He Was Selling Real Estate He Did Not Own

A confident belief about ownership, left unchecked, can send a seller, and any buyer who relies on him, down a road the records closed years earlier. One example, anonymized.

A professional preparing to retire wanted to sell his ownership in his building and, separately, his practice. Two sales, one clean exit. He represented, plainly, that he owned a meaningful percentage of the building and could sell that real-estate interest alongside the practice.

I went to the records that govern what he actually held: the entity's formation and operating agreement, the membership ledger, the title, and the lease on the space he occupied.

He did not own a piece of the building. He held a minority interest in a company that owned it. The company's founder had died, its members were largely one family, and he paid rent on his own suite. The operating agreement permitted transfers, but a strong right of first refusal made a minority interest effectively unsaleable on the open market. He could not sell what he believed he owned, and did not know it.

I put the finding in writing before he spent months and goodwill marketing an interest that could not be sold as imagined. The practice could be sold on its own merits. The building interest could not, and a right of first refusal, not a buyer, would decide its fate.

Ownership is what the documents say, not what you remember. Before anything is marketed, confirm what is held, in whose name, under what entity, and whether the holder is free to sell it at all. The detail others miss is usually the one that decides the deal.

That kind of read is the judgment I put my own capital behind now. I do not chase deals. When one finds me, this is how I check the ground before I trust the story.

Benoit Lapointe invests in healthcare and real estate. He is the principal of Meridian in Newport Beach. benoitlapointe.com