Casey Serin
Encyclopedia
Casey Konstantin Serin is a Uzbek-born American blogger
and a former real estate investor
. In a newspaper article, USA Today
called him the "poster child
for everything that went wrong in the real estate boom".
Born in Tashkent
, Uzbekistan
, Serin immigrated to the United States
in 1994. After graduating from high school, Serin bounced from job to job, generally working in website design. In his early twenties, however, Serin decided to quit working full-time in order to embark a career in real estate investing
. As an aspiring real estate mogul, he turned to house flipping
as a means to generating extra income and build wealth. Beginning in October 2005 and continuing through the following year, Serin purchased eight houses in four southwest U.S. states, and then began blogging about the foreclosure
process on the properties he was unable to resell. In time, five of the eight properties foreclosed. The dubious nature of Serin's real estate transactions, coupled with his subsequent blogging about the affair, have led to Serin's name becoming strongly associated with the subprime mortgage crisis
.
s. Before quitting his web design position in January 2006, Serin claimed an over-inflated income (roughly five times his actual pay) on his loan applications
, reasoning that many other borrowers were using similar strategies to obtain mortgages for which they would not otherwise qualify.
He continued to claim the same income on loan applications completed after he had quit his job. Serin stated that several of the properties were purchased with owner-occupied
loans; these generally provide more favorable terms than loans for investment properties. A Voice of San Diego article suggests that Serin's initial loans may not have appeared in credit reports pulled for subsequent loans because he purchased properties in several states over a relatively brief period, so that "the banks couldn't trace the pending loan documents to check up on his story." Serin received cash back at closing on six of the properties, sometimes exceeding California's legal maximum of three percent of the selling price. A contributor to the Scotsman Guide, a trade publication for the mortgage industry, stated in an article discussing fraudulent practices within the mortgage industry, that the largest amount of cash Serin received for a transaction was $50,000, and that the money was paid either to the seller or a third-party company (which the contributor alleges was bogus), and then returned to Serin after closing. The author, CEO and senior legal counsel of Investors Mortgage Asset Recovery Co. LLC, concludes that responsibility for fraud
in cases such as Serin's lies with "everyone who knew about the undisclosed cash and knowingly assisted in the scheme, including the sellers and any real estate agents, appraisers or closing agents." Serin disclosed on a Sacramento news program that he likely would not have been able to qualify for loans under more traditional terms.
Months later, as the United States housing bubble
began to rapidly deflate, Serin became unable to pay the mortgages or sell the properties; at one point, he estimated that he was approximately $2.2 million in debt
, with a net worth
around negative $600,000. Serin's house buying spree ultimately ended when a lender rejected a loan application for what would have been his ninth property, after discovering his blog. Because of the sheer magnitude of Serin's debt and the improbability of his story, some observers had initially questioned its veracity, alleging that the blog was either performance art
or a viral marketing
campaign. An article at The Motley Fool expressed doubt over "whether or not this [isn't] just a somewhat elaborate hoax.". However, public records
confirm that Serin did purchase the properties in question and did subsequently default on most of the mortgages (see table below).
. His story was featured in numerous media outlets—among them, USA Today
, National Public Radio,
New York magazine,
the San Francisco Chronicle
, The Economist
, The Suze Orman
Show, and ABC's Nightline. When Serin first started the blog, commenters were generally supportive, hoping that Serin would make a good faith effort to avoid foreclosure and pay back any remaining debts by looking for work. The initial media exposure largely lauded Serin as an example of forthright blogging, without delving very deeply into the origin of his debts. Also, in 2006 Casey Serin appeared on "Rich Dad's Online Business School" where Casey Serin told his story to Robert Kiyosaki and the members of his audience.
