Enter Blogman...

Most everyone has noticed the ad, usually on the back page of a mid-week newspaper. A guy in glasses and a plaid button-down shirt, giving the thumbs-up (he's the "everyman," you see), and below him is the story about how his real estate investing shit doesn't stink. Smells, in fact, like roses...and money. To prove how great he and his methods of no-fail real estate investing are, he offers this proof:

"Woweee!! I challenged the Moscow Polonium Times Daily to push me out of an airplane, without a parachute, with no money, or clothes, and the first house I landed on I'd buy and make millions on! I landed on 123 Myballsitch Drive, kicked the family living there out, bought the house for $0, and sold it for one jillion dollars, all with [wait for it...] NO MONEY DOWN!!!"

And then, the kicker:

"And you can too!!!"

I've been challenging the Disgruntled family mantra ("The Disgruntleds will never make money the easy way, they'll always have to work for it") for years, with zero success. However, I am both stubborn and an idiot, so when a coworker of mine introduced to me the idea of real estate investing (specifically "flipping"), I decided to give it a whirl. After all, he (a realtor on the side who had become quite wealthy doing this) promised that I could do this with no money down (in fact I'd get money back), would be easily approved for a 100% financed, interest-only loan (at the time, I had pretty good credit), and would never even really have to make any mortgage payments since I'd have tenants in the property paying it for me. Fucking A, right?

A year and a half, and two houses, and one housing market "downturn" (aka "market correction," aka "soft-landing," aka "crash"), here I am, barely afloat (the tenants aren't exactly covering the mortgage payment...or even coming that close - thanks to the suddenly supply-heavy rental market), with enormous potentially profitable assets, waiting it all out. This is my story...this is my blog. This is how one guy tragically and hilariously (well, not to me) got a bit in over his head, but godammit decided to stick it out (and is still doing so). I'll be posting bits of this story as the day/week/month goes on. Feel free to commiserate with me.