All Forum Posts by: Charlie MacPherson

@Swetha Mandava The larger issue is that if you have a fuse box instead of a breaker panel, there's a pretty good chance that you have knob & tube wiring. 

To get the house up to current code, which may be required if you pull permits for any repair or upgrades (check with the city), you're looking at a very expensive fix.  It's probably that you'll need everything from the (probably undersized) drop from the street to every single outlet replaced.

It sounds like a multi-family, given that you said fuse boxes (plural).  If it's a duplex, you could be looking at $20,000.

BTW, if you do have knob & tube wiring, expect that your insurance company will refuse coverage until it's upgraded.

It's time to get a few electricians in to give you quotes. If you're still in your option period, be sure to negotiate an extension so you don't lose your EMD.

Good luck!

@Jordan Ashbaugh You're not going to like this answer, but it's the truth.

What you're doing is called "Unlicensed Real Estate Brokering".  It's illegal in almost ever circumstance. You'll find your activities covered under GA Laws 530-02-01.02. (https://rules.sos.ga.gov/gac/5...)

If you put the property under contract without both the actual intent and the ability (funds) to complete the sale (actually buying the property under the terms of the contract you wrote), you can be sued for "Fraud in the Inducement" (a tort). 

That means that you convinced another party to enter into a contract when you knew you could not fulfill your obligations (actually buying the property) under the contract.  The fact that you intended to assign the contract is no excuse.

Your next problem is that the contract was created for an illegal purpose, i.e., unlicensed real estate brokering.  That means that the contract was void (not just voidable) at its inception. 

The moment you wrote it, that contract was completely invalid.

Please stop listening to the lying, money-grubbing gurus who are telling you that the law does not apply to you.  IT DOES.

If you want to get into selling real estate the right way, get your license like tens of thousands of others have before you.

@Mario Am Another consideration - contracts formed for an illegal purpose are void (not just voidable) at their inception.

As others have pointed out, TN law requires that wholesalers have a real estate license and (presumably) are under the supervision of a managing broker. 

If you have no real estate license and are not working under a managing broker, your contract with the seller was void at the moment it was written, so while you can sue, you are unlikely to be successful.

@Katie Bustos  Sorry to tell you this, but $250K won't buy ANYTHING in metro Boston or surrounds. Certainly not inside the RT 495 belt.  For that price, you'll have to look at central &  western Mass.

Inside RT 495 $250K is a good down payment, but that's all.

@Paul K.  You need to dig in to your local laws to find out exactly what the agent's legal / fiduciary obligations are.  In the two states where I was licensed (MA and ME), this would absolutely require disclosure.  In fact anything that would influence a buyer was a required disclosure, but that may not be the case in TX.

If it was required and not disclosed, the agent (and his E&O insurance) could be on the hook for damages.

If you're in a caveat emptor (buyer beware) state, it's all on you and not to pile on, but shame on you for not even looking at a Google Map image!

This is an ADVANCE offering for 9 well-established Level-4 (non-medical) Assisted Living Facilities in New England. (They are NOT in Portland, but that's the closest to my office in Augusta, ME)

A new listing will be posted here as more information becomes available.  (I don't think BP allows editing a prior post to reflect updates).  I am awaiting individual P&Ls and estimated real estate values.

The sellers have invested an incredible amount of time, money and energy in making each home into one where they would cheerfully place their own family members. All of the homes (with the exception of one newly opened) have consistently run at 100% capacity and all have wait lists.

The reputation for the quality of care is so strong that they get referrals from over 100 miles away.

All physical plants are in stellar condition. There is very little in the way of CAPEX pending. All meals are cooked in-house in each home's commercial kitchen and great pains are taken to ensure that residents are as comfortable as possible.

There are two clusters of homes in two different parts of the state.

Cluster one places 3 facilities within 30 miles of each other.
Cluster two places 6 homes within 45 miles of each other.
The maximum distance between them is 104 miles.

Financials

Asking price: $11,300,000.00 all-inclusive for all 9 homes.

SBA Pre-Qualification is under way. We are working with a lender who can finance the entire sale with 10% down.

8 homes are owned, 1 has an incredibly attractive lease from the town.

