“Yeah, that would be great. The desk has all sorts that need to be filed. Oh, the order for parts needs doing,” I add as I wipe my hands on a rag.
“Okay, I’ll do that first.” Dan walks toward the office and I turn to speak to Clem, but notice Lou pulling up outside the garage.
“Hey, Clem. Lou is here,” I comment as I pass where he has his head under the hood of a vehicle.
“Hi, Myles. I have the key to the place next door. Do you have time to look?” Lou asks as she reaches where I’m standing.
“Sure,” I reply as I tuck the rag in my hand into the back pocket of my coveralls. “Clem, come on bro’, let’s go look next door.”
Walking through the building, it’s fairly obvious it’s not been well looked after. It was a variety of shops over the years, and the last owner sold craft supplies and balloons for all occasions.
“It’s a f… mess,” Clem says, and I smirk when I know he nearly slipped up. We are both still in trouble about Oren using that word, and I’m not sure how long it will take before Maylee isn’t annoyed about it.
“It’s worse than I thought it was going to be,” Lou states as she opens a door to reveal a toilet and sink, which haveseen better days. “You know, I’m going to push this seller. He’s not told us about half of the issues that I’m seeing. Pete did the initial run through, and I guess he didn’t even do that. He’s just taken what the seller has said and run with it.”
“The cabinets, counters and window displays will need removing. We won’t use them, but if anyone wanted to use this place as a store it all would need replaced. Most of it is rotten,” Clem states, and I nod in agreement.
“Oh, I agree. You would rip all this out and replace the large window wouldn’t you?” Lou asks.
“Yeah, we would. We’d keep the kitchen and the small room at the back as a second office, or even storeroom. The upstairs we’ve still to see, but if it’s like down here, it’s going to need replacing too,” I reply.
The upstairs was as bad. It was a small apartment at some stage, but it’s a mess and needs to be ripped out. I reckon it’d make a good storeroom if we shelved it out. Each room could be used I’m sure. Or we could fit it out as an apartment again and lease it out?
Lou isn’t happy about the state of the place, and she’s tapping her finger on the iPad she is carrying. “I’m going back to the office. Do not make any offer on this place until I speak to you again. No matter who calls you, speak only to me about this place. I’m about to rip someone a new one and put this property owner in his place.”
Both Clem and I watch Lou lock up and storm back to her vehicle, taking off without a backward glance.
“Did you upset her?” Turning I shake my head at Dan who is looking amused at the disappearing Lou.
“I’ll tell you she has a temper. Never seen that on her before, but I wouldn’t want to be the asshole she’s about to rip into,” Clem chuckles.
We quickly get back to work and forget about Lou and the building for the time being. But when the phone rings late afternoon I leave it to Clem to answer. He often takes the calls and books vehicles for work to be done. That’s why it shocks me a little when he calls me to the office.
Stepping into the office, I watch as Clem speaks on the phone. “We are not paying these types of prices, and to be honest with you, Lou, nobody else will either. Let’s be frank about it. The place is derelict and needs ripped apart. We’ll offer him, hmm, $360,000 max. He takes it or leaves it. But if you can get it for less than that, that would be better still.” Clem slams the phone down and leans back in his seat.
Dan who has stepped into the office comes to a halt and looks from one of us to the other, turns around and walks back out. A wise man is what he is.
“Clem, I don’t have $180,000. If we pay that, I’ll have to put a mortgage on the place.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get it for far less, and we are going to put a mortgage on the place. You have just purchased thehouse, so you can’t afford to slap a heap of cash out. I don’t know what you both have in the bank. I have enough to buy the place next door. But I’d rather keep the money in my bank because I’m going to knock up Whitney, and we’ll need to put an extension on the cottage. The money I have will pay for that, keeping us mortgage-free on the house. We take a mortgage next door, pay it off early using profits from the business. If things go well, we could make Dan a third business owner. We’ll see what happens. Time will tell.” Clem has obviously been thinking about this, and I know his rational thinking is always better than mine, so I’m happy to go with it.
Packing up and getting ready to leave for the day, we all three check out tomorrow's workload. “Dan, you take the Jeep tomorrow. It just needs its annual safety inspection.”
“No problem, Myles. I reckon all states should have annual safety inspections. There are too many vehicles on the roads that are not safe. It never hurts to know your vehicle is roadworthy, in my opinion.” Dan turns and leaves the office, and I look at Clem and shrug because I agree with Dan. Road safety isn’t taken seriously enough.
The phone rings, and Clem picks up, listening intently to whoever he’s speaking to. “I’ll call tomorrow, Lou. I want to speak with Myles before we go-ahead.”
After Clem places the phone down, he turns and grins. “It seems the owner of the property wants to get rid of the place now that its condition is out in the open. He wants $220,000 for it, but Lou told him it would cost half of that to put it right, so she got it for $130,000 if we want it.”
“Fuck, Clem, that’s a hell of a deal. The place is bigger than this place,” I nearly stutter in shock.
“Lou made it sound like it was about ready to fall down, and I think she had the seller panicking about safety regulations. Whatever she said, she got us a hell of a deal,” Clem is grinning broadly, and I think mine must be as wide.
“I can do half of that, Clem, but it would leave me with nothing to use to clean the place up.”
“No, we’ll go with paying a mortgage and keep cash for getting it renovated to our needs. We’ll work weekends to knock it through and get it how we want it.”
Nodding in agreement, I add. “You know if we just put a door through, we don’t have to knock the whole thing out, and it’s only the three of us, so we know we are trustworthy. If we use that building for storage the less open space the better. Solid doors like we have here are much better than having sliders.”
