There is an old saying, "You can't cheat an honest man".  It's true. Yet, the con artist knows there's a bit of larceny in the heart of most men. Larry is one of them.

Larry was a believer in the Y2K hype sponsored by the government as a pretext for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on equipment upgrades. He accepted the words of the doomsayers who declared that Y2K was the harbinger of the collapse of modern civilization. With this premise accepted, he prepared for the worst.

He bought 35 acres of land in a remote area with the intent to build a solar and mostly self sustaining house.
He neglected to get building permits - why bother - civilization was ending and there'd be no one to enforce
such things. He borrowed $50,000.00 on credit cards. Admittedly, not the best source of financing due to the usurious interest rates allowed. However, he had no concern. Civilization was ending and the debt would be cleared
as soon as the computers collapsed on January 1, 2000. His scheme centered on the premise of global collapse due to a computer glitch. It must be noted, he also had no intentions of repaying the money borrowed on the credit cards.

Poor planning and engineering caused the construction costs of the house to be higher than he allowed for due to the fact that the remote area had no water or power and it was difficult to get building materials and laborers in.
Those costs ultimately exceeded his credit cards. So, the house is unfinished and Larry is buried in debt he can't repay. He wants to sell the house. Yet, he has nothing to sell.

Were the planning commission to discover his inattention to the issues of permits they'd order the non-traditional building torn down. While the structure exists, the 35 acres is basically unsaleable and definitely uninsurable. It's axiomatic that no lender would touch it either.  It follows that Larry's entire scheme was for not and the larceny
motivating his actions - unrewarded.

A con artist preys upon that touch of larceny in most. That little corner of the mind that says you can get something for nothing. In this instance, however, Larry conned himself. There is some poetic justice in the situation.