Partnership Gone Bad: What would you do?

Partnership Gone Bad: What would you do?

Shiloh LundahlPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Gilbert, AZ · Member since 2016 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes

Here are the facts. I'll try keep it as unbiased as possible to get some honest feedback from other investors.

Last year I met an investor who was flipping houses in Phoenix. I connected with him by email a couple of times and then by phone to ask him some questions. Later he sent me an email outlining a deal and stated he was looking for an investor. The email stated the following:

"Hello Investors! I have a couple deals that I am looking for some 50-50 partners. I will summarize in this email but I have attached the detailed formulas for you to look at. If you have any questions, please feel free to call, text, or email me.

I am looking for partners to help with funding these projects. We just need the gap money (down payment, remodel, and holding costs). For this investment, the investor gets 50% of the net profits at the Sale of the property. I need approx. $117,000 and your potential profit is about $22,000 in about 5 1/2 months. That is a 41% APR"

I am including the documents and contracts in case you want to see what I saw when I decided to invest with him.

Here is the projected ROI that I got in the email:

Now here is deed of trust and the contract that I got when I invested with him:

Now, I recognize that I made plenty of mistakes with this process.  This was one of my first partnerships and I didn't look at the fine print of the contract as I should have.  I didn't realize that this investor, acting as the realtor, would add in a commission when purchasing this from a wholesaler thus increasing the cost of the property.  Then he would get commissions again when selling the property.  And then he would split the leftovers "profit" at the end 50/50.  

Things seemed to be going well at first with the above property so when this investor sent out another property in Scottsdale with the following numbers I decided to invest again with him.

Total investor portion $127,000

Potential Return on Investment (ROI): $22,000

Annual Percentage Return: 35%

Projected Total Days from Buy to Sell: 174

The rehab seemed to go pretty quickly and the houses were on the market within a couple of months of being purchased.  And then they sat, and sat, and sat.  I called the investor regularly every couple of weeks to see the progress on the properties but there was very little progress made.  After several months on the market with very few showings on the property in Scottsdale and still no offers on the one in Phoenix, I started to get nervous and I called up this investor and I asked him if we were still going to be making a profit on the properties.  He said that it didn't look like we were.  Then I asked him if I would be getting all of my investor monies back as it stated in the contract.  He said that I probably wouldn't.  At this point, he was paid commissions on the buy side and he had very little money into the properties himself while I had a combination of 117k and 127k into them for a total of 244k invested with him.  The property in Phoenix had had some showings and one lowball offer.  The property in Scottsdale had only had about one showing in 7 months.  At this time I found out that he had 6 other properties out on the market that were just sitting there and he didn't have any other exit strategies.

Now I have already felt the sting of my mistakes, and there is no need to shoot a wounded man, so I am not so much looking for criticism for investing with him, rather, I would like to know what you would do if you were in my situation and you had just heard that you would not be getting all of your investor monies back and that he didn't have any other strategy besides waiting for them to sell.

Thanks for your comments.

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Linda WeygantPro Member
Investor and CPA · Arvada, CO · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
9y

I would contact any other real estate agent in those markets and ask them to give you comps for these two properties and find out if the list price is anywhere close to market price.  The only reason a house doesn't sell is that it is priced wrong.  Real estate always moves, you just have to have the right price.    

Find out from that agent if these houses are even listed (I wonder....)

I can't think of a reason why this would be a good business model for this guy, but clearly he has some kind of system he's using to have so many projects sitting and not moving.  Trying to think of the scam or angle, but having a tough time coming up with something.

If the other agent says that the price is right, then ask your partner to relist the properties with this other agent (they should get something for the work they've done for you) because clearly this guy is either screwing something up intentionally, is a crappy marketer or something like that.

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  • Josh KoettPro Member
    San Diego, CA · Member since 2014 · 43 posts · 7 votes
    9y

    Shiloh,  This guy is a dirt bag. He was not honest with you. Stop being so nice and friendly and mixing up your emotions with this fellow. He is not your friend. He clearly had multiple projects, solicited a novice investor, and dragged you through this entire mess. I'm sure he knows more than what you think. I'm sorry you had to experience this. Listen to your lawyers and other experienced investors on here and move on.

  • Schenectady, NY · Member since 2017 · 6 posts · 1 vote
    9y
    Hey Shiloh, Sorry to hear this happened to you. This is what I would do if I was in your shoes. 1. See if you can have him turn over 100% ownership to you. Maybe tell him you won't turn him in to the state ethics board if he makes you as whole as possible. 2. If that doesn't work Contact an attorney and start foreclosure proceeds ASAP. 3. Do your own research on values of the properties & find a top agent in each area and see if they can help you sell them & give you the current market value. The Good news is there fixed so now you just have to move them ASAP so the holding cost does not wipe out your your original investment. Also we're in a seller's market so if they aren't selling it can only be one of three things location condition or price. Good luck.
  • Financial Consultant · Scottsdale, AZ · Member since 2009 · 114 posts · 13 votes
    9y

    You should contact the ADRE and see what they can do for you, run this by them and see what they think. Sadly I've seen this so many times in Scottsdale, where Investor properties are priced too high in areas, where the market value will not support such sales.

