizing this with the help of some prayer and meditation on the present moment. I have also been enjoying a nice selection of movies and listening material that my good friend Dustin picked out for me. And while I'm giving out credit, James (www.christshippie.com) is the other good old friend who inspiring me to an unconvencienal experience after we watched "Into The Wild" together last October.
The crazy things is that I have about $10 of liquid cash left. I guess in the spirit of anti-materialism, I ran myself down to where I have no liquid savings and not really any immediate jobs. Or maybe its just something I did to raise the adds against myself. I did of course, make some arrangement to make sure my prior financial obligations are still being met or otherwise being catered to in one way or another (had to throw that in for the critics :)
As far as blogging this adventure, I still feel unsure about any kind of publicity or internet presence because I let it become a trap in the past. Plus the environment is uncomfortable for computer work and I'm generally unmotivated right now. I also wanted to use this time to organize my files, take care of personal projects and continue to produce income by doing stuff over the internet. But the internet signal here is weaker than I thought and there is the power situation I mentioned earlier. So maybe I'll just enjoy this experience of simply being here without placing too many demands on myself.
I've been staying in contact with family and select people to make sure I don't have everybody worried about my safety. I do have certain safeguards in place and local people I can call on to where if I really wanted to get out of here and end this experiment I have some potential ways to do so.
My desire is not to come out here to die... maybe just my ego.
By the way, some people think its funny to pretend to be me (trolls). This will be my one and only comment on this article, just so you know.
Thanks again for lunch and for a nice chat during the interview.
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8-04-2009 @ 6:40AM
Cynthia said...
One can live their life anyway they choose. Yet, a person who isn't a writer shouldn't be given a book deal just because they want it. There are many great writers who have paid their dues and haven't been published yet. This kid doesn't know what he wants other than money and he doesn't care how he gets it short of breaking the law. That is fine but he lacks focus and stability in his life and thinking showing lack of maturity. When he has tried and failed and grown up a bit he may then arrive. Until than he just has to keep trying.
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8-04-2009 @ 7:59AM
Loss Mit Pro said...
Andrea:
Things have gotten pretty bad, but I am coping. Had to borrow a friend's account for the email addy in order to post this via a 'relay', since my computer is now fully dead, no batteries, and the only power I have is in this cell phone. Nothing left to eat. I am not sleeping. But I'm still remaining positive and....
GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!! I CAN'T TAKE IT!!! I NEED JAMBA JUICE!!!! IN AND OUT BURGER!!!! WHEATGRASS! GET ME OUT!!! I AM LOOSING™ MY MIND!!!!
HALP! HALP!!!! THERE IS A HUGE WALRUS IN THE CRICK AND THE WATER IS NOW RISING!!!!
I HAVE HIVES ALL OVER MY BODY< SO I USED THE HONEY AS A SOOTHING LOTION, BUT NOW THIS BEAR IS EYEBALLING ME.....
AAAARRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JEEBUS, SWEET JEEBUS, I HAVE BEEN SUCH A TOTAL .....(NO CARRIER &$%GGTYU)
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8-04-2009 @ 9:23AM
LOL said...
Casey, YOU are the crazy person in the forest, obviously that idea is lost on you.
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8-04-2009 @ 2:40PM
serinitis said...
Casey,
You can pan for gold using wind instead of water. Take your pan and toss it lightly in the air. The lighter stuff will blow away, the heavier stuff will fall back to the pan. Miners regularly did this in dry areas like Nevada.
Have Yankee Jim bring up mosquito repellent.
You can grill a squirrel over your butane stove
Grasshoppers are also juicy and highly nutritious.
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8-04-2009 @ 11:11AM
Cynthia said...
Never heard of him before. Sounds like he is too busy living in a fantasy world and then wonders why the real world isn't meeting his expectations. Passive income. LOL Yeah, we'd ALL like to find a way to earn passive income and spend our time doing whatever we want. Welcome to the real world, silly.
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8-04-2009 @ 1:18PM
Tom said...
Riches do not respond to wishes. They respond only to definite plans, backed by definite desires, through constant persistence. - Napoleon Hill http://www.thehomebusinessguru.com
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8-04-2009 @ 3:23PM
Redman said...
Doesn't "Chalupa" mean "big turd" in Serbian?
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8-05-2009 @ 4:02PM
BelowTheCrowd said...
Ugh.
Thoreau was rich. He never lived off the land or even tried. Supplies were closeby and easily purchased. He just isolated himself for a while.
McCandless, of course, ended up dead. And he was far better prepared and knowledgable than Serin. I mean really? He didn't know that creeks dry up in the summer? He didn't realize that there were mosquitoes out in the woods? Didn't understand that rough old miners' roads required 4x4 high-clearance vehicles? Thought living in the woods was supposed to be cozy?
This guy is going to end up dead.
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