Stake your claim in tomorrow's wealth today. Real estate development is the most rewarding, most secure, and most prolific investment in the United States today and will be for some time to come. Consider the facts: America's wealth is and always has been secured by real estate. Most fortunes in America have been amassed through real estate investment. Owning real estate offers tremendous tax advantages. Real estate values rarely experience dramatic negative swings. Real estate is a commodity that rarely drops to zero in value, and one of the very few commodities you can actually purchase and begin with equity, especially if you have a real estate license. Now you can stake your claim in this rewarding and profit-producing industry. In "Dealmaker," real estate development pro Jerry L. Wallace shows you how! Discover how to: Think like a developer Locate suitable properties Attract the right investors Negotiate the best contract terms And much more! By using Jerry's blueprint for success, you, too, can become a "Dealmaker"!

In this book you will learn my trade secrets from being a front-line restaurant, bar, and club owner/operator, as well as my extensive experience as a buyer and seller of many restaurants, bars and clubs. For a 45 year period (1950-1996), my family owned and operated: a) Zim's Restaurants, the largest independent non-franchised restaurant chain in San Francisco, b) nearly 35 restaurants, bars and/or clubs in Northern California including Zim's Restaurants, Z's Bountiful Buffets, Kibby's Drive Ins, and Casa Carlita's Mexican Restaurants and c) miscellaneous other operations, including many cocktail lounges. Today I own Restaurant Realty Company, the largest restaurant, bar and club business brokerage in California. I have personally sold over 800 restaurant, bar and club businesses, and I have completed over 2,500 business valuations since 1996. Throughout this book I will share my experiences and knoweldge from my twenty-plus years of restaurant experience, and more than thirty years of real estate experience. Having worn many hats as a restaurant, bar, and club owner/operator, buyer, seller, landlord, and broker, I want to share my years of experience to make it easier for prospective restaurant, bar or club buyers to learn how to effectively purchase a business. My goal is to help a buyer understand the key things he, or she, needs to know in order to minimize mistakes and to make a successful, well-thought-out purchase. I want this purchase to have a strong chance for success, subject to buyers operating the business properly after they take ownership. I cover the following topics in the book: 1. The Buyer - a. motivations for buying, b. things you need to know before buying, c. qualfications needed to purchase, d. things you need to do before you purchase, e. the advantages and disadvantages of buying an existing business versus starting one from scratch, f. what are you buying, and g. how buyers initially screeen business opportunities; 2. What Do You Need - a. the essential for preparing a business plan, b. how much money do you need to open and operate, c. methods for raising money; 3. Buyers Do's and Don'ts - a. buyer's three-stage checklist, b. important questions and information to ask the seller, c. signs to look for to determine if the seller's business is in trouble; 4. Success Vs. Failure - a. key ingredients for a successful business from a customer's and buyer's perspective, b. why so many businesses fail, c. turning a losing business into a winning business opportunity, d. why do sellers sell?; 5. Valuations and Other Financial Aspects - a. various sample valuations, b. understanding financial statements; 6. Importance of Location - a. major factors in selecting a strong location, b. how an operator determines if an existing site will work for his proposed new operation, c. special types of locations, d. how to find a good restaurant site; 7. Lease and Other Legal Aspects - a. premise lease, b. how a tenant can negotiate a good lease and renew it on favorable terms, c. helpful techniques in negotiating your lease, d. why landlords want to maximize their rent; 8. Steps to the Sale - a. selling process from offer stage to close of escrow stage, b. dealing with the most common problems related to the sale and how to ensure a closed escrow, c. overcoming the most common obstacles in dealing with the landlord, d. the main three parties in the transaction: buyer, seller and landlord, e. how the sales process works, f. explanation of the asset purchase agreement, g. the buyer's due-diligence process, h. things that can go wrong during a sales transaction that a seller needs to know - and a buyer should too, i. advantages and disadvantages of an asset sale versus a stock sale; 9. Is Franchising For You? - the advantages and disadvantages of buying a franchised business versus buying an independent, non-franchised business and 10. Using a Restaurant Broker to Your Advantage.

An inside account of the multi-billion pound world of private equity and a masterclass on the art of deal-making. The Dealmaker is a frank and honest account of how a severely dyslexic child who struggled at school went on to graduate from Oxford and become a serial entrepreneur. It describes Guy Hand's career in private equity, first at Nomura and then as head of his own company, Terra Firma. It looks in detail at the huge deals that Terra Firma has done over the years, involving everything from cinema chains and pubs to waste management, aircraft leasing and green energy. And it offers a brutally honest appraisal of the deal that almost bankrupted him - the acquisition of multinational music recording and publishing company EMI in 2007, just as a global financial crash loomed on the horizon. Above all, he gives the reader a real sense of what it's like inside the secretive world of private equity, describing in frank detail the pressures and rewards involved. Insightful and page-turning, The Dealmaker will prove inspirational and essential reading for all those who want to understand how huge business negotiations are done, and what makes one of private equity's biggest players tick.

Surviving incarceration at the infamous Trois-Rivers prison was no small accomplishment. Built in 1822, it was one of the harshest institutions in the province of Quebec, a foreboding limestone fortress where prisoners lived in grayish light, each in a single cell with a wooden bucket for the elimination of human waste. Inmates there were systematically dehumanized, and only the strongest maintained their sanity. The most effective way to survive years at Trois–Rivers was by receiving and inflicting pain, and one man was better at that than any other. His name was Robert LaRue, a well-known Montréal loan shark with unattractive facial features and a darkly evil demeanor. He left Trois-Rivers thirsty for revenge.

'This is the definitive guide for anyone looking to enter the restaurant industry! Full of hands-on practical advice and real-life examples, Robin and Eric provide you with the expertise necessary to avoid common pitfalls and navigate your way to owning the restaurant of your dreams!' —Herb Mesa, Finalist, The Next Food Network Star, Season 6 'Outstanding work...presented in a bright and motivating style that is quite informative. Highly recommended reading for the food service entrepreneur.' —Henry L. Hicks, Certified business broker, fellow of the IBBA, past chairman of the board of the International Business Brokers Association, CEO of Georgia Business Associates, Inc., board member of the Georgia Association of Business Brokers Six out of every ten startup restaurants fail. Your restaurant should not be one of them. Veteran industry experts and restaurant brokers Eric and Robin Gagnon now present their guide to buying an existing restaurant so you can beat the odds. Readers will finish this book knowing how to acquire a restaurant in a way that is less painful, more profitable, and delivers a better return on their investment. With the help of this guide, you can soon satisfy your Appetite for Acquisition!