When someone says they control $1 million in assets. Does that mean they 1) have $1 million in total assets they own? Or 2) manage $1 million of investments for investors Or 3) they own properties that are worth in total of $1 mil? Or 4) they operate properties worth a total of $1 mil?

Thoughts?

Originally posted by @Jingwen Dunford :

When someone says they control $1 million in assets. Does that mean they 1) have $1 million in total assets they own? Or 2) manage $1 million of investments for investors Or 3) they own properties that are worth in total of $1 mil? Or 4) they operate properties worth a total of $1 mil?

Thoughts?

Could be any of the 3  I would ask to clarify if you are vetting a new partner or asset manager 

I agree with @Account Closed .  Need more info to differentiate between the options.   If there is no info available and/or the person is not willing to explain clearly, then be very cautious.  

Be cautious anyway though, $1mm could be one sfh in my area.

@Jingwen Dunford , could be any one of the scenarios. This question is something you should ask the person who told you this, if you want to know the specific answer. They shouldn't have any issues giving you the answer you're looking for

@Jingwen Dunford can also mean a contract or option to purchase as well. If you have an asset under contract you control it until the contract or option expires.

@Jingwen Dunford - And while it could be any of those scenarios, I think scenario (1) is least likely.  If they owned the assets, it's likely they would use "own" rather than "control".  By the very use of the word "control" you can infer they don't own it.  How often can you think of a person who says "I control my own home!"  Never.

@David Gotsill haha great point!

@Jingwen Dunford the way I’ve heard “control” used is as a way to break out the total value of the property from the equity in the property. For example one might “control $5M worth” of property but only have $1M in equity, so technically they own 1/5 of the portfolio while banks own the rest. So they would say “We control $5M of real estate”, as a way of stating the total value of their portfolio without falsely giving the impression that they’re worth $5M personally. I suppose it could mean property someone manages too but I haven’t heard it used that way.