The sellers are offering an option to lease the 8 owned facilities for 10 years, NNN with 100% of lease payments applied to the purchase price of the real estate, making it a 10 year, zero interest loan.

Individual P&Ls are pending as are the real estate values on each of the 9 facilities.

Transition: Sellers will assist.
Reason for Sale: Retirement

Disclaimer

Information and financials are provided by the sellers and the Inbar Group has not audited them.

Interested Parties should contact 
Charlie MacPherson, Business Broker

Inbar Group, Inc.

12 Shuman Ave, #10
, Augusta, ME 04330

Cell: 207-352-1000

Office: 207-480-1113

[email protected]

I stayed in one Airbnb when I was relocating from Mass to Maine a couple of years ago.  It was in Portland - Maine's "big" city (population 66,000).  It was on the outskirts, not downtown and was $125 if I recall correctly.

The host was just weird - and arrived 1/2 hour late.  I had a private bath, bed and sitting room which were all clean - BUT - the rest of the house?  I'm surprised I didn't wake up covered in bugs. 

She was a hoarder.  Boxes piled everywhere.  Stacks of "stuff" (junk not fit for a yard sale) all over the place.  Dirty dishes in the sink.  A coffee pot that looked like is hasn't been cleaned since the late 1800s.  I think I saw Jimmy Hoffa in there somewhere.

To top it all off, I grabbed a sub and a beer for dinner and ate in the sitting room - where the very odd host came and joined me for a long squirm-inducing chat while she watched me eat.

At this point, I look for a Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, etc.  They might not be the cheapest, but they're also not the most expensive - and you know exactly what to expect every single time.

@Jason Nguyen I had my MA and ME real estate licenses with EXP Realty until I got out of real estate for the much greener pastures of business brokering about 1.5 years ago.

Things might have changed since then, but my memory is that EXP does not allow property management to be carried out by agents licensed with them.

If you were interested in working as a Realtor, I recommend them highly.  For property management, you can ask, but I'm fairly sure it's not allowed.

@Steve K. I don't believe your contract can be anonymous because proper identification of the parties is an essential element of the contract.

Your idea of "Steve K. or assigns" might solve that, but what do you do when the buyer defaults on the contract?  You could find yourself on the hook for damages.  I doubt your broker would allow that.

That said, I think there's way too much leaping to accusations of racism.  Not just in real estate, but across society as a whole.  It seems to me that any time a person of color has any kind of adverse event, and accusation of racism is not far behind.

Each case needs to be examined individually to determine what the evidence is.  If there is genuine illegal discrimination, the laws surrounding that need to be enforced. 

As a former Realtor in both MA and ME, I can tell you that non-discrimination laws are absolutely pounded into our heads in pre-license classes and mandatory continuing education classes.  The penalties, even for a first offense are crippling.  If a complaint is filed in a Massachusetts court, the first offense results in a $10,000 fine.  If filed in a federal court, it's $50,000.  Repeat offenses will result in even larger fines and license suspension and even revocation.

In fact, both states - and probably in many more - employ "testers", whose job is to pretend to be interested in a property (sale or rental) and try to get the agent or landlord to say something that they can claim is discriminatory.

One agent I knew did a showing, where she suspected she was dealing with testers because they were not asking the right questions and didn't seem genuinely interested in the details of the house.  Sure enough, as they walked back outside, the tester looked around and said "So, is it white?"

The agent knew what the deal was, so she looked back at the house and said, "No, I'd say it's more beige."  They kept asking her, trying to entrap her.  It didn't work, but it's REALLY infuriating to know that our tax dollars are going to pay people who are wasting our time and gas on fake showings, while trying to trick us into saying something they can use to sue us.

In my personal experience, the only time someone asked me about the racial makeup of a neighborhood was on a house I had rehabbed with a partner.  A black buyer, who I knew pretty well from other business dealings asked me "So are there any black people around here?"  I just told her I couldn't answer that question and moved on.

@Brad Jacobson The problem is that you don't have any leverage. 

If it was a buyer's market and pulling out meant stigmatizing the property with a "Back on Market" listing, you would be in a slightly better position.  But as you said, you had to battle it out in a bidding war.

If the numbers work, your decision to move ahead seems wide.  Best of luck with it!