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“We’re talking crap about you. You should go,” Lizzie said.
“Shut up, Lizzie,” Lucy said. “It’s totally a coincidence, Kate. Lizzie’s just getting up and heading to work, and Emma came for lunch. We would never intentionally leave you out.”
“Thanks, Loo. We’re just grabbing a cup before heading back to the office. Oh, this is Adam, by the way.” She pointed to him needlessly. “These are three of my sisters. Lizzie, Lucy, and Emma.” She pointed to each one.
“Twins?” he asked.
“Yeah, but I’m the pretty one,” Lizzie said. She and Lucy had identical faces, but Lizzie had grown tired of looking exactly like someone else and had finally made a change.
“Thank God, Lizzie dyed her hair black. It’s the only way to tell them apart,” Kate said.
“Hey, it’s all the Parker sisters,” came a voice from a few tables over. It was Gene, one of the musketeers she’d warned Adam about. His sidekicks, Walter and Archie, sat on either side of him. All three were older than dirt.
“No, dumbass,” Walter said. “One’s missing. The flighty one. What’s her name?”
“Daisy,” Lucy said.
“Hey, guys. What’s the bet this week?” Lizzie asked.
“This is what I warned you about,” Kate whispered to Adam.
“Whether or not Frank finds out his wife’s cheating on him,” Archie said.
“Geez, that’s harsh,” Emma said.
“All right,” Kate said. “Well, we’re gonna grab a cup and get to work. Later.”
“Nice to meet you, ladies.” Adam gave a small wave and turned to follow Kate to the counter. Kate broke down and got a cookie too, reasoning it would be her lunch. She mentally added Lucy’s cookies to her list of things that could have caused Skirtgate. That’s what she’d taken to calling the seam-splitting incident during Adam’s interview.
“So, what’s with the old coots you were warning me about?” he asked once they were back in the car.
“Oh, yeah. We call them the Three Amigos or the Three Musketeers. Sometimes the Three Stooges, depending on how ornery they’re being. They spend several hours every day at The Drip, gossiping and making bets on any random thing that comes up. If you ever need to know anything about anyone in New Bern, that’s where you go to ask. They’re a bunch of busybodies, but more or less harmless. Just don’t ever tell them your personal business.”
“They sound fun,” he said.
Once back at her office, they got to work. She grilled him on what type of property he was looking for and went over the 1031 exchange rules to make sure he understood them.
“The deadlines are absolute,” she said. “You must get everything done in the time parameters, or it doesn’t count, and the tax bill comes.”
“I know. Got it. Forty-five days to find and declare a property and another hundred and eighty to finalize the purchase of said property.”
“Close. It’s one hundred eighty daystotalfrom when you sell the properties. So, you have forty-five days to declare and then a hundred thirty-five to complete the deal. It will get complicated the more we split your portfolio. I think it might be a good idea to get a hold of the big boys and see if a real estate investment trust would be interested. You know, the REITs that trade on the stock market?”
“Wow, that sounds big time, but I think you’re right. It’ll be too big a deal for a small-time investor.”
“I’m going to do my best to sell them all as one package, but I’ll be prepared to split them up as well. We’ll need to set aside some time to go through the financials on each house—income, expenses, cash flow, all that. If there are any that aren’t pulling their weight, you might want to consider selling them separately. You’d take a bit of a tax hit, but we don’t want any lemons mucking up the deal.”
“I’ll consider that,” he said. “Most of the homes cash flow between one and four hundred, but yeah, I can see how a couple of them might hurt more than help. I’ll have the property management company pull all that stuff together, and we can go over it after seeing the properties. That sound okay?”
“Yes. So, I’ve pretty much cleared my plate in order to give this my full attention. We can do the tours as soon as you’re ready. You probably have to give tenants some notice?”
“Yeah, I think it’s just like thirty-six hours or something though. I’ll make those arrangements through the property management company. How about we start Monday of next week? I should be able to make all the arrangements and notifications by then.”
“Okay, that’s settled. Let’s talk about the place we just looked at. How much do you want to offer, and when do you want to close?”
“If you think the asking price is fair, offer that. If you think we need to go higher to get it, go up as much as ten grand. Maybe in five-K increments? I want to close ASAP. It’s empty, so they probably don’t care when. My lender can have everything done in a couple of weeks. How about three weeks from acceptance?”
“Sounds good,” she said, taking notes as he spoke. “I ran the comps on the property, and the list price actually seems a little low, so let’s start with that and keep the ten grand in our back pocket to use only if we need to. The inspector I use is meticulous and fast. He can do the inspection and have the report to me same day. If everything’s good to go, we’ll just be waiting on the lender. I’ll write it up after you leave today and email it to you for review. You should have it by the time you’re back in Jacksonville.”
