# 7 (at the linked article) is interesting. People are becoming desperate to sell anything for money. Every story about copper thieves is another sign.
An acquaintance of mine was doing very well at a fairly young age, prior to 2008. Only married a couple years, in his late twenties, owned a couple carwashes that had good positive cashflow and several rentals. Had that plus being partner in a residential construction business.
The residential construction went down in ‘08, his partner rapidly got into IRS trouble and tried to leave him holding the bag. He got out of that after considerable worry and expense, tens of thousands to the poorer but still there was the carwash business and the rentals.
The carwashes are now of no value except as a tax writeoff, business held on through ‘08, which was apparently much worse in NC than much of the rest of the US. Held on through ‘09 but slowing, now down to not even breaking even most months. The dollar changers have been broken into three times in the past six months, several thousand dollars. He’d altered his insurance policy to cut expenses. That loss would have been covered previously, but it wasn’t.
Two of his rentals have been hit by copper thieves in between tenants, which have become increasingly difficult to find and increasingly sketchy when he does. Several thousand in damage apiece.
He’d gone in with an inlaw to buy a foreclosure, worked on it himself, paid cash for it so no carrying cost. Was all set to make a 70K profit, the foreclosure was so cheap, but the buyer fell through, couldn’t get financed. Copper thieves again, 4K damages, ruined a brand new heating and AC system, these were rank amateurs, just destroyed things and got very little copper to show for their destruction.
He’s on his last leg financially now, formerly one of those guys who just glowed, you could see that he had success written all over him. I tried to tell him in ‘08 that this was the beginnings of a depression and that I was selling everything I could short of the roof over my head and going to cash, he thought I’d gone off the deep end. Heck, I wondered myself, it had been a hard year or two for me above and beyond, shutting my business down, my beloved dog dying and then my dad.
Saw the guy last week, and he didn’t want to talk about it, really just didn’t want to talk at all. Had like a dark cloud over him, quite the change from the bright presence he once was ... things are not good.
I didn’t have the heart for I-told-you-so.