How not to invest in RE (Mr Pine Box is back!)

[barnaby33]

I am not sure how many of you are regular readers of Ben’s blog, but if you are. You might remember a few months back a discussion of a man labeled, “Mr Pine Box.” That is because he printed in his own words, that his only way out of all his investments would be in a pine box. Back then he was EXTREMELY cocky about how all his investment properties were doing. Lets re-visit him now.

Sick over possible foreclosure

[Critter]

I love Ben’s blog, and remember this clown being pointed out earlier. He galled me then. The SD Creative Investor’s Club is a good place to find others who doing things you are leery of doing, and then watch them have problems instead of you having problems. It’s like financial virtual reality.

Thanks for the link!

[no_such_reality]

He needs a bail-out. He was lied too, he says so himself.

Never mind he’s a big enough ‘investor’ to have speculated in places all across the country from San Diego, Salt Lake City, Florida.

He went for it and now it failing and he isn’t taking ownership of it.

Schadenfreude on my part, but instead of taken his small beating in Florida and running, he’s going to go down with the ship. It’ll take his Salt Lake city stuff with it and anything he owns locally too since he’s draining his primary residence with HELOCs to the tune of $3000 a month.

I stand by my original supposition. The damage in the market from loan resets etc will work regular home-owners, but Casey Serin and Jeff will be leading the way when they bust on 5,6,7,8 or more properties across multiple states.

There are a lot of these guys and they’re all holding the bag on several properties. That really concerns me.

[SD Transplant]

The sales tactics of some(maybe majority) of the brokers/lenders were unimaginable. If one got lied on the biggest purchase of his life (houses – actually 3 biggest purchases of his life)….imagine the feeling.

I say this because this weekend, my laptop battery is near death on my Toshiba laptop. I go find my FRY’S ELECTRONICS exclusive 3-year warranty to take it back. I REMEMBER VIVIDLY as to how the sales guy at Fryes (about 1.8 years ago) told me that the $199 warranty / 3 years was a great buy for my LAPTOP as it would just cover the “battery” if nothing else, and it would PAY for it self. Needless to say, this past weekend, when I disclosed this story to the Service department manager, Sales manager….they were claiming “there is nothing we can do, it’s in the contract – consumables aren’t covered”…….I’d add, it makes sense (just like the breaks on a new car). However, I do remember the slizy sales tactics behind the “buy the $199 warranty & it pays of because you will need a battery in 3 years anyways”.

Now…… it turns out….. I’m SHIT OUT OF LUCK…..you should have read the contract/fine print (I was almost told that).

I’m glad I’ve learned my lessong on a $199 item……versus 1 house (or possibly 3)……..OUCH

[barnaby33]

Please do not have pity for Mr Pine Box. He was and still is the ultimate specuvestor. He owns houses in a bunch of places, many bought sight unseen. He may have been lied to, but he has only himself to blame.

Josh

[Bugs]

I don’t want to see ANYONE here show this fool any pity. Guys like him are part of the problem, and right now it’s looking like we’re all going to be paying towards fixing that problem.

If he doesn’t feel the full consequences of his mistakes he is destined to repeat them again. Look at Casey Serin – that guy is still trying to figure out how to avoid getting a job.

[aguho]

I used to visit SDCIA’s website each day and post occaisionally. I haven’t been over there in quite awhile until now. I remember when I told everyone over there that I sold my last rental house in IB(May 05) they congratulated me.However, what I found rather disturbing was how many novice “investors” over there were pouring their dough into out of state rental properties.I felt at the time,and more so now, that there is an epic residential real estate bubble building in the English speaking world.

I heard all the reasons why it was different in Cape Coral( ironically this is where that tool Russ Witney is based),Salt Lake City, Boise,Texas, or anywhere else for that matter. All I know is being a landlord is not easy( a pain in the butt if you ask me), and being a highly leveraged out of state landlord is a recipe for disaster for novice “investors”.

aguho

[Critter]

Don’t forget Phoenix. I have a friend who bought two condos there. She lives here, has a property manager there, but still can’t keep them rented on a consistent basis – one was empty four months last year! That’s gotta hurt!

I’m hearing that Florida is getting slammed too, and Oregon / Washington are up next.

[Author]

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