ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE Partners can’t, don’t want to continue managing four-plex

Q: A number of years ago I went into partnership with three friends of mine to buy a small four-plex residential build ing. Each of us lived in a unit while we were single, but as we got married, we all eventually moved out and found tenants to rent our units. My father was an attorney and when we bought the building he drafted a partnership agree ment for us. It provided that we would all share the expense of maintaining the building but would be individually responsible for the interior of each of our living units. We could live in our des ignated unit rent-free, paying only our one-fourth of the mortgage, taxes, etc. If we moved out, we could rent our unit and keep the rental proceeds. This has worked fine for over a decade, but now we are having trouble agreeing on how to manage the building. The whole thing desperately needs a new roof, and the old sewer line is shot and needs to be replaced. Two of my partners are just about broke and say they have no money to put into the repairs. The third partner is just tired of dealing with it and wants to sell. I think it’s a good investment but would be just as happy to sell if everyone else wanted to. I don’t know what to do at this point. Any advice?

Tim Jones

liquidate your one-quarter ownership interest and give you

The only way you can lose a partition action is if your partnership agreement forbids such a lawsuit. However, read your agreement carefully because waiver of partition clauses are often put into partnership agreements. Another common provision is known as a buy/sell provision. In the buy/sell clause, there is a mechanism for allowing a partner to cash out. It may require that the remaining partners buy you out for a price to be determined under a specific formula. It may also provide that the property will be sold if the other partners can’t or won’t buy you out.

Hopefully, either a partition or buy/ sell clause will allow you to cash out your investment and not risk ruining longtime

However, I have seen agreements that, for reasons I can’t comprehend, both forbid partition and do not provide a buy/sell mechanism.

If you find this to be the case, you can approach the ownership of the property strictly as a business, regardless of the fact that you’re talking about real estate.

A: You say that you entered into a partnership agreement. Not having read it, I have no idea what it provides for and what limitations it puts on your ability to sell.

I’ll try to give you a quick fly-over of your possible options, but I caution you that this could be complicated, and you need to see an attorney to decipher the partnership agreement.

It’s good you have an agreement, regardless of whether it’s a partnership agreement or takes some other form, at least there is a road map for dealing with problems like this.

If there is no prohibition in your agreement, you can file a partition lawsuit. A partition suit is merely a type of divorce from your co-owners where you ask the court to find a way to

In any partnership, if the partners are so crippled by infighting or financial constraints that the business simply can’t continue, one or any number of partners can file a lawsuit for an accounting and the winding-up of the partnership.

It’s sort of the business version of a partition.

The court will ensure the assets, in this case the building, is liquidated. Then the bills get paid and the partners split what’s left.

In essence, you get to the same spot you’d be in if you had filed a partition. This will only work, however, if everyone can’t work together to manage the building.

If the whole problem is that two partners can’t afford to invest any money, you and the other partner can put in the necessary money which, depending upon

See Jones, Page 6

Stocks, insurance, mortgages, pharmaceuticals, enterprise software, technology, real estate, HVAC, solar, automobiles, plumbing, construction, title and escrow, travel, and food truck street tacos are just a few of the products and services where salespeople are required to produce income.

Some of these sales jobs pay a salary plus commission, but 100% of these career opportunities are based on sales and 100% of the income comes from the person’s results.

Google, Microsoft and Amazon laid off 70,000 people last year because of slower sales growth. The mortgage industry has been crushed in the past nine months because of sales dropping off by 75% nationwide.

Salespeople at national and regional banks, brick-andmortar mortgage companies, internet fintech lenders and the small independent contractor mortgage brokers made 50% to 80% less in personal income in 2022 than they did in 2021, and many are looking for new jobs.

Remember what I mentioned in a recent column about demand for mortgage refinances? In January 2022, 7 million homeowners could benefit from a refi but in January 2023 that number was only 270,000. Highly paid senior executives are not immune from declines in sales. I would be willing to bet you $50 that 10% of the big-tech layoffs were employees that had W-2s in excess of $1 million in 2021.

Mortgage company owners, CEOs, senior executives and national sales managers may have a salary, but every type of company in America pays their people based on profits. Hun dreds of mortgage executives that made more than $1 million per year in 2020 and 2021 in America are looking for jobs or making ends meet on incomes 50% to 75% less today.

Us older salespeople can handle the ups and downs, but I will share with you that no matter how many of these swings I have seen, I still find myself staring at the ceiling, trying to sleep, last month won dering if any of my past clients, friends and family would ever call me again for a loan.

I am trying to be funny but at the same time, my awesome daughter, Lisa Porter, Sara Blanton, my loan officer partner, and I work together as a loan officer team and although all three of us survived the 2008 crash, the fourth quarter of 2022 was scary and stressful.

It’s the Year of the Spirea, as designated by The National Garden Bureau, and The Garden Guy could not be happier. There is a spirea that is a landscape asset from spring through dormancy, but a lot of you simply do not know about it.

First, let’s delve into a little horticulture humor. Yes, the common name is spirea. The botanical name is Spiraea. No family wars here; simply use the name you wish or grew up with. You will have to learn how to pronounce the one you are using. Just kidding, they are the same.

The spirea is in the rose family and has the common name meadowsweet. Today, however, I am telling you about an incredible Spirea japonica, or Japanese Meadowsweet, called Double Play Candy Corn. This beauty will reach about inches tall and 30 inches wide.

The 8-foot-tall bridal wreath spirea, Spirea prunifolia, is the one most of us grew up with. It’s thought of as a partner with