During the ensuing 9 months that the blog was updated, Serin generally let his problems stagnate—urgent mail went unopened, the houses went into foreclosure one by one, and Serin did not actively look for work. The overall tone of the blog's comments gradually went from encouraging Serin to openly deriding him for his inaction, his apparent nonchalant attitude towards his financial issues, and his role in the then-emerging subprime mortgage crisis. In May 2007, CNET.com writer Declan McCullagh
published an article about Serin's story and the largely negative reactions Serin's blog was garnering from commenters, referring to Serin as "the world's most hated blogger" and describing his blog as "irritainment". McCullagh wrote that "Casey's blog has an enthusiastic -- if unrelentingly critical -- audience known as 'haterz'." Serin acknowledged that he began to purposely anger readers in an effort to drive further traffic to the blog. In time, the blog developed a cult status, as Serin began writing about the toll his actions were taking on his personal life. The spectre of legal ramifications also factored heavily into the blog. Many commenters stated that they were attracted to the increasingly "soap opera"-like nature of Serin's story, and the blog was featured on a number of sites devoted to so-called "trainwreck watching".
if he filed for bankruptcy, since the debts were acquired under fraudulent pretenses.
The final month of the blog saw further erratic behavior by Serin; specifically, Serin took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Australia without informing his wife or family members.
As for his real estate investments, Serin acknowledged to the Sydney Morning Herald that "the stuff I did is technically mortgage fraud
, but it's not officially called that until someone prosecutes me and proves that that is indeed mortgage fraud," asserting a presumption of innocence
. On the Jon Ronson
show, Serin confirmed his use of so-called "liar loans". On July 11, 2007, Serin disclosed that he was under investigation by the FBI. In an interview conducted by ABC News, his attorney reported that Casey Serin is under investigation by the FBI, but "no charges have been brought against Mr. Serin. However, based upon conversations with the U.S. attorney's office in California, federal charges related to Mr. Serin's real estate transactions are expected to be brought against him".
As of 07/28/2007, Casey's commentary on iamfacingforeclosure has been removed. His final entry was dedicated to his wife. Aaron Krowne, an Emory University library researcher and owner of ml-implode.com, purchased the blog. Serin says he used proceeds from the sale to pay off $35,000 of consumer credit debt in his wife's name.
.
Serin created an online financial statement
, summarizing his budget and net worth. This was last modified on January 29, 2007, and has not been updated to reflect his foreclosures.
On May 31, 2007, Serin deleted his blog after violating his published contract with his wife. A week later on June 6, his blog reopened.
On June 11, 2007, Serin went to Australia
, leaving his wife in Sacramento and working on his book deal with his newest partner and publisher. According to his blog, he returned to the United States on July 1, 2007.
In July 2007, Serin said in a mass e-mailing that he would be closing the blog, abandoning the book, and getting a "regular W-2 job," citing the stress his family has experienced.
Throughout 2007, Serin hosted semi-monthly talkcasts where he spoke to callers about personal and financial matters.
It has been discovered that Serin has been the owner of a corporation since 2003, named "Able Buyer, Inc." Its operational status is unknown, since internet searches return zero related results, despite its listing as "active" in the filing.
On 8/8/2008, Serin started blogging once again at TrueCasey.com. One of his major topics is his investment in penny stock GSPG, or Goldspring. His story was followed up on the National Post in September 2008 2008. He seems to have also shut down truecasey.com, and as of 2008-11-25, he is looking for people to buy the domain name. He has since started and ended a few other blogs, the latest being bloggercasey.com, which started in May 2009, and was shut down June 21, 2009.
In early October 2009, Serin announced that he would be contributing a chapter to an author-financed book about entrepreneurs, published by Sarah Prout.The chapter was to have been titled: "Sweet Passive Income". However, in mid-October he said that this would no longer be happening. The reason for the lack of forward movement with this project was attributed to Casey's inability to produce the agreed-upon chapter to the publisher at the time promised. As a result, Casey had to forgo his deposit.
The document indicates the family took home equity lines in excess of $100,000 dollars against their home which is now worth considerably less due to the bursting of the recent housing bubble. The documents also state that Casey's parents ran up their credit card debts as well. It is unknown if any of these equity lines or credit card issues exist due to the parents attempting to cover Casey's numerous financial losses, including loans for which Casey's mother, Anna, co-signed.
On April 12, 2011, Serin's parents' home was sold at auction to a third party. The family has since vacated the residence.
Blogger
Blogger may refer to:* A person who writes a blog, or weblog* Blogger , a web service for publishing blogs...
and a former real estate investor
Real estate investor
A real estate investor or a real estate entrepreneur to a lesser extent is someone who actively or passively invests in real estate. An active investor may buy a property, make repairs and/or improvements to the property, and sell it later for a profit. A passive investor might hire a firm to...
