[PaulHoule]

One of my tenants (Roo) had run a chain of hobby stores but got into an accident and had TBI problems and lost his business.

He wanted to start a new hobby store but could only get half of the bank loan he needed to get started. I asked him if he'd ever considered equity financing and said I'd be interested in investing. The next day he asked me if I was serious, I told him yes, but I could only invest a few thousand dollars and he'd have to find other investors to do the rest.

So we got it started and the store ran for about ten years with ups and down until it went out of business. I certainly got more rent out of those tenants (who I particularly liked) than I invested in the store. Got plenty of things on store discount too. Roo's TBI problems did cause problems for the business because he did not keep up with the paperwork which led us into a near death experience which we were able to get out of because of the loyalty of our consumers.

Today in our area we have a few stores who sell some of the stuff we were selling but not all of it. I don't think there is a model train store in town but there are a few places that have a back room where you can play D&D so we were pioneering in some sense.