Jan. 13, 2026

Powerful Business Strategies - Buying a Building

Powerful Business Strategies - Buying a Building
Buying a building – A lot of business owners are faced with the dilemma of Buying a building versus renting.  Buying is a much better route, however with prices of commercial buildings these days you need to get creative. 


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Hi, you have done to the censure wow for you your.

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This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe

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Man W four c Y Radio and once again it's

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our positively pipe Man segment and we are here with

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our resident business expert Michael Barbarita, which is gonna give

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us some more powerful business strategies. So welcome to the show. Michael,

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thank you, thank.

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You, Dan.

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Pleasure to be here, thanks for having me so today.

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You know, one of the things that business owners should

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try to do is they should try to buy the

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building that they're in. It's easier said than done, there's

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no question about that. But there are you know, there

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certainly are a number of advantages. One is is that

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the the business will pay the rent, which will pay

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which will which will which will be, and will pay

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the mortgage as a result of that, And of course,

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by the way, your business should be a separate I mean,

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your business should be a separate entity from the building.

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You should never buy a building within your business because

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of liability. If somebody sues you, you don't want to go

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after the building. So yeah, so that's always different, and

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so there's always you're always the landlord of a building

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you own as well as the tenant.

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You're you're both because your business is the tenant. So uh.

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There so with the business paying paying the mortgage, Uh,

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it really serves as a tremendous advantage to own a building.

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Not to mention the tax benefits from the depreciation and

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so forth, but that there are a lot of benefits

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to it.

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So uh.

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But here's the dilemma. Some of the commercial properties out

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there have gotten really out of control from a price standpoint.

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But that doesn't mean you should shouldn't you should stop looking.

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You should continue looking because there's a couple of things

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that you could do. Number one, if you if you

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like the building that you're in, the next time that

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your lease renews, you should add a an option to

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buy and see if the landlord would go for it,

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and make sure that you're clear on the terms uh

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and the pricing.

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Uh.

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There's been there's a number of ways to skin that cat.

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I've had a couple of clients who I've helped negotiate

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a lease with an option to buy with UH.

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The landlord has been open to it. Uh.

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You know, you have to you have to give them

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an attractive offer sometimes and sometimes it's you know, you

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can get it at just regular market value, but uh,

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most of the times you're projecting what the market value

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will be most of the time. So, but but that's

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one way to try to get an opportunity to get

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into the.

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Get you know, by the buy a building, uh.

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The other and by the way, if the building has

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other tenants, that's that's just as attractive. It's not that

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it retracts from that attractiveness. You are more of a

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landlord that way, because you have to make sure you

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fill tenants and so forth constantly or as tenants leave.

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But it's a very valuable owning a building, uh with

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a with your business is a very valuable thing. And

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so the other thing is if you call five banks

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who do SBA financing, you potentially could get five different

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answers on the structure of the of the financing. For example,

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if you negotiate seller financing, there are some banks that

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will allow you because the SBA will to take to.

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Reduce the down payment.

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Now, the down payment for commercial real estate with the

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SBA is normally ten percent. But if you could get

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some significant or relatively state doesn't have to be overwhelming,

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but relatively significant financing, you can get a lower down payment,

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but it depends. Sometimes the bank won't let you even

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though the SBA will. The bank won't because you're dealing

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with two different finance companies. Unfortunately, when you're dealing with

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the SBA, you're dealing with the bank who has their

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set of rules and regulations, and then you're dealing with

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the SBA. So you have to get very creative and

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you might have to shop around when it comes to

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buying a building because some of the prices for commercial

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real estate, especially in the New England area where I am,

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are really outrageous at this point, and so it's very

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difficult for buyers to get into a situation.

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But they have. But you have to be creative.

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You have to potentially utilize option to buy and by

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the way, you could do options to buy to a rate.

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You know, you don't have to be the tenant in

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a particular building. You can always do an option to

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buy with a particular UH seller if they're not ready

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to sell now. So it's just another another way to

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go about it. You have to get creative in this

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market because it's very difficult UH to get in, you know,

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to get a piece of real est a commercial real

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estate especially, So those are the things that I wanted

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to point out for you know, for anybody who's who's

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faced with that dilemma, they should be trying to definitely purchase.

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But also they have to they have to understand and

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they probably already do that. They have to get creative,

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and uh, you know, there's different there's different ways to

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negotiate a purchase, and options is one and seller financing

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is another. There's a big advantage for seller financing on

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the seller side. Sure, they're taking the risk, but they

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do have a mortgage on the property, so they have

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security and if they believe in their price, the security

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is probably they got to think that security is good.

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But they also have tax benefits. They're able to defer

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taxes with a installment sale methodology. So there's there's advantages

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to the seller to take back paper as they call it,

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and take back financing. So uh and I've seen, by

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the way, I've seen situations where the seller takes back

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one hundred percent of the financing because of those tax advantages.

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So it's not it's not off the wall. Certainly, there's

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some sellers who are just you know, staunch, and but

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they're but they're also limiting the number of buyers that

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could buy the building because it's not it's not that

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easy to sell commercial real estate. Although it's in great demand,

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it's not that easy to sell because the building has

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to be just right to that business.

