Did You Know Those People?

People who are interested in buying a TIC often ask me if I knew my partners when we first purchased the building. Back in 2000, TICs were considered high risk investments. Most realtors cautioned buyers against them and many brokers would not list them. There were no meet-and-greet TIC partner parties, find-a-partner postings on Craig's List or TIC matchmaking websites.

Our building has six units so it was even stranger and scarier than most. The man who sold it was a mean old realtor who came out of retirement to do a deal no one else wanted to touch. He could care less if we got along, or liked each other, or wanted to share hall cleaning duties. His only goal was to hustle us into signing our contacts so he could be gone with his cash.

In short, my partners and I were thrown together by chance and circumstance, propelled by the realization that if we wanted to own a home in the City this was the only way we were going to be able to do it.