Anne’s Partition and Franchise
Following her divorce from John, Anne attempted to sell the real property she held with Caleb. However, her Frisco real estate attorney stated that no one would be interested in buying a fifty percent interest in a tract of land. Caleb refused to buy her share of the Property. Therefore, Anne’s real estate attorney recommended that she request the court to issue an order to sale the property through a partition lawsuit.
Anne instructed her Frisco real estate attorney to file the partition lawsuit. The appraisal of the property was stated as $3,000,000. Anne knew the property was worth much more than she had told John (or even the court during the divorce proceedings), but she was unsure of exactly how much it was worth.
The partition lawsuit seemed to take forever. Her attorney assured Anne that she would be victorious. After all, the property was incapable of petition by kind because most of the value in the land was held by the multi-million dollar house in the middle of the property. Therefore, it was incapable of petition-by-kind.
Finally, after fifteen months, the court ordered a partition-by-sale. A receiver was appointed by the court and the property was listed the following week. Within a month, they had received offers approaching the $3,000,000 valuation. The property closed a couple of months later, and Anne netted $1,100,000 after costs and fees.
Anne was on her feet. She was young. She was beautiful. She was rich. And she was ready to take the world by storm. Anne felt free for the first time in her life. She rented a lavish house in a premier subdivision until she settled on something more permanent, hopefully with a similarly stationed suitor. But that was not her intention at the moment. She was ready to be single, and she mingled with the high society. Her new group of friends were mostly similar to her, divorced with money and no job. Some of them started their own businesses, and she decided to do the same. How hard could it be? She felt smarter than her friends, and if they could do it, then she could do it.
Anne had become obsessed with fitness since the divorce. She took yoga classes, made kale smoothies, and frequented a local gym. She had recently taken a girl’s trip to San Francisco, and they had eaten at a restaurant specializing in serving healthy food. And it was packed. They had to wait forty-five minutes to be seated, and the food was outstanding. She took the manager’s business card, and Anne called her when she returned to Frisco. The manager gave her the contact information for the franchisee who told Anne how successful his business had been. She contacted the franchisor and received a franchise disclosure document. The company had fairly recently started franchising, and they were looking for a franchisee in the Dallas market.
The franchise fee was $75,000. It was estimated to require $2.50 million to open a franchise, but the company provided loan assistance. She met with them personally before agreeing to take on the business venture, but something in her gut told her the restaurant would be a giant success in the posh Frisco zip codes.
Anne paid the franchise fee and signed the franchise documents. She hired a real estate broker to assist her in locating a suitable tract of land in Frisco. Another franchisee with whom she sought advice had convinced her that it was less expensive to buy and develop a tract of land instead of paying a landlord. She found a suitable property that was slightly over her goal price, but the location was, generally speaking, second to none.
Anne signed the standard form of commercial contract that the broker provided, and the seller accepted. She would be the first lot to break ground as part of a larger undeveloped tract. She was not only an entrepreneur, she was a trailblazer!
I am Robert Newton of The Law Office of Robert Newton, P.C., and I am the author of this series entitled The Impact of Law, in addition to being a real estate, business, and estate planning attorney in Frisco, Texas. While the characters and the circumstances are fictional, they represent a very realistic scenario. If you need to form a Texas limited liability company, please contact an attorney. None of the information contained within the story represent legal advice. Actually, in many cases, it would be very bad legal advice. So, seek the advice of an attorney. And, stay tuned for the next chapter!