Small Victory

Once upon a time we had a business partner named Jack. Jack, like most real estate investors, was all happy about life when times were good. However, when times were bad, he was a very dark man. Jack, by the way, also happened to be my real estate agent at the time.

In 2007 Jack approached us and wanted to partner with us on a home. We bought a really nice property actually. I happen to know that Jack is, and was then, in a much, much better financial position than us (he showed me proof of this). However Jack was allergic to spending money on this house. And unfortunately, things break--like the HVAC system.

At the time the HVAC broke, we asked him if we could just pay our half and he pay his half and add it to our owner's equity. He didn't like that idea. We asked him if we could just pay the whole darn thing and settle when we sell the house. He didn't like that idea either. Meanwhile the tenant was squawking. What he did suggest was a loan from the gas company, who provided such things, and let the tenant's rent make the payment on it every month. Now that's well and good and all, but it is ineffective. For one thing, now we are paying on an obsolete HVAC unit.

And of course, Jack being self employed, he did not qualify for a loan. Nor are Marty and I fans of anything on installments. But Marty felt to keep the peace between Jack and us over this one small issue, we would just do it. Six months later, Jack bailed, giving us all of the liability on this house. And in all fairness, all the profit.

Today, I paid off the loan early. I also may have made a passive aggressive comment or two to the Universe about Jack.