. In a newspaper article, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
called him the "poster child
Poster child
A poster child is a child afflicted by some disease or deformity whose picture is used on posters or other media as part of a campaign to raise money or enlist volunteers for a cause or organization...
for everything that went wrong in the real estate boom".
Born in Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, Serin immigrated to the United States
Immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...
in 1994. After graduating from high school, Serin bounced from job to job, generally working in website design. In his early twenties, however, Serin decided to quit working full-time in order to embark a career in real estate investing
Real estate investing
Real estate investing involves the purchase, ownership, management, rental and/or sale of real estate for profit. Improvement of realty property as part of a real estate investment strategy is generally considered to be a sub-specialty of real estate investing called real estate development...
. As an aspiring real estate mogul, he turned to house flipping
Flipping
Flipping is a term used primarily in the United States to describe purchasing a revenue-generating asset and quickly reselling it for profit...
as a means to generating extra income and build wealth. Beginning in October 2005 and continuing through the following year, Serin purchased eight houses in four southwest U.S. states, and then began blogging about the foreclosure
Foreclosure
Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...
process on the properties he was unable to resell. In time, five of the eight properties foreclosed. The dubious nature of Serin's real estate transactions, coupled with his subsequent blogging about the affair, have led to Serin's name becoming strongly associated with the subprime mortgage crisis
Subprime mortgage crisis
The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was one of the first indicators of the late-2000s financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the resulting decline of securities backed by said mortgages....
.
Background
Between October 2005 and May 2006, Serin purchased eight single-family homes using stated income loans. These loans required no documentation of income, nor any down paymentDown payment
Down payment is a payment used in the context of the purchase of expensive items such as a car and a house, whereby the payment is the initial upfront portion of the total amount due and it is usually given in cash at the time of finalizing the transaction.A loan is then required to make the full...
s. Before quitting his web design position in January 2006, Serin claimed an over-inflated income (roughly five times his actual pay) on his loan applications
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
, reasoning that many other borrowers were using similar strategies to obtain mortgages for which they would not otherwise qualify.
He continued to claim the same income on loan applications completed after he had quit his job. Serin stated that several of the properties were purchased with owner-occupied
Primary residence
A person's primary residence is the dwelling where they usually live, typically a house or an apartment. A person can only have one primary residence at any given time, though they may share the residence with other people...
loans; these generally provide more favorable terms than loans for investment properties. A Voice of San Diego article suggests that Serin's initial loans may not have appeared in credit reports pulled for subsequent loans because he purchased properties in several states over a relatively brief period, so that "the banks couldn't trace the pending loan documents to check up on his story." Serin received cash back at closing on six of the properties, sometimes exceeding California's legal maximum of three percent of the selling price. A contributor to the Scotsman Guide, a trade publication for the mortgage industry, stated in an article discussing fraudulent practices within the mortgage industry, that the largest amount of cash Serin received for a transaction was $50,000, and that the money was paid either to the seller or a third-party company (which the contributor alleges was bogus), and then returned to Serin after closing. The author, CEO and senior legal counsel of Investors Mortgage Asset Recovery Co. LLC, concludes that responsibility for fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
in cases such as Serin's lies with "everyone who knew about the undisclosed cash and knowingly assisted in the scheme, including the sellers and any real estate agents, appraisers or closing agents." Serin disclosed on a Sacramento news program that he likely would not have been able to qualify for loans under more traditional terms.
Months later, as the United States housing bubble
United States housing bubble
The United States housing bubble is an economic bubble affecting many parts of the United States housing market in over half of American states. Housing prices peaked in early 2006, started to decline in 2006 and 2007, and may not yet have hit bottom as of 2011. On December 30, 2008 the...
began to rapidly deflate, Serin became unable to pay the mortgages or sell the properties; at one point, he estimated that he was approximately $2.2 million in debt
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
, with a net worth
Net worth
In business, net worth is the total assets minus total outside liabilities of an individual or a company. For a company, this is called shareholders' preference and may be referred to as book value. Net worth is stated as at a particular year in time...
