Originally Posted by SleazyDream
(Post 16117699)
2 years ago I bought a 24,000 sq foot commercial building. Three major players in the adult business lent me money and I still thank them for that. I still owe them all money and am paying them back. One is mostly paid back, just some interest owning which should get cleaned up with the building lean when it sells (that doesn't work I'll put in more payments) and the other two are being paid back slowly. I also put in a lot of my own, and lost all of that. Had this not gone badly I'd be retired today (second time as I could have done it if I didn't divorce 6 years ago too)
The building had a nightclub in the basement. Honestly I didn't care about the nightclub, I bought it for the second and 3rd level which I planned to put a business center in with 30 offices for rent. With most contractors I work with I offer a bonus on a job if it's done on time and under or on budget. Anyway - long story short the bar tenant didn't' pay their rent, I evicted them and my contractor convinced me to open the bar with him. I didn't want to run a bar, but it was there and he said it would only be $50K to revamp it and open it and then once he paid me what I put in I'd hand it over to him and just collect rent. Anyway, the $50K became $100K, then $200K then $300K and on in reno (scam)... and it was a case of keep going or loose what was already put in... anyway the bar opened, and the guy went power nutty with the bar and decided before he finished the offices that i owed him the bonus. Totally went to his head and he started stealing from me big time and doing a LOT of coke. As I looked over the books it wasn't right and within a couple months I fired him (which became another nightmare in itself as for the next year or more he bugged every police, liqueur official, city agent, etc to have me shut down, it was constant) and then he stole $15K worth of tools from me with the aid of a police officer.
That went to court - long drawn out thing, finally won a judgment against him and the police officer is pending a trial examination on it in November. In the mean time a couple months later he broke in and stole another $30K + of money and stuff which ending up in hell pending the insurance as he had been a partner. He was arrested for that and is pending trial in November as well for that incident. He made death threats and such, blah blah blah it was very stressful...... s000000 I had this bar and knew nothing about bars and it was EATING money like crazy. With the old partner it didn't even make the rent, when i took it over it started making the rent and a few bucks on the debt. Slowly I learnt, and in the last few months I had the several hundred of the highest drinking crowd in the city as friday night regulars. Everyone THOUGHT I was rolling in it but times were bad though financially as the building was worth 1.2 in current state (when the offices were to be done it would value out at about 2.2 and we were VERY close to having those done, like 30k close). I only had a 400 mortgage on it but with the bar in the basement it was impossible to refinance at reasonable rates. Just needed to refinance from 400k to 800k on the building to be fine at a reasonable interest rate 10% or less. Had I been able to refinance I would have been able to hold out to sell for a decent profit .
I was paying 30% or more on a lot of the loans to CC companies and others with the idea that I would have been able to refinance. Even though the bar was busy, I couldn't sustain those kind of interest rates and the bar too up all my time running it. I realized I didn't like it. I had women all over me, but the wrong kind. Never been a big fan of drunks. Do have some cool stories I will share later though that happened in it. Anyway, economy went bad, was making my credit card payments but suddenly they dropped my limits and hugely raised my monthly minimums - which fucked my credit even more making refinance even harder. I kept hanging on, even though money was extremely tight to the point of not affording food for my family but I kept my 20+ employees paid hanging on to finish this out. I did that for over 6 months. I don't give up easily.
Then someone brought a gun into the club. I don't know how it got past my metal detectors and pat downs at the door, but it happened. My security guards were older and amazing, many ex boxers and such, and they got it off the guy as he pulled it out. I decided there and then no amount of money was worth getting someone innocent killed in a stupid bar fight. I've had my life threatened many times and never worried about that, but the idea of risking someone else's life over something soo stupid as a bar fight wasn't worth it. So I ended it. I needed the money from the bar to keep it all floating and I wasn't risking an innocent's life so my ONLY option out at that point was bankruptcy. As far as I could see it it, it was either that or risk having an innocent person shot in the bar over something stupid as once one gun shows up - more come. My financial gain wasn't worth it.
I wrote off my back taxes, my credit cards and one asshole who thinks I owe him money on a rent to own land deal I was in on with him. The contract said (in writing) if he was 3 months behind in rent he's loose everything he put in and was 5 months behind, also he would get increasing equity based on payments over 15 years upto 49% from 0. He was about 3 years in. For the last 5-6 months I made this person's payments right up to my bankruptcy forgoing food and medication for my family when he went out partying it up not making his payments. That idiot wants ALL his rent back now, and he's the only person from this industry who I completely wrote off as he's now threatening me. He still owes me money on other things too, but I've written that off as he's always says he'll pay but never does.
So there it is. I went bankrupt. I was upfront with the bankrupsy trustee with everything I own, including my sites, and have done it legally. I lost my house, my toys, my timeshares, my lakefront land, my bank accounts, many of my investments my benz, etc. I had a few assets in legal trust which were exempt so I'm not living in a dumpster. To be honest I'm in about the same position as when I left my ex wife 6 or so years ago minus the credit cards. It's not that bad.
I'm starting over and back in online adult full time as I love this business and most of the people in it.
Assuming you'll have me back, I still hold a lot of shame about this inside and cut myself off from the world for a while dealing with it.
I am prepared to accept all the 'deadbeat' comments as I deserve them except in the land deal case - that one I did give to the trustee and they even found no merit in it for the guy.
There are some VERY amazing people in this industry that have helped me move back into this game. I'm not going to list them there, I don't want people bugging them with their hard luck stories, but I do have to say there are some VERY amazing people in this industry and ALL my really true friends work in this field.
THANK YOU. I will always be grateful for your help and I will do everything I can not to let you down again. You can't even begin to imagine how grateful I am for your help.
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