Chapter 5

Just before Kevin Reeves was ready to leave in a few days for what he was calling a vacation, Ralph came into his office and asked him a question.

“Would you have any objection if I were to invest some of my money with Paul for us to purchase some small business-type properties? These would be something like twelve or twenty-four-unit apartment buildings that Paul and I would be investing in.”

“On the face of it, I don’t know. Let me think about it and I will let you know tomorrow.”

Kevin did give some thought to Ralph doing that and came up with a few negatives. If he was to approve of Ralph and Paul doing this, there could be conflicts. On the other hand, Kevin understood why Ralph would want to do that kind of an investing.

The next morning at the office Kevin had a meeting with all of the people there. He told them of Ralph’s request being the reason for this meeting.

“I can see why Ralph would want to invest with Paul in purchasing an apartment building which would be a way to invest to improve one’s financial wealth. But in doing that, there could be conflicts, with the main one being if this is a property for the two of them to invest in or is it is something for KAR to invest in. I certainly can’t object if any of you wants to invest in something like that with your funds with people who don’t work here. It’s none of my business of your wanting to do that kind of investing.”

“However, if you want to do that kind of property investing, you can invest with us. By that I mean there will be a notification given when we are going to be purchasing a property, and you will have the option of investing with us. You can choose how much of the down payment you want to contribute to this purchase. It could be one percent, two percent, or up to forty-nine percent. It is solely up to you if you want to do this. You will receive that same percentage from any income we receive from that property and the same percentage of the profit we receive if the property is sold. You need to look at doing this as a long-term commitment because if you want to get the money back you invested and the property isn’t sold, we will give you back what you originally invested, and not any appreciated value from this investment unless it is sold. The income generated from this property and its possible appreciation should be your primary concern.”

There were some questions that Kevin answered. Jenny said she and her unit could do the record-keeping for those who were going to be investing this way.

Where to go on vacation was on Kevin’s mind. He could go anywhere in the world but going by himself was a big negative. He thought he would keep it simple and just fly down to Tampa. Once there he would rent a car and drive around and see what the State of Florida offered since so many people were relocating to that State. He had taken up the game of golf when he was in high school, but he would leave the golf clubs at home in doing this trip.

The flight to Tampa and renting a car went trouble-free. He came away with the impression that the Tampa airport along with renting a car there, as well as where people could park their car at this airport was a world-class operation. He thought that if other airports would copy Tampa in their total airport facility design, they couldn’t go wrong.

A fellow who was sitting next to Kevin on the plane said that his wife was waiting for him in the cellphone parking lot. He said this cellphone lot has a decent restroom and no porta-potties. This lot also had free Wi-Fi and two large screens the size of billboards that listed in order the next plane’s expected arrival time, when the plane landed, and when the baggage for that plane was delivered to the carrousel.

Kevin had studied a map of Tampa which along with his iPhone’s GPS, enabled him to drive to where the cruise ships docked. He saw one monster cruise ship that was docked there with quite a bit of activity going on. He then did a drive to where the hockey team plays and also where the professional football team plays its games before he checked into his motel. This motel was close to the University of South Florida and Busch Gardens. Seeing these sites gave him a favorable impression of Tampa.

The next day he did considerably more driving in doing his sightseeing. He drove across a bridge into St. Petersburg, going up to the Clearwater area and then down on Gulf Boulevard going through several towns along the water and down into Pass-a-Grille. After stopping for lunch, he drove to Fort DeSoto to see what was there. After giving the Fort a look-see, he drove over the Sunshine Bridge and looked at the Bradenton and Sarasota areas.

Kevin stopped for dinner at the Crab Shack restaurant where he had a delicious meal of fish and chips. He drove back to his motel going along the east side of Tampa Bay where he filled up the rental car with gas before he parked at his motel. He wasn’t knocking Austin in any way when he thought that he could see why Florida was attracting so many people to live here. With that in mind, he thought the next day he would after checking out from the motel, drive to Orlando and see what that area had to offer.

After checking into a hotel in Orlando, he went on his laptop to see the attractions that were here besides Disney, Universal Studios Orlando, and SeaWorld. There were many other attractions listed that he wasn’t aware of. He noted that he wasn’t that far from the Kennedy Space Center, which he made a mental note to visit. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this was a great place for a family to visit and vacation. With that in mind, he came up with an idea and thought that maybe he should do some business while he was here.

Kevin did more surfing of the net looking at homes that were for sale. The next morning he did a little driving around the area before he stopped at a realtor’s office.

In the office, an attractive lady close to his age greeted him and gave him that straight line asking him what she could do for him. Of course, she could do a lot for him because of how she looked. She was of average height with a slim figure that was highlighted by the gray business suit she wore. Shoulder-length auburn hair and a pretty face made her a complete package. He told her he was looking to purchase a home in the area and took a seat she pointed to on the side chair that was next to her desk. She asked him what he was looking to purchase.

“A house in a gated community that has at least 4 bedrooms, has an open floor plan, is modern in its interior design, a private swimming pool, preferably a nice view from the back of the house, as well as a two car garage. Also, there needs to be no rules or regulations as to restrictions on my friends or relatives living in it when I am not here. Take this right way, I am not looking to rent out this house when I am not here but I do have a lot of friends who will be visiting here.”

After listening to Kevin, the realtor who introduced herself as Jessie Downing said, “We do have some houses listed that meet your criteria but price-wise, they are going to be in the one million dollar plus price range.”

His response of, “When can we see them,” seemed to surprise her, but she said, “Let me print out some listings and make a few phone calls.”