around negative $600,000. Serin's house buying spree ultimately ended when a lender rejected a loan application for what would have been his ninth property, after discovering his blog. Because of the sheer magnitude of Serin's debt and the improbability of his story, some observers had initially questioned its veracity, alleging that the blog was either performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
or a viral marketing
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
campaign. An article at The Motley Fool expressed doubt over "whether or not this [isn't] just a somewhat elaborate hoax.". However, public records
Public records
Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential. For example, in California, when a couple fills out a marriage license application, they have the option of checking the box as to whether the marriage is "confidential" or "Public"...
confirm that Serin did purchase the properties in question and did subsequently default on most of the mortgages (see table below).
Blog and Media Attention
In September 2006, Serin started the blog IamFacingForeclosure describing his situation, with the idea of both soliciting advice and warning others how to avoid the mistakes he had made. Interest in the blog first developed among readers of other blogs devoted to the United States housing bubbleUnited States housing bubble
The United States housing bubble is an economic bubble affecting many parts of the United States housing market in over half of American states. Housing prices peaked in early 2006, started to decline in 2006 and 2007, and may not yet have hit bottom as of 2011. On December 30, 2008 the...
. His story was featured in numerous media outlets—among them, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, National Public Radio,
New York magazine,
the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, The Suze Orman
Suze Orman
Susan "Suze" Lynn Orman is an American financial advisor, author, motivational speaker, and television host.Orman was born in Chicago and received her B.A. in social work. She worked as a waitress in Berkeley, California before becoming a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch...
Show, and ABC's Nightline. When Serin first started the blog, commenters were generally supportive, hoping that Serin would make a good faith effort to avoid foreclosure and pay back any remaining debts by looking for work. The initial media exposure largely lauded Serin as an example of forthright blogging, without delving very deeply into the origin of his debts. Also, in 2006 Casey Serin appeared on "Rich Dad's Online Business School" where Casey Serin told his story to Robert Kiyosaki and the members of his audience.
During the ensuing 9 months that the blog was updated, Serin generally let his problems stagnate—urgent mail went unopened, the houses went into foreclosure one by one, and Serin did not actively look for work. The overall tone of the blog's comments gradually went from encouraging Serin to openly deriding him for his inaction, his apparent nonchalant attitude towards his financial issues, and his role in the then-emerging subprime mortgage crisis. In May 2007, CNET.com writer Declan McCullagh
Declan McCullagh
Declan McCullagh is an American journalist and columnist for CBSNews.com. He specializes in computer security and privacy issues. He is notable, among other things, for his early involvement with the media interpretation of U.S...
published an article about Serin's story and the largely negative reactions Serin's blog was garnering from commenters, referring to Serin as "the world's most hated blogger" and describing his blog as "irritainment". McCullagh wrote that "Casey's blog has an enthusiastic -- if unrelentingly critical -- audience known as 'haterz'." Serin acknowledged that he began to purposely anger readers in an effort to drive further traffic to the blog. In time, the blog developed a cult status, as Serin began writing about the toll his actions were taking on his personal life. The spectre of legal ramifications also factored heavily into the blog. Many commenters stated that they were attracted to the increasingly "soap opera"-like nature of Serin's story, and the blog was featured on a number of sites devoted to so-called "trainwreck watching".
Final IAFF moments
In April 2007, Serin appeared on The Suze Orman Show to discuss his financial predicament. Orman recommended that Serin file for bankruptcy and attempt to increase his take-home pay. However, Serin continued to make no effort to secure full-time employment, nor did he file bankruptcy; a bankruptcy attorney had told Serin that he would open himself to potential charges of mortgage fraudMortgage fraud
Mortgage fraud is crime in which the intent is to materially misrepresent or omit information on a mortgage loan application to obtain a loan or to obtain a larger loan than would have been obtained had the lender or borrower known the truth....
if he filed for bankruptcy, since the debts were acquired under fraudulent pretenses.
The final month of the blog saw further erratic behavior by Serin; specifically, Serin took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Australia without informing his wife or family members.
As for his real estate investments, Serin acknowledged to the Sydney Morning Herald that "the stuff I did is technically mortgage fraud
Mortgage fraud
Mortgage fraud is crime in which the intent is to materially misrepresent or omit information on a mortgage loan application to obtain a loan or to obtain a larger loan than would have been obtained had the lender or borrower known the truth....
