The Ten Roads to Riches: The Ways the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!)

Trumping the Land Barons 1163

ahead for having tolerated me. Further, I required no inspections.

Sherri figured the institutional lenders on the $25 million note five

years earlier had almost certainly done every inspection known

to man. And to her nose, nothing had changed. I also promised to

close any time they wanted .

Having offered dream terms, we got to round two.

Here

I kept

everything identical but notched my price to $15 million , just over

that $14 million number. I don't know what

other

s bid, but we won.

Note

in hand, Sherri threatened to foreclose on the building

owners, something few note-holders

do-way

too messy. Because

Sherri does messy for breakfast, usually washed down with nails and

bolts, the owners instead gave her the deed in lieu of foreclosure.

Financial note buyers don't like owning bui

ldings-they

just

want a good return on their note .

They

can't manage buildings or

fill them with tenants. We could .

That

was

our

monetizing advan-

tage. Sherri spent almost $3 million improving the inside and mov-

ing our people

in-all

in all, an $18 million investment.

With

leases

between my firm as tenant and me as owner, I now received cash

flow on a full building. Sherri turned around and got Goldman

Sachs to lend us $25 million based on the leases. Sherri pulled

$7 million net from the

transaction-39

percent over her $18 million.

That'

s a land baron's game. You can't do that unless you have cash

and tenants. ...