I'm sad to write that I probably won't have any new entries for my blog until June. I've ended up with a bunch of real estate closings all occurring in the final few days of the month, so I'll be spending the next two weeks putting everything together in preparation and to make matters go smoothly. But before I do that, I figured I'd go out with a very interesting situation I came across on the Internet.

The front page of MSN provides readers with the article "The World's Most Hated Blogger", which I have to admit was eye catching. The article discusses the plight of Casey Serin, a young man so far in debt from purchasing eight homes and losing each of them. Serin now writes on his blog regularly to share his story with everybody.

Now one might believe that this is another sob story from someone hurt by the US housing bubble, but it is more than that; Serin illustrates the situation that I've seen and had previously written about. Serin does not have a financial plan in place to get out of his debt situation, and worse, continues to spend money on luxuries that he cannot afford. He has not held a job since January 2006 and his wife must clean houses in order to pay for their living expenses. Serin's lack of remorse or desire to change his spending patterns really gets readers angry, and many have ranted on their own blogs about him.

The worst part is how he has admitted to lying on mortgage applications in order to be approved for loans to purchase houses. Some on the internet have even called for him to be arrested and prosecuted under criminal law.

Everything that has happened to Serin, from the foreclosures to the "addiction to debt" to the marital problems, are common not only among people involved in the US housing market collapse, but even here in Canada. I've seen couples fight over credit card debt that needed to be paid in connection with new mortgages.

Serin indirectly shows us the power of blogging: He apparently makes $1,000 per month in advertisement from his blog. If it were not for his lack of employment and his exhorbinant spending, the $1,000 would be great supplementary income. However, if Serin had the foresight to realize that, he probably would not have anything to write about on his blog and his readership would decrease.

The purpose of my posting isn't to be another "Casey Serin hating" post, but rather, to point out the unfortunately typical situation that many home buyers face when attempting to purchase property with no money down. Furthermore, I believe that it fuels the point made by many writers at MSN that home ownership is not a good investment. I don't necessarily agree with MSN, but, based on their last few articles, they are making a case for avoiding home ownership. It's hard to say whether that principle can be applied to Canada, but the problems that Serin faces are very much real to many property owners north of the border.

        

 

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