[Dawg's note: Duane is a much better writer than he admits to. The preamble today is 3 parts]:Ok, in order for me to give you the timeline of events, I am also going to tell you why I do what I do. And, in order for me to do that, I need to give you a little bit of history so you can see inside my warped brain.
As some of you know, I was buying and selling real estate around the year 2000. My first condo I bought at an auction, I rehabbed, sold and closed in under 30 days and made over 20K. I’m thinking… hey… easy… I’m mister real estate… If I can flip one that easy, surely I could do 2 in a month. So off I went. The 2nd property was an utter failure and I got my shorts handed to me. That made me question everything I was doing. However, the 3rd went nicely so I continued. Buying – then Selling. Now it is time to buy rental property to build a portfolio, and even dabble in small commercial. This all continued until I had time 11 properties. Some of those properties were in various stages of rehab, some were complete and on the market, and some were newly acquired. Then 9/11 hit. Real estate in my market STOPPED as I knew it. It just STOPPED. So, since things were not moving (closing) , the carrying costs of these properties coupled with the continued rehab drained any remaining finances I had. My burn rate just for the mortgages and carrying costs were north of 20K per month. I also had rehab expenses, and then of course, I had to fund the family expenses. I started to refinance every property I had and suck as much equity out as I could to fund the operation. Nothing changed, In 9 months, I only had one closing, and that closing was on a property that I had already taken what little equity was left. My burn rate was UNBELIEVABLY high and at this time it grew to north of 35K per month…
Part 2; Crisis and character. Part 3; Doing well by doing good.
28 comments:
First??
FF&M
3 in 2 days!
So close!
Hoochie-mama!!
Give me fishy-treats!!!
aack!!!
S_t_C
Dammit....lost out to a damn cat!
aah .. probly doesn't count, though 'cause no comments on the Duane articles.
sheeeiiittt.
thpptt!!
S_t_C
First ALWAYS counts.....it's the catnip of comments.
How funny; I got an email from C|Net about Casey; and I didn't find it until last night because I rarely check my yahoo mail. Oops.
Heh heh.
Sniff...sniff..
Aw geez, who pooped in the first spot?
NR
PS For several months, our little toddlers have been pronouncing butterfly as "buttfly". Consequently, the recent postings about these words have been rather amusing, though I think that "moth" is more appropriate to one drawn to the light generated by the Viking pyre of Snowflake's financial ambitions.
PPS Don't you hate it when the postscript dwars the actual posting?
Well, this preamble shows pretty clearly why Duane wanted to help Casey at first.
@Sprezz
Indeed, for a while there I thought I WAS reading about Casey.
The interesting part will be reading how they diverged at a certain point, with CAsey continuing down the path of ruin, while Duane manages to make changes to fix the situation he is in. Now seriously, here is a guy that has actually walked in Casey's shoes (Casey is always whining about how we wouldn't know anything because we haven't done what he has, well here you go snowflake) and despite this, Casey STILL refuses to do what he says.
Hmmm...weird. For a while, after my feline POUNCE into FIRST (haha, Dude!), comments weren't showin' up even though there were 4 or 5 in the Q.
Ah, all seems back to normal now...
Nap time!
aack!
S_t_C
Notice how I got my FIRST at 7:48am, when the post was actually time-stamped 8:00am.
Now THAT's fast!!
Love me!!
thpptt!!
S_t_C
@legion -- so it would seem. I must admit, I'm curious how Duane turned it around. We'll find out soon enough.
I think I can see where this is going...and it's VERY reminiscent of T and why she was trying what she did.
Altruism is awesome, but there's too many Casey's who just see it as a freebie.
Duane, if you're going where I think you are, let me be the first to raise a virtual glass of two buck chuck and toast you. Your intentions are honorable, trouble is, honor is meaningless to Casey.
There's already a difference -- Duane knew his burn rate.
