Good business plan?

Have a hard time seeing where I could give good advice to a person who self-made himself into your friends position. Pretty sure he gotz this.

Maybe he can give us advice?

In reply to NOHOME :

In retrospect I think he was just putting out the word that he would have race gas. But since his insurance company nixed it. And he seeming gave up without a second thought, It obviously wasn't a high priority to him. ( or carefully thought out).  Knowing him I think it was about owning a cool retro space to keep his cars. Which I've  got to applaud. I can't imagine anything cooler.   Residential lots in that area would probably  sell for over $100,000 because new homes typically sell for $4-500,000 I think the formula is land cost= 25% of sale price.  ( except lake shore which is seriously backwards)

     I'm sure it's still zoned for business.  So against the monthly payment he can sell the odd car, write off expenses, and probably have little out of pocket real cost.  Kind of brilliant.  Wish I could play at that level. 

There is a rather large marina with about 40 acres of land near me that is so polluted that rumor is you can buy it for $1. The current owner just wants out of the liability.

If there are/were fuel tank in the ground that's a HUGE red flag.

I bought a 1500 sf warehouse to convert to my shop/man cave and the insurance is brutal. The insurance companies don't care if you not running a business, it's a commercial space and they'll only offer you business insurance. If I rented instead of owned it would be different.

So it's not a business plan then it's a real estate investment. They're two very very different things. Strictly is a real estate investment, most small towns aren't getting any smaller. So getting a prime corner spot is a wise investment as within the next decade a nano brewery, coffee shop, dispensary or cell phone sales store will like pay excellent money for the location. 

From a real estate perspective if it passes the pollution test (and it sounds like it does or will) then it's a definite buy, as long as he has an exit strategy. 

Derick Freese said:

Back in the day, dry cleaners loved to just pour their toxic cocktails down the drain or on the ground behind their businesses. I'd check into that first.

This. Ive seen something similar a couple of times, and essentially the owner wrote a blank check until it was fixed. It is incredibly expensive to dig up a few inches of contaminated soil in a lot, then treat it. They just kept going until it was all gone. 

captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

So it's not a business plan then it's a real estate investment. They're two very very different things. Strictly is a real estate investment, most small towns aren't getting any smaller. So getting a prime corner spot is a wise investment as within the next decade a nano brewery, coffee shop, dispensary or cell phone sales store will like pay excellent money for the location. 

From a real estate perspective if it passes the pollution test (and it sounds like it does or will) then it's a definite buy, as long as he has an exit strategy. 

He didn't start out that way with me. He asked if I thought he could make a profit selling race gas. 
  But as fast as everything happened he must have been looking into everything before he called me.    
Then once he heard that the wooden "awning" over where the gas tanks/pumps would have been  wouldn't be insurable  it didn't seem to deeply bother him.  
As far as a good spot for business? Based on the previous  failure rates I don't think anyone could assume that. 
      But I didn't think selling retail sites 10 years ago and buying resort type real estate was a smart move either. Obviously I don't know enough. 

I wouldn't base anything upon previous failures. Most people that open a business know how to be viable under current market conditions in an optimal world, not how to deal with changing market conditions having to evolve having to do things away that they don't want or like to because it's work, most of them suffer burn out because they're now working 70 to 80 hours a week and previously they were a top performer within the industry somewhere else working less than 50 hours. And most of them don't trust to put good people in place and to stay out of it. This is why franchises exist. It's cookie cutter and the how and why is handled for owners. Owners are just droids that are more often than not more highly functional than the other droids. The wonderful thing about others having failed there in their business ventures, that likely have nothing to do with the location itself, is that it makes it so the property can be acquired at a more attractive price, regardless of what the intent is. 

Have him make sure to check with his insurance company coverage on keeping his vehicles there. As if the property is zoned commercial even if he's using it for personal use, his comprehensive insurance may not cover anything that occurs there. If he is haggarty though, he should be good to go. 

In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

I think it's more the location rather than any factor about business skills. There isn't any retail around it.  It's all higher end residential. I'm guessing a left over from when it was built back 100 years ago.   Yes he did get it at a bargain price.  A real bargain.  
    He is going to sell race gas there but to buy it you'll have to make an appointment. Only 5 & 55 gallons at a time though ( cans & Drums) .   No, the phone number isn't showing anyplace and he plans on getting a big Closed sign to prominently  display. . I suspect it's  just going to his friends and buddies. Besides the repop  glass gas pumps  will have Shell signs ( no they aren't real)  while  the big flying Pegasus neon sign is Mobil.  
His plans show a wrought Iron fence with an electric gate to keep out the unwanted.  My guess is he's spending a serious chunk of change. 
     I know there is a labor shortage. But apparently not for him. There are more contractor trucks around there the last week than I've ever seen. 

In reply to TuruCarlz :

Employees? I guess you didn't read everything.  I doubt anybody other than him is going to "work" there. 
   

In reply to frenchyd :

They're a canoe. Of course they didn't read everything.

frenchyd said:

In reply to TuruCarlz :

Employees? I guess you didn't read everything.  I doubt anybody other than him is going to "work" there. 
   

For a canoe-bot, TuruCarlz did a surprising amount of reading here.

Canoe!