Real-Life Decision Making
You are a small business owner in a rural community. You and your husband have decided to sell one of your businesses, a footwear and clothing store. You own the space the store is located in.
Part of the space includes a small office, which you rent to a young man who runs a freelance title searching business. Business is quite good since he is the only title searcher in town. Lawyers in the town and neighboring counties have come to rely on him, instead of going to the time and expense of hiring their own title searchers.
You tell the young man of your plans to sell the store, reassuring him that the new owners will undoubtedly want to continue the present arrangement of renting him the office space. But he has a surprise for you. He tells you that he has been planning to move to a larger city. Then he offers to sell you the business.
You're taken aback, to say the least. Title searching is a completely new field to you. It's true that you took a few law courses in college, but none of them involved real estate. The young man has built a reputation of being skilled in all areas of title searching, from registrations to expedition searches. You're not sure you're up to the challenge.
On the other hand, the idea appeals to you. Unlike other title searchers just starting out, you have a customer base consisting of the man's previous clients. After all, you will be the only title searcher in town.
If you completely blow it, lawyers will undoubtedly start hiring their own title searchers or bringing a qualified person in from out of town, but at least they'll give you a chance.
And there's little overhead -- unlike larger cities, the man didn't use a computerized system for checking out land deeds. He just went over to the land office and examined the physical records. Besides, you will have enough money from selling the store to cover any start-up costs.
On the other hand, if the business fails you will have lost money that could have been invested elsewhere.
What do you do?