real estate team ASSEMBLE!

As if I needed any more motivation to succeed the incentive stock options that I had earned during my career that were worth $500,000 at the start of the year had fallen to a value of less than $50,000 during the first month that I was thinking about what to do with the rest of my life. I had earned an old fashioned pension too but had no idea if that had any value any more. Facing the loss of most of my retirement assets I resolved that I had everything to gain from succeeding. So, on I marched...

My next call was to a tax lawyer with whom I had worked often, Tony. Tony and I are contemporaries, both from North Carolina and our business relationship had always been super. We have even had a few personal/social outings that were fun as well so I felt like he'd give me the straight scoop on what it was that I was trying. After exchanging voice mails for a week, we finally connected and he was encouraging but deferred to an accountant with whom he worked often who had directly relevant experience. Rick B. is the managing partner of a 180 person accounting firm in Atlanta and he called me back promptly. As it turned out, he had a client several years ago who was developing a 200 acre tract on lake Oconee, about 90 miles from Atlanta. The subdivision was a complete bust so, at Rick B.'s direction he put a conservation easement on all but a hand full of acres, went from 200 building lots to 20 and went through the elaborate process of having the state certify the conservation effort so that he could get the tax benefits designed to encourage land conservation. Additionally, he master planned an inexpensive equestrian facility for the easement property to attract land buyers who enjoyed such amenities. As luck would have it, he sold all of his lots (at a much greater price than he was asking originally) and when combined with the tax benefits that ultimately did come - the venture was a roaring success. Now, three years later the whole transaction is being audited by the IRS but they all feel as though their defense is air tight and they will not only prevail but they'll pave the way for folks like us to similarly succeed. Realizing that having a super qualified resource like Rick B. in my corner, I made plans to cultivate his friendship and get him squarely on our team.

In my experience, there is no better way to demonstrate our serious capacity than to introduce Rick B. to the richest guy I knew. That guy was Rick S. I met Richard S. several years ago and had been moderately successful in getting him to move his investment management relationship to me. Rick S. was 63, had grown up in California where he was a practicing accountant - a "good fact" in the grand scheme. He had worked for one of the state's largest audit houses then left to start his own firm. he built that into a regional player in California finance in the 1970's. During this time his wife had bought a dress shop that was struggling financially. he assumed control of it and when they sold "it" 6 or 7 years later they had 240 retail stores on the west coast. In the late '70's Rick S. sold all of his interests and started developing real estate. Well capitalized, he survived the recession of the early 80's and had the foresight to buy lots of property in the then depressed part of north Dallas, Texas. In the mid '80's when the oil patch was beginning to boom he sold his properties without developing a single one! He took his second fortune and bought then depressed real estate in north Atlanta where he built over a thousand homes and 10 million square feet of industrial space.When he and I met he was worth $100 million and looking for the next thing. He liked my idea but needed confirmation. I was willing to bet that Rick B. would be a credible source of such confirmation and would be interested in meeting such a successful prospective client. My hunch was right and they hit it off beautifully. I now had a confederacy with Dallas, Chuck, Tony, and two different Rick's. I was a long way from imagining how to make money at this but it certainly felt as though I was on to something.

A Step In A New Direction

In continuing with my new opportunity...

Dallas grew up on an 18,000 acres ranch in West Texas. His family was in the horse transportation business though he seemed to be some kind of self styled entrepreneur. He was well bred and spoke of much business experience but drove an old Ford Explorer, lived up stairs in a barn and had none of the trappings of success. It was really hard to tell if he was real but he was so earnest and nice that I trusted him effortlessly. He wanted to build an Olympic quality barn, stable and breeding facility for $1 million dollar horses but claimed that he needed help pulling it all off. He spoke of legions of possible investors that flocked around the posh equestrian facilities that his family managed in Palm Beach and in Del Mar, California. It all sounded interesting even though he offered no concrete plan to actually get it all done. I supposed that was why he needed me. For my part, I have lots of second hand experience managing relationships involving successful people and their ventures. I could do research as well as anyone and arguably the most important thing; I believed in myself. I was hoping that there might be just enough meat on this bone to build an enterprise around. I was willing to give it a shot, not even fully knowing what I was getting into.

A professional associate suggested to me the I talk with Chuck, a well known land broker to discuss properties that might be for sale, as a first start. With only a little trouble I found the guy and pressed him firmly enough to get an appointment. Providence seemed at work as this turned out to be one of the most important associations of this effort. Chuck and I met at Starbucks in Atlanta early one morning and talked about what it was that we were going to try to do. That being buy an existing horse farm and manage it to a much higher level. My new friend, Chuck was unconvinced that we could make the math of such a venture work but he liked my description of Dallas so he agreed to take a meeting. The 3 of us met a week later and spent several hours talking about horse farms, land availability and other options. Chuck, a disciple of Eastern medicine - so much so that he and some partners of his just leased a farm in China offered us advice that not only sounded plausible, it sounded like the basis of a business. He suggested that we not buy a farm but a "broken subdivision." Find land," he said, "that is zoned and platted for many homes that can't be developed due to the ever worsening economy and crashing home building market. He then said, "put a conservation easement on the property, secure, then sell the tax credits that Georgia allows for such conservation and we might have enough money to capitalize our efforts." I believe, and this seems especially important to note, that I understood immediately the full sweep of the possibilities and went to work enthusiastically exploring the concept with as many of my professional associations (numerous from my banking life) as I could get appointments with.