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Well, and I have a question for you that proade

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listeners would be wondering. Okay, you know, because it's it's

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during the real estate market right now, the residential real

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estate in Florida that anybody that has any kind of

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financial savvy is going to tell you not to buy

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right now and you're better off renting. A couple of

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years ago, you were better off buying and you were renting,

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So that switches. So what if somebody is thinking, well,

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with commercial real estate being so out of sight right now,

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isn't it more cost effective to rent and more cost

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prohibitive and prohibitive and more liability to own and more

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of a risk because you could be buying it at

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the peak and the business loses its value which may

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also cause you to have to charge lower rents or

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any variable like that.

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I agree, but that's where terms come in. Terms are everything.

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In other words, you know, just because you have a

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seller willing to finance doesn't mean you have to make

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payments right away. You know, they're out there a way

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to to uh structure a transaction so that it could

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be very favorable for you know.

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Obviously, if they don't do it, they don't do it.

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But but to your point, you're right, you know, because

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of the high cost of commercial real estate right now,

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it is better to rent. But that's why I talk

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about the lease options. Yeah, you know you're renting, but

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then you know you're you're in a position to buy

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down the road, and I would stop planting, even though

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they cost money, you know, some token amounts for the

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most part, but you know, I would stop planting seeds

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and and looking to potentially uh have an option to

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buy on these products and and put you know, put.

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Down, and then by time you're ready to buy, you

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know it will be the right time to buy.

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That's right, that's.

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Right, because it's all cyclical, it's always cyclical, and you're right,

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right now it's probably a good time to rent. But

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I think that there's creative ways to structure deal because

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at the end of the day, I can't tell you

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how many times I've seen it. Dean where the retirement

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of a person was the fact that they bought the building,

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not the value of the business because they were one

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on paperhanger or you know, their business really didn't make

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enough money to be able to sell it up you know,

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three times earning, So whatever it is, it was their

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building that ended up being their retirement package.

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Yeah, the building that happens.

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That makes so much sense, and like even as a

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perfect story of that. Many years ago in the beginning

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of starting this network, my daughter worked for me and

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we had a fan and somebody else that worked for

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me that also happened to be a family friend for

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may years, but she was in radio for may years.

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That's why she was working here. And so she knew

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my daughter since she was little. Her daughter and my

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daughter were like best friends when they were little. And

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basically she was saying to this person. My door was

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saying to this person, oh, yeah, like, I'm just gonna

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take over the business, you know, when my dad either

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retires or passes or something and like, and the woman

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said to her, like, well, because you know, my daughter

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wasn't acting like an owner, she was acting more like

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an employee. But then I'm going to take over the business,

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and like right now, there is no business without your dad.

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So if you want to take over the business, you're

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gonna have to get more involved and have more of

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a vested interest and learn the business. You know, because

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I bring this up because a lot of kids think

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that they're just gonna take over their parents' business.

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I know that. So that's such the wrong thought process.

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Right, and perfect example is I worked for I was

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a manager when I was going to college. I was

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a manager of this pool and spa place called Harrows.

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They had been in business for sixty years, you know,

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and they were very well known. And the kids there

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were like multiple partners, like three or four partners. All

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of them retired, all their kids took over, and that

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business doesn't exist today, like a sixty year old business

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that just disappears because kids think it's like just an inheritance.

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They just have to take it over and everything will

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run smoothly and not realize that. You know, it doesn't

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work that way.

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No, it doesn't.

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It doesn't, And you have to have the mindset to

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be able to deal with it, because if you don't,

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you're just gonna you're just gonna give up quick.

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And had it that it would be worthless to you exactly,

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so well as usual, you give the greatest advice. And yes,

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I am a believer you should buy the building because listen,

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real state, whether it be residential, commercial, is still one

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of the best investments that you know. You hold it

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long enough, you're probably not gonna lose money, right and.

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If you do the deal right, the tenants, which you

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might be one, are going to pay the mortgage.

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Exactly.

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Yeah, I mean it really is. And a lot of

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respects and no brainer. Now there's responsibilities. You talked about

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repairs and maintenance and all that kind of stuff. Absolutely,

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but that has to be all figured into the numbers

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when you analyze the opportunity.

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So how do people talk to you and find out

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more about that specifically and maybe you can coach them

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in the proper strategies in order to upportunity.

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They go to NeXTSTEP CFO dot net and click on

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the contact page. You could also download my book for free,

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Call Powerful Business Strategies. They can when they get on

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the contact page, they could go to the message section.

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They thought the form in the message section they could

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tie to words buying a building, I'd be glad to

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talk to them about it or want to buy a building,

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and I'd be glad to talk to him about it.

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Nice. Well, I definitely think they should reach out to you, because,

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you know, we've been doing a lot of these episodes.

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I think this one's been like one of the most

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important ones because it's it's one that most people don't

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think of. You know, people think of a lot of

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the other strategies we were talking about. They've heard of it,

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but I don't know many business owners that even contemplate

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that they should be buying the building, right.

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Right, Oh, that's right. They's it's something they should consider it,

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and especially when the e least renews they should talk

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to the owner of the building about an option.

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Yeah, exactly. Well, love it. Love that you're here on

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the Positively pipe Man segment, and thanks once again for

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helping our listeners and thanks for being on the Adventures

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of Pipe Man here on W FOURC.

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Great to be here, Thanks for having me. Thank you

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for listening to the Adventures of Patement on w for

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c u I Radio.