Peterson do?”
Perry jumped in.
“He bought his property back all over again, this time at lower prices dictated by the ‘at the time’ current market conditions.”
“That’s exactly right,” I replied. “And how did he do that? How was he able to get the buildings past foreclosure and back into the hands of his desired bank? Relationships. He had the bank help him keep it all quiet with the promise of buying the buildings back at current market values, numbers much lower than what he originally paid. He aligned himself with new partners, helped the institutions clear up existing tax liens, got the lenders whole again, swallowed his losses, and jumped right back in.”
“So assuming that’s the case,” added Jake, “we’d be entering the arena looking to buy these two buildings right out from under Murdoch? Who’s looking to simply, very under the radar, restructure and buy his own buildings back?”
“And why not?” I said.
“Devil’s advocate—”
Perry looked at me with those smart, diligent eyes.
“— what’s to say the bank would want to deal with us just coming in with some buyer they had never done business with before? I mean, here they are in a position to nicely and neatly hand the property back to its past owner, someone they as an institution have done business with; have a history with.”
“I’ll tell you what’s to say, Perry. The fact that here we are coming in with cash and willing to respectfully engage in a bidding war, something we all know our competition most likely will not be able to take part in. Now I know that banks don’t like dealing in buildings because it’s not their business, but what banks are in the
business of is making money. Not only are we, cash in hand, an appropriate, willing buyer, we come with the added bonus of not having just defaulted on a mortgage.”
I paused, giving them all a chance to respond. No one did.
“Am I wrong?”
As the three of us spoke further, it occurred to me that even though we had each taken this situation as a chance to outdo one another, none of us had. Which in this case was a good thing. We had all won. Each potential deal was a solid, viable prospect.
The more we talked, the more obvious the plan became. We were going to pursue all three deals, each team member taking the point, or lead position, for the deal they had brought forward. The key to this approach working was a simple one. Under no circumstances at all, ever, was any prospect to find out about either of the others. People tend to be more giving and forthcoming when they think they are negotiating against themselves as opposed to multiple interests. For a moment, in deference to Perry, we mulled the idea of intentionally leaking all three deals to the media, hence lighting a small fire under each potential seller’s ass. But we decided against it. We all agreed that in the end, hostility fostered from such a situation could have a potential seller holding things up at crunch time for any one of a million reasons. And we decided it made more sense to use our strong relationships and records, creating a comfortable environment that would have people doing what they could to help a potential deal come to fruition.
We left Tommy’s office that morning running. We never looked back.
Chapter 10
I walked into Jake’s office, or the room in PCBL Headquarters better known as the shrine to the New York Jets. Signed jerseys by the likes of Johnny “Lam” Jones and Joe Klecko were hanging on the wall, while shiny green and white helmets tagged with black squiggly lines were on display in glass cases. In the corner farthest away from Jake’s desk were Joe Namath’s shoulder pads and cleats from a playoff game along with a signed photograph by number twelve himself, a picture taken of he and Jake when they met in Atlanta at the 2000 Super Bowl. These three items were placed together in one larger glass case forming the room’s feature piece. Not only was it
Perry jumped in.
“He bought his property back all over again, this time at lower prices dictated by the ‘at the time’ current market conditions.”
“That’s exactly right,” I replied. “And how did he do that? How was he able to get the buildings past foreclosure and back into the hands of his desired bank? Relationships. He had the bank help him keep it all quiet with the promise of buying the buildings back at current market values, numbers much lower than what he originally paid. He aligned himself with new partners, helped the institutions clear up existing tax liens, got the lenders whole again, swallowed his losses, and jumped right back in.”
“So assuming that’s the case,” added Jake, “we’d be entering the arena looking to buy these two buildings right out from under Murdoch? Who’s looking to simply, very under the radar, restructure and buy his own buildings back?”
“And why not?” I said.
“Devil’s advocate—”
Perry looked at me with those smart, diligent eyes.
“— what’s to say the bank would want to deal with us just coming in with some buyer they had never done business with before? I mean, here they are in a position to nicely and neatly hand the property back to its past owner, someone they as an institution have done business with; have a history with.”
“I’ll tell you what’s to say, Perry. The fact that here we are coming in with cash and willing to respectfully engage in a bidding war, something we all know our competition most likely will not be able to take part in. Now I know that banks don’t like dealing in buildings because it’s not their business, but what banks are in the
business of is making money. Not only are we, cash in hand, an appropriate, willing buyer, we come with the added bonus of not having just defaulted on a mortgage.”
I paused, giving them all a chance to respond. No one did.
“Am I wrong?”
As the three of us spoke further, it occurred to me that even though we had each taken this situation as a chance to outdo one another, none of us had. Which in this case was a good thing. We had all won. Each potential deal was a solid, viable prospect.
The more we talked, the more obvious the plan became. We were going to pursue all three deals, each team member taking the point, or lead position, for the deal they had brought forward. The key to this approach working was a simple one. Under no circumstances at all, ever, was any prospect to find out about either of the others. People tend to be more giving and forthcoming when they think they are negotiating against themselves as opposed to multiple interests. For a moment, in deference to Perry, we mulled the idea of intentionally leaking all three deals to the media, hence lighting a small fire under each potential seller’s ass. But we decided against it. We all agreed that in the end, hostility fostered from such a situation could have a potential seller holding things up at crunch time for any one of a million reasons. And we decided it made more sense to use our strong relationships and records, creating a comfortable environment that would have people doing what they could to help a potential deal come to fruition.
We left Tommy’s office that morning running. We never looked back.
Chapter 10
I walked into Jake’s office, or the room in PCBL Headquarters better known as the shrine to the New York Jets. Signed jerseys by the likes of Johnny “Lam” Jones and Joe Klecko were hanging on the wall, while shiny green and white helmets tagged with black squiggly lines were on display in glass cases. In the corner farthest away from Jake’s desk were Joe Namath’s shoulder pads and cleats from a playoff game along with a signed photograph by number twelve himself, a picture taken of he and Jake when they met in Atlanta at the 2000 Super Bowl. These three items were placed together in one larger glass case forming the room’s feature piece. Not only was it
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