Myself, TJ, and Rck Lee entered into a hybrid contract with a huge (240 space) Park in Gainesville last July to sell 100 homes that the park owned.
We purchased the homes for 500K (5K apiece) and posted a 25K cash surety bond for complete compliance. We had to have all 100 homes gone by Dec. 15th of last year. We had 80 or so homes sold by this date.
During the process, we lost 26 A/c units, unknown fridges, 7 car port canopies. These were all stolen from the unsecured lot. As families left, the thefts got worse.
The last 9 homes Rck sold yesterday had most of the windows broken, all apps gone, and 7 canopies missing. Two were missing power centers (power boxes inside the homes).
What a learning curve…it took longer to sell the last 15 homes than it did to sell the first 85 homes! if we had known going in that we had until may 15th to sell homes, we would have priced homes higher. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
We all made a buck or two. (Marion Conty family average for a year) working part time. Could we have made more? You bet! I’ve come to appreciate what I have more than what I COULD have had. It is really easy for friends to be happy, joyous, and free when money is falling out of each pocket. The real measure of a man is how does he act when things are tough on all sides and time is running out on a contract. I’m proud of both of my partners in this deal…we got 'er done.
Put 31K miles on my truck during this process (Gainesville is 70 miles from my shop).
Will never enter into a contract like this again without a security clause in place. We were liable for all missing items…TJ and I have bought 16A/c units (14 new and 2 used) at a cost of almost 26K with shipping to replace customer’s a/c stolen. This hurt…a lot.
We were given 4 used homes as partial reimbursement for these items. They are for sale on our retail lot. 2 homes need roofs, drywall, vinyl siding (done). hope to recoup some of that money from them.
Thanks to all for your help and emails.
Greg