  • Wholesaler · Columbus, OH · Member since 2014 · 44 posts · 17 votes
    9y
    Man, I have been there too partnerships are tricky. At least you got some deals done and then seems like you got in a situation where due Dillingence was needed more regarding days on market for listings. Trust but verify everything. Have your attorney review the partnership agreement and be involved with the process until your completely comfortable. You have to know all the numbers and what the average days on market before you ok a deal. It's on you if you don't get that info and act on it.......
  • Forum Troll · Mesa, AZ · Member since 2015 · 17 posts · 6 votes
    9y

    Wow!!!! What a pickle you went through!  I learned a lot and agree with the advice given, and am grateful that so many experienced minds reached out to you.  I'm invested in Phoenix and grew up in Covina/Rancho Cucamonga area, you made me think of Griffith Park... then 5 freeway traffic.  I would love to hear the next part of the story, where @Shiloh Lundahl re-positions an apartment complex.  My favorite guru, Greg Slaughter is currently buying up houses in a small town in Indiana, for rentals.  

    They are doing lots of re-positioning in LA I'm hearing, perhaps abusing the Ellis Act to remove tenants under rent control, betting that most won't come back for their market rents.  Market is high here in Phoenix but has runway left, at least 2 years from multiple sources, you can do that Mid-Century Modern Re-position here without breaking the law, raise rents and refinance the new equity out.    

    I like that you are PRINCIPLE CENTERED, despite the principles of others, and the circumstances.  That is a true person.  Funny, we're doing the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in our meetings....

    Peace and Wellness 

    Shiloh Lundahl

    Shiloh Lundahl

  • JD MartinBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    9y
    Originally posted by @Pearce G.:

    @Shiloh Lundahl I'm not an attorney, but I'm really curious to see what an attorney says.  Assuming the documents in your post were all properly executed, it seems like you stand to receive your investment back regardless of the sale price...even if the properties sell for less than the amount you put in!

    Knowing that he has to make you whole, the investor may be unwilling to reduce the price to a level that will generate more traffic, because he knows he will take a loss. May be worth a conversation between the two of you about pricing strategy. If it's not going to sell at the expected ARV, you may need to negotiate some mutual concessions in order to get out of the deal and minimize your losses.

    Before sending any more money, however, make sure both parties are clear in writing that upon any sale at any price, you get 100% of your money back including additional "investor monies".

    May not be a bad person...just doesn't know how to forecast ARV.

     My thoughts exactly, the first paragraph. As far as I can see, based on the contract, you are to receive all "investor monies" back upon sale of the property. I don't see anything in that contract that says you may be less than whole at the conclusion of the sales contract (within 2 days). 

    So, if it were me, once the property has sold, if I were not made whole, I would let my lawyer recover the difference. Unless you're talking such small potatoes that you'd spend more with the lawyer than on recovery. 

    In the future, it would be a good idea to have a decent lawyer look these things over first. You could have really been in it, as the second line of your 'responsibilities' says that you will continue to provide money to cover unforseen circumstances, without any cap or explanation on what constitutes an unforseen circumstance. They could have really raked you on that line alone. 

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  • Shiloh LundahlPro Member
    OP
    Rental Property Investor · Gilbert, AZ · Member since 2016 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    9y

    @Jeremy Hazelwood.  Well said.  I paid an expensive price to learn the importance of doing my own due diligence.  Because of this experience, I have learned to do my own due diligence and to run numbers better.  I don't just trust other people's numbers any more but I run the numbers myself on possible deals.  I also have a partnership that is working out really well right now.  He brings great deals to the partnership and I bring great deals as well and we both profit from them equally.  Neither of us double dips.  I think that has made our partnership work so well.  So far we have done over 20 deals together and we have worked out most of the kinks in the system to where it runs smoothly now.  

    I definitely see the value in partnerships even though there are some that don't work out.  When you find a good one, you can do so much more than you could do alone.

  • Shiloh LundahlPro Member
    OP
    Rental Property Investor · Gilbert, AZ · Member since 2016 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    9y

    @JD Martin True, I should have had a lawyer look over the contract before hand.  Since this experience, I now have a lawyer look over all of my contracts to make sure that everything is done legally and clearly.  

    I could spend time and effort going after him for the 30k-40k that I lost.  However, he could say that if I hadn't taken the properties back that he could have found a way to sell them and not lost on the deal.  Or he could have stated that I didn't keep my agreement to continue to pay for unforeseen expenses (even though he never asked me for them until the day I took the properties back and I didn't even know that there were more expenses that he was covering).

    So, rather than spending all of the time and effort trying to go after the money I lost, I would rather just make more money.  I don't have the time or the energy to let resentment bog me down.  so I surrender it to God and move forward.

    I really don't feel much negativity toward him.  I just feel gratitude that I was able to recoup what I did with the help of my team and that it didn't sink me. 

  • Shiloh LundahlPro Member
    OP
    Rental Property Investor · Gilbert, AZ · Member since 2016 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    9y

    Thanks for everyone's comments and support.

    On a brighter note, unrelated to this topic but encouraging, the property that I just got under contract to purchase in Mesa, Arizona on Saturday (4 days ago) has a buyer.  So my partner and I should be able to split a profit of 30k in a few weeks.

    I don't think it will take that long to recover the loses from the 2 deals I did with this previous bad partnership which I think makes it easier to move on than to hold on to the resentment.

  • Real Estate Agent · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2014 · 130 posts · 53 votes
    9y

    Shiloh, I'm glad to hear your situation is starting to clear up and you will recover your losses soon. I'm sure you were under a lot of stress for many months, and a lot of weight is being lifted off of you now. I hear a lot from successful people that we learn the most from our mistakes, and while it may seem like a big mistake at the time, in your case the next good deal will break you even over the last 3 deals. Then you can use all this experience to find the right partners, strategies, properties, and so forth. Keep us posted on the situation and good luck!

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