Bloodhound Off The Leash

If this doesn't creep you out nothing will. Notice all the traits Casey hoped to develop?

Greg Swann We Can Go Bigger!

The Bloodhound is on the scent. The scent of "sweet passive income!" This from December 14th, 2006:

For now, our earning goal is $1,000 a day, each, call it $700,000 a year, gross. Obviously our expenses are huge, as are our taxes (grr!). Worse yet, we’re not hitting that goal yet. And to put things in perspective, Russell Shaw’s annual broadcast advertising spend approaches our total earning goal.

In the near term, I think we can double our numbers to something like $1.5 million a year, before taxes and expenses. From there, with a couple of assistants each, we might be able to push things to that amount, gross, each. In other words, without growing our head-count very much, we might be able to knock down $3 million a year in gross commission income. The net from that might not be all that great, considering, but it will still be a lot of money.

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Sound familiar? And how'd that work out for the guy who called the bubble bloggers of the time "flying monkeys?"

Our choice was to keep the doors open at the risk of those doors themselves. I could see an upswing in our business activity, to the extent that I expected to catch up on the mortgage by the second quarter of 2009, and to catch up on everything by the fourth quarter.

I still expect this to be the case.

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Wiat until you hear the blessing of God in the upcoming videos I'll post.

Black Swann

Surprise, it turns out Greg Swann is just Casey Serin with a Mac and a head start. From his newly revamped blog:

For the past three years, our outflow has exceeded our inflow. This is not an unusual story in the real estate business, and we have been lucky to have enough high-paying work to at least keep us within reach of profitability. During this same time, as you have seen here, we have completely reengineered everything we think about marketing, with the ultimate test of those ideas beginning only now.

But our debt load became severe enough last year that we had to make some hard choices. I elected to take a chance on our mortgage payments, since there was a plausible threat that we might lose the house anyway. Our choice was to keep the doors open at the risk of those doors themselves. I could see an upswing in our business activity, to the extent that I expected to catch up on the mortgage by the second quarter of 2009, and to catch up on everything by the fourth quarter.

I still expect this to be the case. My one mistake was that I didn’t think IndyMac would pull the trigger this soon.

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Yup, foreclosure.

More, much more later. Oh, and an important blog note. Greg Swann has taken to editing absolutely anything on his blog the least bit negative, just like Casey. So just like then, anything you want to say to Greg, say it with no fear of censorship.

Greg Swann Just Can't Stop

Screaming Opportunity! Greg Swann is at it again. This time he lays hands, declares the Phoenix market stable and it is now a good time to buy and hold.
Ubiquicert™:

I prepared a spreadsheet on a typical $100,000 property. This is a real property, really for sale right now for $100,000. I took the closing costs as a discount from the seller, but the property is in a subdivision with a community pool, so the HOA fee is fairly high. We’re getting a home in a booming, freeway-convenient suburb — built in 2002, stucco walls, all-tile roof, 1,614sf, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2-car garage on a 7,032sf lot....
How does the home pencil out? Before taxes (and ignoring any accelerated depreciation), the home should throw off around $1,300 a year in positive cash flow. After taxes, you’ll be closer to $1,800 a year. That’s not the riches of Croesus, but the property should pay for all of its costs the entire time you own it. Even assuming our relatively anemic 4% appreciation rate, your initial $30,000 investment could grow to around $58,000 in eight years.

And if you assume the reality of -4% per month like earlier this year? Even 8 years of only -4% per year and you'll need to bring a check to the closing.

There's a reason he's selling these and not buying them for himself.