The best deals rarely start on a listing site. This one started with a hand-made sign: a longtime owner-operator announcing his retirement. Everyone drove past it. We stopped.
Why the structure is the story
A triple-net lease means the tenant — not the owner — pays the property taxes, the insurance, and the maintenance. The rent check arrives and essentially all of it stays. For an investor used to residential operating costs, that’s a different sport: no water bills, no boiler surprises, no turnover season.
The seller financing mattered just as much. Instead of a bank, the retiring owner carried the loan at 5.15% — a clean, fast close with terms both sides chose. And the tenant buying 19% of the equity put the person operating in the building on the same side of the table as the owners: when the tenant succeeds, everyone’s asset gets stronger.
The lesson for your next deal
Nothing about this deal required genius. It required stopping for a sign, having a real conversation with a seller who cared where his building went, and knowing enough deal structure to propose terms that worked for a retiring owner — income from the note, a legacy in good hands — and for us. Off-market sourcing isn’t a trick; it’s showing up before the listing exists.