Chapter 12
Mary Louise still had Bob the Accountant’s number in her phone, so she clicked on it. After a couple of electronic buzzes, Bob picked up.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Bob. This is Mary Louise Fulton. From the wedding date?”
“Oh sure!” he said. “How are you doing?”
“Great, Bob. Thank you for asking. And how are you?”
“Right as rain.”
“I’m so glad to hear that.” She was glad to hear that. Bob was genuinely a nice man. “Listen, Bob. I have a business question for you if you don’t mind.”
“Sure.”
“If someone wanted to buy a piece of property, other than wanting to be sure they could convince the seller to sell it, why would they pay more than the property is worth? Like a lot more than the property is worth?”
“Hmmm,” said Bob. “If it involves a lot of money, the first thing that comes to mind is capital gains. If someone had sold some property they might be looking at having to pay a lot in capital gains if they don’t turn around and buy another property of similar value.”
Mary Louise considered this, and simply said, “Hmmm.” She could find her way around a corporate departmental budget spreadsheet but anything to do with taxes made her want to hide in a closet.
“You also have to consider their motivation,” said Bob. “Was there a bidding war? Did the seller need some added incentive to sell?”
Mary Louise doubted there had been a bidding war, or that Marty’s daughter needed any added incentive to sell judging by the speed with which the sale went through so shortly after Marty’s death.
“What if the buyer is a corporation, or LLC?”
“Oh, that opens another whole can of worms. They may have been looking for a 1031 exchange tax shelter. If so, they’re under a time deadline after the sale of a property to buy another property within 45 days, so they might have been under the gun if that was the situation.
“If they have investors they might be making money on fees - the higher the sale price, the higher the fees. If they’re foreign investors, those investors might not be aware of what a fair price is here in the states or may not care. And sometimes losing money benefits them more than making a profit if the property is eventually sold.”
Mary Louise’s head was spinning. This was probably a dead end, but she felt it was important to try and understand their actions and motivations.
“That gives me something to think about, Bob. I really appreciate your time and the information.”
“Happy to help,” said Bob. “Say, that was some party the other night, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Mary Louise. “It was a lot of fun. I think you picked up a couple of admirers.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. People tend to get happy when the wine and beer are flowing.”
Here was Bob being all charming and Mary Louise felt nothing but an urge to run. Goodness gracious. It had been a pleasant evening but she had no desire to begin a relationship with a man. She liked her solitude. She liked only looking after herself.
“You just let me know if you have any more questions,” said Bob. “I’m happy to answer them. Maybe we could do it over a cup of coffee.”
“That sounds very nice,” said Mary Louise, knowing full well it was probably never going to happen. “I’ll mull this information over and see where I land.” She was very disappointed in herself, resorting to corporate speak. Gag and puke.
“Sounds great. You have yourself a wonderful afternoon.”
“You too,” she replied.
She retrieved the notebook that she had started, a small bound set of sheets that had been handed out at a conference about twenty years ago. The cover was stamped with a nondescript, circular logo and the name TaraByte. Could have been a tech company. Could have been a cookie company. She flipped to the section she’d started for RogLee and scribbled down the information Bob had shared.
“Follow the money,” Albert would say. If there was a situation that didn’t make sense on the surface, follow the money and 99 times out of 100 you’d find your answer. Someone was getting paid under the table. Someone was being bribed. Someone was getting kickbacks. Someone was providing sex. In her relatively small corporate environment it ended up explaining everything from why they continued to use crappy vendors to why so-and-so got promoted. It was always about the money. Or sex. In this case she was pretty sure it was about the money.
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