Would you grab an opportunity for gas station business partnership ?

[Joel thakkar]

You are a lower middle class/middle class liberal/socialist who oppose oil and other fuels due to their environmental problems.

You also own a piece of land near one of the most congested highway in USA. One gas company offers you 50% profit in gas station business just for using your land. 100% investment will be done by that company for setting up and running the business. Your Potential profit is around $10k per month with much more potential in future.

So, would you accept the offer thinking that Oil and gas business is here to stay for next couple of decades and you should grab the opportunity because

1) It will greatly benefit your current financial situation and retirement
2) If you don't take the offer, someone else surely will.

OR

You would reject it considering it is against your ethics to make money in business which creates environmental pollution.

[Lars39]

1. Are they going to cover all the costs of removing gasoline saturated dirt to get the land

back to what it was before the leasing? If not, all your profit is very short-lived.

[Joel thakkar]

2. Who said it is my land ? n/t

[Lars39]

7. My answer would be the same.

[DireStrike]

9. Good point.

You have to take account opportunity costs of using the land for something else, now and in the future.

[tk2kewl]

24. yes, good point. you need a good lawyer to protect your interests

In any significant business or realestate deal

[tk2kewl]

3. in a minute

maybe try to place some stipulations on the deal and covenants on the land to ensure that the business is required to have plantings screenings, buffers to the community, etc.

as you said, someone else will do it - why not do it a little better.

I live in a place on the water where i don't think anyone should live, but lots of people do. All of my neighbors dump pesticides and fertilizers on their properties which runoff into the water - i do not. If i didn't live where i do another mindless moron would be there adding their poisons to the environment.

moral relativism isn't necessarily a bad thing

[NightWatcher]

4. if you refuse they'll go next door or across the street and make the same offer

Take it. If you feel Gas Guilt, send money to environmental groups. Run your gas station ethically.

[KeepItReal]

5. Over 20 years that's $2.4 million. Can u just sell em the land?

You get paid today. Then you can invest in yourself and causes you care about.

[BluegrassStateBlues]

6. I would grab the opportunity and not lose a wink of sleep.

As a person that has grown up poor and still is poor, it would change my life.

[DireStrike]

8. Yep.

Capitalism isn't a lifestyle. It's an economic system forced on you. You have to survive.

Donate some of the money to clean energy research or socialist parties. You're certainly doing more for the cause than letting somebody else do it and spend the profits on big screen TVs.

[politicat]

10. Is it real profit or Hollywood profit?

Because given how net (Hollywood) profits get cooked, taking net points is a sucker's game. If they're offering gross (real) points, and the contract includes end of contract remediation, then it's not a bad idea.

But considering that even Gone With The Wind has yet to pay on the net points and those accounting tricks are not unique to Hollywood... I'd want to see the contract and have a contract lawyer fine-comb it in advance.

[HereSince1628]

11. I think I'd want to know what part of the liability goes along with partnership.

Imagine a car-full of kids and family pets and a mom caught in flames due to a freak accident...

[Bunnahabhain]

12. I would pass

If I was this person I would pass or I would completely renounce my purported positions. IMO, the only time personal values really mean something, is when they're put to the test.

[hunter]

13. Oh hell no.

Sell the land for as much as you can and run like hell. The predators are going to eat you if you don't.

The wolves are never going to let a sheep into their pack. Sooner or later you will be dinner.

[Jim Warren]

14. and a different take

Scott nearing wrote about an incident in his life, he received a pile of money in an inheritance in the way of some bonds that got left to him. He tells the tale of perusing the bonds worth $250K one night in front of the fire, contemplating them and in the end threw them into the fireplace. It can be said he was foolish, he could have just donated that money to a cause or something if he didn't want it.

His reasoning, that which he had decided and wrote about, was that he refused to be a part of what he called "the tyranny of riches" and wanted no part in it.

[Yo_Mama]

15. Well, if you drive in a car that uses gas, or use public transportation that uses fossil fuel

or eat food that is trucked to you with fossil fuel, or wear clothes that were transported to the store in a ship, then a truck, then a train, then a warehouse heated with fossil fuel, and then again in a truck, then you are somewhat odd in assuming it magically gets into the tanks on its own. Dumb or hypocritical is not a nice way to move through life.

My answer, btw, would be no - I would take a quarter of the profits in exchange for the right to share management, so that I could insure that the station was run well and cleanly. And then, btw, I'd see if I could get a charging station installed or something like that, which would help us transition to a "cleaner" economy.

I think that's a false choice you are setting up there. If there were no fossil fuels tomorrow, in two weeks we would all be starving. Stuff you have to do you do well, and then you try to move to a better way.

[Demo_Chris]

16. In a freaking second. nt

[CJCRANE]

17. What if you were a RWer offered money for land for a windfarm?

Which included an array of solar panels and a sanctuary for endangered animals?

[MineralMan]

18. Nope. I'd sell them the land, though.

In the first place, land near a busy highway wouldn't interest me much. Secondly, gas stations come and go, and not all of them are profitable in the first place. I'd rather take a cash buyout of the land and then use that cash in some way.

Finally, nobody's going to offer you 50% of the profits to put their station on the property. If they did, you'd probably find that the fine print in the contract assured that no actual profits would ever exist in any amount that would benefit you. If someone offers you a deal like that, find a really good business contract attorney to go over the contract and tell you the downside.

As a writer, I've written a few books that have been published. The contracts for those books all included royalty payments to me. No royalties ever were paid, though. That's why all of the books I have written had an advance payment that was enough for me to write the book in the first place. For most non-fiction books, which is what I write, there will not be royalties paid, ever. And the contract include so many ways to not pay you royalties that it's pretty obvious.

Go for the sure money. If it's a good risk, the person offering the deal will offer to buy the property. If they won't offer to buy the property, walk away from it. It's probably going to just be a cash-flow venture that will never really produce profits.

[One_Life_To_Give]

19. Need more detailed buisiness plan

24hr convenience store? Projected foot traffic and vehicle traffic volumes? Possible Sublet to a DD or similar coffee shop?
Gas itself doesn't have much margin and fuel may be COD. Is the traffic spread across the day or tightly clustered to only a couple hours? Do the required operating hours match the traffic pattern?

What are the alternatives and how well set financially are you to wait for perhaps some time for a better offer?

[Motown_Johnny]

20. Yes, but write in that you also sell natural gas and have charging stations

for EVs


Then spend a large portion of your new income on renewable energy such as solar panels or wind turbines.


It isn't like those vehicles driving past your land are going to burn less fuel because you don't have a station there.

[safeinOhio]

21. First thing I'd do is

hire the best lawyer in town and get that expert opinion. You'll have to hire one anyway for the contract.

[riderinthestorm]

22. Yes. My neighbor has this deal is a freaking millionaire

You can structure the deal so its environmentally friendly, no problem.

[TheKentuckian]

23. I'd take it, at a 50% clip they would be losing money hand over fist. Profit from breaking them.

This would KILL the 10k number thrown out. That might be a daily.

I could make some generous gifts and prudent investments that more than offset any harm done.