My Christmas came early.

Talk about your new shoes, new car, or UFO's!
billryan
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My Christmas came early.

Post by billryan »

About two weeks ago I went to an open house for an investment property and ran into the real estate agent who had worked with a non-profit that had been interested in buying my building a few months back. They had been unable to get their own financing and had asked me to hold a note for them. It didn't make sense from my standpoint and they moved on, buying a building in the other end of town.
She asked me if I was still interested in selling and I said if the price was right.
Last night, she calls and says she has a cash buyer but we have to move quick. This afternoon, we toured the place and came to a handshake agreement. She wanted to open escrow today but the Title Company was closed. The biggest drawback was I told her I needed 60 days to vacate and she wanted a 5% cash discount. At first, I was reluctant to do that, but then she told me she was acting as a principle so she wasn't taking a commission.
Looks like we will be opening escrow on Monday. It wasn't what I had planned when I moved here 13 months ago, but we adapt and overcome.
Now I have to decide between Gettysburg or Fredricksburg Texas for the next site.

OTABILL
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Post by OTABILL »

Congrats Billy.

olds442jetaway
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Post by olds442jetaway »

Congrats and Merry Christmas

seemoreroyals
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Post by seemoreroyals »

billryan wrote:
Thu Dec 24, 2020 10:20 pm
About two weeks ago I went to an open house for an investment property and ran into the real estate agent who had worked with a non-profit that had been interested in buying my building a few months back. They had been unable to get their own financing and had asked me to hold a note for them. It didn't make sense from my standpoint and they moved on, buying a building in the other end of town.
She asked me if I was still interested in selling and I said if the price was right.
Last night, she calls and says she has a cash buyer but we have to move quick. This afternoon, we toured the place and came to a handshake agreement. She wanted to open escrow today but the Title Company was closed. The biggest drawback was I told her I needed 60 days to vacate and she wanted a 5% cash discount. At first, I was reluctant to do that, but then she told me she was acting as a principle so she wasn't taking a commission.
Looks like we will be opening escrow on Monday. It wasn't what I had planned when I moved here 13 months ago, but we adapt and overcome.
Now I have to decide between Gettysburg or Fredricksburg Texas for the next site.
Congrats BR. What is it about those two places that makes you interested in moving there?

billryan
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Post by billryan »

Proof of concept for a franchise operation.

seemoreroyals
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Post by seemoreroyals »

billryan wrote:
Fri Dec 25, 2020 2:21 pm
Proof of concept for a franchise operation.
What does that mean?

billryan
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Post by billryan »

I have an idea for a business that is franchisable but before we can do that, we need to show that it works. It's really a real estate play. Buy an empty building cheap, get the business up and running and then lease or sell it. I was only partially successful in Bisbee.
I over-estimated the labor pool here. I need to be in a small touristy town, with a motivated labor pool- college students are ideal. Bennington Vermont would be ideal if I didn't want to avoid cold weather.
The type of building I need-one with a managers/owners apartment attached or above it is very common back east, illegal in Vegas and pretty rare in Arizona.

seemoreroyals
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Post by seemoreroyals »

Fredericksburg is a nice small touristy town. Kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Long way to get to a casino. San Antonio or Austin airport a couple of hours away or Eagle Pass along the Mexico border has a casino. I think it is more of a retirement community. Not sure of labor pool. Real estate prices are relatively inexpensive all over Texas and of course we have no state income tax here. As you are probably aware the tax per $100 valuation is higher than what you are probably used to. For example where we live we pay a little over $3 per hundred for school and county tax. Good luck. I hope it works out for you.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

Casinos aren't a priority.

olds442jetaway
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Post by olds442jetaway »

One thing to watch out for BR which I am sure you have considered is possible prior soil or water contamination by a prior business. One of the big culprits are locations that have had a prior Dry Cleaning business. EPA/Dep cleanup fees can destroy someone financially and they look to the current owner especially if they can’t get an any cleanup fees from prior businesses or owners.
Back in the early and mid 1960s, I worked at our local McDonalds along with various other Construction or factory type part time jobs. Even though I was only 18, the owner of 3 McDonalds Restaurants knew he could take off leaving me in charge and when he got back there would have neen no employee issues and every penny would be in the Register. I was just starting as a Freshman at UCONN. He offered to send me to their Hamburger College and set me up in my own Franchise after that with nothing out of pocket from me up front. Ancient history, but I politely thanked him and declined. I often wonder where I would be had I taken that route. Anyway, I am still here and happy so that is the main thing. Not that it matters, but I also knew the founder of Subway. The first location was a mile from where I grew up. Could have got in there on the ground floor. He passed away a couple of years ago well before his time.
Fred Deluca was you may already know a native of Brooklyn. He and I were only a year apart but his family moved to Ct and he went to High School in Bridgeport. The first Subway of course was in Milford.

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