I've found that when you try to help certain types of people, the ones who feel entitled, rather than being grateful, they are more likely to say "What took you so long to help me, and if anything goes wrong, it's all your fault"
Speaking of which, anybody read about that hospital and neurosurgeon that did a 100K procedure for free on a 10 year old boy from the eastern nations? Well, things didn't go so well (expected because the operation had a high failure rate) and now the kid is in a coma, and the father is crying about how they just did it for publicity (The hospital wanted to film it for a feel good story, which the boy and father both signed to. No lawsuit yet but expect it to appear soon. In the meantime, the kid is a vegetable and the father is hoping for a miracle. The hospital of course, is eating up even more of the costs.) The key thing here is, the hospital and physician were doing this out of altruism (they could buy a lot more publicity with 100K plus thru the media) and they are now getting burned big time.
And he considered the burn rate to be "his" - i.e. his money to manage, not other people's money to gamble with.
By the way Duane, you never answered or I missed it, but were you in fact continuing to pay CAsey monthly (hence your continued ad at IAFF) even after you 'broke up'? Just want to make sure that Nigel is in fact lying again.
Thanks
I'll bet Duane's turnaround consisted of working hard, sacrificing, prioritizing, focusing...
...and probably not a lot of naps!
In other words, of course, very un-Casey-like.
I can't wait to read the rest of this. It seems to have a happy ending. I'm tired of reading Casey's looser story.
I was also attracted to his blog, because I went through foreclosure. I was lucky to sell before it went back to the bank, and pay off all of my bills. I am very grateful for that, because there is not too much of that these days.
Anyway, Casey acts pretty much like an ungrateful child. He seems to have other priorities. I think right now he is just trying to get a lot of traffic. He seems pretty good at that. So was Goatse.
@ legion..
"At 8:58 AM, Legion said...
By the way Duane, you never answered or I missed it, but were you in fact continuing to pay CAsey monthly (hence your continued ad at IAFF) even after you 'broke up'? Just want to make sure that Nigel is in fact lying again.
Thanks"
Butterfly is putting a spin.. he is partially correct, but not in the way he paints it... I will get to that point, I dont want to "front run" the timeline. I will answer any question that has to do with the topic posted or previous events... again.. not wanting to "front run" the timeline.
BTW... I can tell you what I did, and how I managed to pick myself up... but i want this story to be less about me ( i felt you guys needed a background to get some historical refernce and understand my thinking) and more about how Casey continues to pull a Barney FIfe..
He"s allowed only one bullet, and always shoots himself..
Legion,
Interesting observation. There are definitely certain cultures where altruism is always looked on with suspicion because it's always been hard times for everyone, and someone is always trying to screw you over.
Thanks Duane
and I am glad that you managed to turn things around. Your story, unlike Casey's, is worth reading:-)
@Joanthearch
Actually, I think it was in one of the shakespeare plays, that the only way a person can even THINK that someone is screwing you over, is if they have thought about screwing someone over.
The play had a guy who's heart was so pure that he couldn't fanthom anyone else not being so. Hey this was a long time ago.
That's why Casey always signs then backs out..he knows that he has lied and tried to take advantage of people so he thinks people are trying to do the same to him.
I'm pretty sure Casey thinks he is going to be the next youtube or google and sell his pathetic site for a billion doallrs..hey, if the kid is stupid enough to think he can broker a 1.5 billion dollar casino....
Legion said...
Actually, I think it was in one of the shakespeare plays, that the only way a person can even THINK that someone is screwing you over, is if they have thought about screwing someone over.
That's why Casey always signs then backs out..he knows that he has lied and tried to take advantage of people so he thinks people are trying to do the same to him.
------------------
@ leigon,
You have a High EMO IQ.
@ Dawg,
A person can have a high IQ and be an emotional cripple. That is the dif here.
Maybe KC has both a high IQ and a Low EMO IQ.
RE: altruism
Chinese Proverb: No good deed goes unpunished
2nd proverb: He who saves another life is bound to serve that person for the rest of his life.
Be careful, Duane.
Big Cheese
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