A Case Study You Can Profit From . . .

Joan Reynolds, a new real estate investor, stood at a gate in Boston’s Logan Airport, waiting to meet her mother’s flight from Seattle. When her mother arrived, Joan said to her, “Mom, on the way home, let me show you the apartment building I just bought!”

Joan drove to the block where the apartment house stood. From the corner of the block, Joan could see that something funny was happening. A large truck stood in front of her building. Men were unloading dozens of shrink-wrapped kitchen cabinets into the lobby — enough to renovate all the kitchens in the building.

Joan pulled up to the curb and went in to investigate. “Guys, what’s going on?” she asked them. They showed Joan an invoice for the cabinets worth nearly $18,000 that had been signed by her partner. Joan was furious. This was hardly the way to start her career in real estate or to start out her partnership — and hardly the way to show her mom that she was now on the road to real estate riches. (see Risk-Resistant Business Structures)

“I never should have taken a partner!” Joan told her mother. “I would have been better off doing it all on my own.”

 

 

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