All Forum Posts by: Damn Pinn

I would like to add that my credit is not great (thanks to not thinking about the consequences of using credit cards while I was in college) and student loan debt. I am currently living with relatives until I find a full time position in the area that I went to college for.

Am I being realistic in actually thinking that I can do this right now?

I am getting conflicting messages by different posts I have been reading.

I feel that right now (the next 2 years) I should be gaining knowledge about REI, eliminating debt, saving for an emergency fund, obtaining a full time position in the field I would like to work in, and obtaining a house for myself first.

However I see that some individuals say start right now. If I were to start immediately, first I would not have the knowledge and secondly I do not think I would get the financies (loans, etc.) to even do anything.

Am I overreacting and thinking to much? Any advice and/or criticism is welcome.

Hello

I am wanting to become a Real Estate Investor. I am currently studying to get my license. I am not interested in any get rich quick formulas being that I will be making 25 years old this September and feel that I have plenty of time. I just would like to know the beginning steps I would have to take. I want to study this field and gain as much knowledge as I can in order to take the appropriate steps. I kind of already had my first experience in a company and it was a bad one due to he was not legit and me not knowing because I had just started working there (2 months)before everything hit the fan.

Any advice for a beginner?

Thanks :D

"scrambler", your last reply i do take as an insult on us personally. Maybe my post was not as articulate to your liking, but please know that I took the chance to inform investors.

LOOK!!!!!!

I was only there for a couple of weeks like I stated in the first post, but what about the individuals who have been there since February of 2006? They were working 12-13 hour days and on Saturdays. Okay, so they were recent grads. Do you know or care how they are feeling right about now? They worked hard for a man who gave them a bunch of lies, some actually did care about the investors and this is hard on them as well. Knowing that all those man hours were for what, a man that basically used them. So blame who you want, oneal, employees, government education? HA How about blaming yourself. If you claimed that all you saw were a bunch of individuals that skills were for fast food jobs, well you SHOULD HAVE went your gut.

However do not blame individuals who took positions that would better themselves. We have worries and issues also. Should we even put this on our resume? How do we explain ourselves to new employers? Can we even trust new employers? How about we do this, go to McDonalds since you feel that we are great at that! I went to college and graduated with honors. I took this job because I believed that this could be a great stepping stone in my corporate career. So now I am a bad person and not to mention ignorant person. Lets see, with my position I NEVER had to converse with an investor, so........Never mind.

Once again, my purpose was to give the investor some insight on the employees. I did not proof read the first post because I was doing as an impulse. Just wanted to give as much information as I could give before I lost my nerve.

I have nothing else to say.

Well here goes.....I am an ex employee. I only was there a little over 2-3 weeks and I had a feeling something was not right and was in the process of finding another job. Here is my observations of everythng:

1. Oneal NEVER left out of his office and him and security was the only ones allowed to go in there.

2. He NEVER interacted with his employees. I talked to one of my ex co-workers and they stated that it took him a month to just acknowledge him.

3. He handled ALL the transaction that occurred (as for as wiring your money). I always found that weird since that simple duty could have went to anybody in accounting or bookkeeping.

4. He fired almost ALL of his employees around the beginning of the year and hired an entire new staff. He had just obtain an HR manager 2 months ago. So basically everyone who was there working for him came February 2006 and later. Why he fired his entire staff but a couple is beyond my knowledge and when I ask was told to nothing.

5. Individuals he hired was newly college graduates who never really had job experience. Since everything has happen, I realize he did this NOT to give them a chance and obtain job experience, BUT because he KNEW that they would not recognize some things.

6. As for as employee knowing what was going on, I cannot say if everybody knew, BUT I can say that the higher ups did now something. They had to.....Individuals such as myself who did not working in Consulting, Accounting, or Bookkeeping had no idea. I truly believe that three departments I just named only was recieving limited information. Scripts to say.

7. When the WSJ article came out, we had a general meeting and this is what was told to us by ONeal himself: It is not his fault, he always wanted to be able to say that he was good to his employee and investors. That Kunkel (the attorney) had purposely misinformed him and that the reason everything was going wrong was because of the partnership agreements. We were not being investigated by the SEC. That we were working at a legitmate business and that we all had job security.

8. After this meeting, him and 3 other individuals started having private meetings. They stop including management personnel nor HR. People were getting very upset and we had to have general meetings every other day seem like it because we were wanting answers to questions. However they would continue to give us the run around.

9. This is when individuals started quitting or looking for new employment. A group of us went on the web and found this site. We were amazed at the things we read. Trust you cannot blame the entire company. How would facilities, shipping and recieving, assistants, receptionists, etc. know the in and outs of what ONeal and senior management do? We were treated like we were not important and we could be replace at moments notice.

10. We have been burned just like you. We put our trust into someone just like you. I have ex-coworker who did not come in on Wednesday because he was closing on a home. We were trying to contac him as soon as we found out but it was to late. We have several employees that just purchase homes. A lot of individuals was affected by his doing.

11. We truly trusted him and his senior management until the secreacy started 2 weeks ago. HOWEVER Wednesday we realize that the senior management were just as lost as we (how, I do not know).

12. It really hit the fan when on Wednesday, security went into his office and found the office CLEANED OUT!!!! He could not even face his employees and tell them that SEC was coming and we no longer had jobs. His poor assistant was always not in the loop and I think that he had only been working here 2 months. Did not even warn him. We found out about EVERYTHING moments before SEC walk into the doors and said basically, you no longer have jobs. So add another 50-60 angry individuals to that 2000.

13. We may not have lost lots of dollars, but we did lose steady income, these newly grads will have to face the fact of what the next employer would think. So please consider everyones feelings.

14. Wondering why no one will say anything on here? Well lets see.....Maybe they are worried that somehow it can be traced back to who actually wrote it. Maybe people are worried about their safety.

So with all that said, I hope I bought some claity to the situation regarding the employees. I am not saying that everyone was innocent but the ratio of innocent to guilty (85-15). Nevertheless if some of you still feel like we were the bad guys, completely understand. I just wanted our side to be told. Every since Wednesday, I have been consoling individuals who ALSO feel like they have lost EVERYTHING.