Chapter 6

That Kevin was gone from the office for a week did not elicit any requests to him of where he had been when he was back at the office. No one knew that he had gone to Florida since it was not unusual for him to be gone for a week from the office.

Handing the signed purchase contract to Ralph, he broke the news that he had purchased a house in Orlando and asked him to have Paul handle the closing and the purchase of the insurance. Kevin asked that all of the people in the office come into the conference room for a short meeting.

When everyone was there he said, “Last week I flew down to Florida to see what that State had to offer. I was impressed by what I saw, especially the Orlando area. Besides Disney, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld, there are many other attractions there and it is not far from the Kennedy Space Center, which I think is a must-see. This is a great place to take a vacation, especially for families. I was so impressed that I am in the process of purchasing a house there.”

Turning on the television which was wired to the internet, he brought up the listing for this house and clicked on the sixty-four pictures that were there showing this listing.

“This house purchase is what can be called a company benefit since all of you can reserve time for when you and your family may want to go and vacation there. My parents and I will be using it as well, so October, January, and February times will be blocked out. All of the other times, especially during the summer months when the kids are out of school are available to be reserved.”

“The interior of the house will be painted right after the closing, but as you can see furniture needs to be purchased and the interior of the house decorated. I know from experience that women like to shop. I am asking Jenny if she wants, to go there for a week with her husband and purchase all the necessary furniture and decorations to make the house livable. If she can’t do it, I can hire an interior decorator to do it. A realtor down there will be managing the property for us. Oh..., and there will also be an SUV there for you to use unless you want to drive there. What do you think?”

As a group, he heard his people saying, “Where do we sign up.”

After the meeting, an excited Jenny came into his office and said, “I will do it, I will do it. I can get my parents to babysit and my husband will use the week of vacation he carried over from last year. This should be a fun thing to do. What is my budget?”

“No more than the purchase price of the house.”

“Great, but we need to talk about the business here. I want to hire two additional accountants.”

“Is business that good?”

“It is but that is not the reason as I want these hires to be outside auditors. We are taking on face value what these property management firms are submitting in their financial reports to us as gospel. Ralph and Paul are now talking about purchasing two car dealerships from a man who owns five and got hit with a double whammy. The IRS is after him for some large back taxes and his wife wants a divorce. We will need to check if all the financials of these dealerships are being properly reported.”

“Okay to hire, but are you going to have problems finding people?”

“Not with these company benefits, but I do have someone already in mind. Rita Evans has been doing outside auditing for my prior company but she has been caught in their downsizing. I have stayed in touch with her and she will fit right in here and be a good hire. I will post an ad at UT for the second auditor.”

“Have at it,” said Kevin.

Later in the day after reviewing the reports on the business and investments, Kevin talked with Ralph who confirmed the pending purchase of these two car dealerships. He said he planned on keeping all the people who were working there, including the management, but thought there needed to be someone to oversee these two dealership’s operation.

Kevin laughed and told him he knew just the man to do it, his father. This will give him something to do when he isn’t traveling with Kevin’s mother and seeing the world.

Paul, when he came back from the closing on this house in Orlando told Kevin it was a done deal and symbolically handed Kevin the keys to the house. He said he had lunch with Jessie who is an accomplished realtor and he told Kevin things about her that Kevin didn’t know.

He said that Jessie’s parents are successful realtors who have an office on the other side of Orlando. The office where Jessie works was a satellite office that her parents gave to Jessie after she graduated from college and secured her MBA from Duke. She has blossomed as a realtor and besides selling homes she also manages some large apartment complexes. She gave Paul a lead on a one-hundred-and-sixty-four-unit apartment complex that is rumored to be coming up for sale because the present owner has overextended himself in developing a large shopping mall.

Kevin thanked Paul for handling the closing and for this information.

It was later in the week that Kevin was reading the Alumni Newsletter from his university. Contained in it was an article on the fundraising efforts that were done to refurbish the athletic building. The article listed the donors and the amount they donated. Because of what the school had done for him, Kevin’s name was at the top of the donor’s list with his one hundred thousand dollar donation. Farther down the list was a five thousand dollar donation from Doctor Fred and Lori Lancer. He could only wonder if Lori read the article and realized that working in the automobile industry can at times be more financially rewarding than the medical profession.

Jenny when she came back from Orlando talked with Kevin. She said it was more advantageous to do this house furnishing and decorating working with an interior designer. Jessie the realtor, recommended the interior designer whom Jenny dealt with. Everything has been purchased or ordered and should all be in place within a month. This includes besides the furniture, sheets, blankets, dishes, pots and pans, towels, etc., all that is necessary in making the house livable. She said they even purchased some nonperishable food items.