Let's Make a Deal!

After a fairly long, drawn-out, and difficult struggle, the sale of our electrical contracting business is complete! As of this past Friday, Sandy and I are now full-time R.V.’ers, and are working full-time on the website, http://www.electrical-online.com/. Our plans are in motion, and we are looking forward to enhancing our on-line services, and to improving the content on our site.


The sale of the business has been in the discussion and planning stages for well over a year now, and with us and the purchasers in full agreement over almost all of the details, including the purchase prices of the 2-part sale (the buildings and the business), it was surprising how difficult the process was, not within the affected parties, but with the legal wrangling, and then the financing from the bank. The first stumbling block was the lawyer for the purchasers. I’m not sure if he was just too busy, or if he was out of his comfort zone with a “share sale” all tied in with a real-estate purchase that was to close at the same time, but the delays that he caused were extremely frustrating for all parties involved. Our lawyer was fantastic throughout the process for us, and held the deal together, coming up with a 23rd hour solution that saved the entire process from collapse.


The deal was supposed to close on June 30, 2008, so all planning was pointed at that closing date, including a 2 day shut-down of operations to take a detailed inventory of the shop, vehicles, and jobsites. Then with the delays inflicted by the purchasers’ lawyer, it became apparent that we needed a new target date. We were hopeful that it would only be a week or two, but soon we set a realistic new closing date of July 31, 2008. With the “offers to purchase” now signed and in place, and closing in on the new deadline, the documents were ready to take to the bank. Verbal approval of the financing had been given by the bank, but needed: “one or two days” to run it through the official approval process.


After waiting to hear back from the bank for over a week, and us amending the target dates on the offers to purchase, we still had no word from the bank. Then came the answer that no one expected. The bank reneged on the down-payment requirements and now were asking for over twice as much cash up front, only financing a small portion of the amount required. The deal was in serious trouble, to say the least. The purchasers found a solution however, and off to the “people upstairs” for the rubber stamp of approval, and a promise that we would have a letter to take to our lawyer, ensuring that the financing was in place and the deal was saved. After yet another week, we still had no letter, and then another road block was erected by the bank. In the meantime, since July 31 (which we had named “the effective sale date”), the purchasers assumed the role of new owners, and had moved in to the living quarters of the business (with our blessing, but against our legal advise).


To make a long story even longer, time marched on and with the ever changing closing date now moved to August 31, 2008, we still weren’t sure what was going to happen. Sandy and I had sold or given away all of our surplus possessions, stored things we couldn’t divest of, and had moved everything else in to our motor home at our lake property. The new owners were all settled in with no place to return to, having sold their home back in June. To go back now seemed unthinkable, unbearable, yet inevitable. Then our lawyer, with less that 24 hours to disaster, came up with another option that involved Sandy and I providing the financing for the deal and leaving the bank to wonder what happened. Our lawyer drew up the revised offers to purchase, and the papers were signed before the deadline, and a new closing date of September 4, 2008 was established. Of course, the other lawyer missed the deadline by about 27 hours, but by 3:00 P.M. on September 5, the deal was done. What a ride!


Sorry to bore you with the details, but I needed to capture the process for future reference, so what better way than to use my blog? Now, as I have promised before, but failed miserably, I will be making more frequent entries. Way more. Really!


Sandy and I are looking so forward to the next phase of our lives, and the time is now! We will be heading out west to British Columbia for a month or so, starting around the 22nd of September. Then late October, or early November we will head south down the Pacific coast with a meandering path that will eventually get us to southern tip of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Sandy is going to start a blog that will document our travels, complete with pictures or video where necessary. I will up-date you with the location and a link to it when we get that in place.



We plan to be very focussed on the website, improving the content, and answering the client questions on a regular basis.


Let’s get it started!