, but it's not officially called that until someone prosecutes me and proves that that is indeed mortgage fraud," asserting a presumption of innocence
Presumption of innocence
The presumption of innocence, sometimes referred to by the Latin expression Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat, is the principle that one is considered innocent until proven guilty. Application of this principle is a legal right of the accused in a criminal trial, recognised in many...
. On the Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson is a Welsh journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio presenter and nonfiction author, whose works include The Men Who Stare At Goats. His journalism and columns have appeared in British publications including The Guardian newspaper, City Life and Time Out magazine...
show, Serin confirmed his use of so-called "liar loans". On July 11, 2007, Serin disclosed that he was under investigation by the FBI. In an interview conducted by ABC News, his attorney reported that Casey Serin is under investigation by the FBI, but "no charges have been brought against Mr. Serin. However, based upon conversations with the U.S. attorney's office in California, federal charges related to Mr. Serin's real estate transactions are expected to be brought against him".
As of 07/28/2007, Casey's commentary on iamfacingforeclosure has been removed. His final entry was dedicated to his wife. Aaron Krowne, an Emory University library researcher and owner of ml-implode.com, purchased the blog. Serin says he used proceeds from the sale to pay off $35,000 of consumer credit debt in his wife's name.
Australia and Talkcasting
Jon Ronson interviewed Casey on BBC Radio. While in Australia, Casey Serin appeared on Top Shelf Radio with Robbie BuckRobbie Buck
Robbie Buck is an Australian radio announcer best known for his work at the national youth broadcaster, Triple J...
.
Serin created an online financial statement
Financial statement
A financial statement is a formal record of the financial activities of a business, person, or other entity. In British English—including United Kingdom company law—a financial statement is often referred to as an account, although the term financial statement is also used, particularly by...
, summarizing his budget and net worth. This was last modified on January 29, 2007, and has not been updated to reflect his foreclosures.
On May 31, 2007, Serin deleted his blog after violating his published contract with his wife. A week later on June 6, his blog reopened.
On June 11, 2007, Serin went to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, leaving his wife in Sacramento and working on his book deal with his newest partner and publisher. According to his blog, he returned to the United States on July 1, 2007.
In July 2007, Serin said in a mass e-mailing that he would be closing the blog, abandoning the book, and getting a "regular W-2 job," citing the stress his family has experienced.
Throughout 2007, Serin hosted semi-monthly talkcasts where he spoke to callers about personal and financial matters.
It has been discovered that Serin has been the owner of a corporation since 2003, named "Able Buyer, Inc." Its operational status is unknown, since internet searches return zero related results, despite its listing as "active" in the filing.
Return to blogging
After staying offline for a few months, Serin resurfaced as a partner of Damion Lupo (author of Maverick Mistakes in Real Estate) on ForeclosureHelpBook.com. This partnership dissolved in October 2007. Casey resurfaced with a new blog, EscapeMyHouse.com, which was taken offline in November 2007. As of January 29, 2008 he had started and then stopped a blog based on his information on gold stocks, most specifically GoldSpring (GSPG) called MillionaireByChristmas.com. This site has gone through numerous edits, some within minutes. His latest blog TrueCasey.com continues themes from his previous blogs, including publishing a foreclosure book and detailing his investment into GoldSpring.On 8/8/2008, Serin started blogging once again at TrueCasey.com. One of his major topics is his investment in penny stock GSPG, or Goldspring. His story was followed up on the National Post in September 2008 2008. He seems to have also shut down truecasey.com, and as of 2008-11-25, he is looking for people to buy the domain name. He has since started and ended a few other blogs, the latest being bloggercasey.com, which started in May 2009, and was shut down June 21, 2009.
