Desirae decided she needed the employees Roger was using to do the analysis that she had been sending into the company to get her checks. If she was going to continue, she might as well have a legitimate consulting firm. Roger wasn't too upset because that got him out of the loop. Now her firm could do consulting for any company without that company. She also decided to stop putting any of the girl's income into the investing firm's commissions. That way the investing firm could drop their commissions to the standard rates, and there would be nothing wrong within that company's books.
Tiffany agreed to let Desirae use the $500,000 from their horizontal gains to buy the property. They would work out the compensation details between them later.
Roger and Desirae met at the brokers office to close the deal on the property. They had set their real estate investment firm up and it was ready for the deal. The deal was done in a short order. Roger and Desirae went to celebrate and ended up together for the entire weekend. They enjoyed each other's company to the point they had to go to their respective homes to recuperate.
Desirae started thinking about ways to make money off the real estate firm without Roger. The logical way was a brokerage company, and the logical person to talk to about it was the broker that had done the deal.
Her name was Anna, and she was an American of Chinese descent. Her parents had immigrated from Hong Kong before China had taken over. She had used her family's money to start this company. It was a real estate sales and mortgage brokerage company. She had done very well until two economic downturns had put the financial squeeze on her. She had been looking for a way out and this lady maybe it. She was surprised when Desirae called her. Maybe that was something.
"Thank you, Anna, for seeing me. I have been thinking about getting into the mortgage business. I want to be able to do this without Roger. I thought I could talk to you about how to go about it."
"I am happy to talk to you about it. The hardest part is the line of credit needed from a commercial bank. I needed Roger to get that, and he took twenty-five percent of my company to do it. It took me nearly ten years to buy that percentage back. He was fair, and I have it back, but it was a strain." Desirae could tell. She was only in her mid-thirties, but the strain was evident in her face.
"The last several years have been bad for the real estate industry. I have been squeezed to the point where I am concerned about my family's fortune. It is tied up in this, and I can't let my parents down. I have been trying to find a way to raise enough capital to survive this downturn. You may be that option."
Desirae and Anna sat looking at each other for a few minutes. "I can see why you have looked so stressed. Maybe I can help you. Are you looking for a partner, or a white knight?"
"I am tired of worrying about my family. I am tired of stressing out. I think I would like to just sell it and go."
Desirae sat thinking for a minute. "This company is you. Your reputation is what has that line of credit. If you leave, the credit will leave without bringing Roger back in. I don't want to do that. How much money do you need to restore everything you are worried about?" She had to find a way to keep Anna involved.
"I am $475,000 dollars behind in payments to my family. They keep telling me not to worry about it, but it is a shame on my name that I am risking my parent's future."
"Would you be willing to sell me sixty percent of your company? I would ask you to run it, and I don't want my name involved in it. I think we could be a good team. I want you to think about this and tell me in the next couple of days if you might be interested, and how much you would need to do this. Please think about it. We could do very well on our own."
Desirae stood up to go, and, without thinking about it, hugged Anna as she got up. Anna choked up and Desirae just held onto her until she recovered. They smiled at each other, and Desirae left. She was sure this would work. Now she just had to get it past Tiffany.
She went into Tiffany's office and explained everything to her. She told Tiffany they would split whatever percentage of Anna's company they got evenly between them. Tiffany had no problem with that.
Anna called two days later and asked to come over. Desirae and Tiffany met her in Desirae's office.