Foreclosure book
Alexa web searches revealed a joint venture agreement between Casey Serin and Marty Stewart, an internet marketer. Their joint venture agreement along with a series of audio files was found within Google cache. The book project, named The Foreclosure Code: My Bubble Burst! How I Purchased and Lost $2.2 MILLION in Real Estate, was originally scheduled for release in Fall 2007. According to the book's website www.foreclosurecode.com, Serin's numerous violations of the joint venture agreement nullify his rights to the work, and the book itself has yet to be released.In early October 2009, Serin announced that he would be contributing a chapter to an author-financed book about entrepreneurs, published by Sarah Prout.The chapter was to have been titled: "Sweet Passive Income". However, in mid-October he said that this would no longer be happening. The reason for the lack of forward movement with this project was attributed to Casey's inability to produce the agreed-upon chapter to the publisher at the time promised. As a result, Casey had to forgo his deposit.
Island Project
In late 2009, Casey briefly engaged in another questionable business venture, when he launched the Island2012 website, located at the following web address: http://www.island2012.com/. The premise of the project was to gather enough 'investors' to allow Casey to purchase a tropical island before January 1st, 2012. The concept was largely derided by the 'Hater' community and led to much speculation as to Casey's ultimate motives. After a brief set of introduction videos explaining the concept, the project (like many of Casey's previous ventures) eventually lost steam. In early January, Casey removed nearly all the content of the site save for a countdown timer indicating the days left before 2012. As of now, the site is no longer active and its domain is available for purchase via GoDaddy.Parents Foreclosing
In late January 2010, news surfaced that Casey's parents filed for bankruptcy protection and were attempting to prevent the loss of their Sacramento home. According to official court documents and filings available online with the Sacramento county clerk, a notice of trustee sale is now in place against their house. Additional documents indicate that the family is attempting a Chapter 13 filing: Serin Family Bankruptcy Document (PDF)The document indicates the family took home equity lines in excess of $100,000 dollars against their home which is now worth considerably less due to the bursting of the recent housing bubble. The documents also state that Casey's parents ran up their credit card debts as well. It is unknown if any of these equity lines or credit card issues exist due to the parents attempting to cover Casey's numerous financial losses, including loans for which Casey's mother, Anna, co-signed.
On April 12, 2011, Serin's parents' home was sold at auction to a third party. The family has since vacated the residence.
Properties previously owned by Serin
| Purchase Date | Property | Parcel/Lot Number | Purchase Price | Status | End Price | Assessor Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3-8-2002 | Salmon Falls Drive, Sacramento, CA | N/A | $110,000 | Sold 3-13-2003 | $157,000 | N/A |
| 3-8-2004 | Johnson Ct., Sacramento, CA | $110,000 | Sold 3-13-2005 | $157,000 | N/A | |
| 10-7-2005 | 8256 Calla Way, Sacramento, CA | 115-0710-018-0000 | $360,000 | Sold 1-4-06 | $365,000 | $360,000 |
| 1-3-2006 | 6842 Burdett Way, Sacramento, CA, 95823 | 039-0227-001-0000 | $295,000 | Foreclosed | <$220,000 | $149,745 |
| 2-6-2006 | 6021 Guadalajara Drive, Rio Rancho, NM, 87144 | $497,000 | Foreclosed | <$252,000 | ||
| 2-24-2006 | 6209 Sonora Ave, Albuquerque, NM | 101006348417440403 | $345,000 | sold Jun 06 | $212,386 | |
| 3-6-2006 | 1910 Muncy Drive, Modesto, CA, 95350 | $323,000 | foreclosed (April 27, 2007) | $240,000 | ||
| 3-10-2006 | 6656 W 10250 N, Highland, UT, 84003 | 514530008 | $360,000 | Wrapped | $399,000 | $184,195 (Market Value $334K) |
| 3-4-2006 | 6500 Larchmont Drive, North Highlands, CA, 95660 | 217-0171-009-0000 | $330,000 | Foreclosed | $125,000 | $180,167 |
| 5-4-2006 | 9524 Angleridge Road, Dallas, TX, 75238 | 00000792898000000 | $269,600 | Foreclosed | $211,222 | $227,970 |
- Sales Prices can be verified by either using Zillow.com or RealEstateABC.com. Assessed Value found using County Assessors Office, where available: SAC (http://assessorparcelviewer.saccounty.net), DALLAS (http://www.dallascad.org/), ALB (http://www.bernco.gov/property/) UTAH (http://www.utahcountyonline.org/Dept/Record/LandRecordsandMaps/WebAccess.asp)