From: Gary S. Gevisser
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 6:10 PM PT
To: Cliff
Cc: Ms. Valerie Coster
Subject: RE: ....FACE....Sea Crest

 

Cliff,

 

Picking up from an email I sent yesterday to a gentleman who has apparently a very good track record running a similar establishment in Minehead, we are considering all options including running the café ourselves in the future but we might entertain a deal with you under the following conditions:

 

1)    Base rent of 650 a month.

2)    Plus 5% of sales.

3)    Rental period one year with no option to purchase.

4)    You would be responsible for all taxes, repairs and maintenance.

 

While many rental agreements have the owner responsible for the “upkeep” of the property we are not willing to do so unless the rent was significantly higher.

 

You may not know, apart from Valerie Coster, a godsend and the former owner of Seacrest, we have been rather unfortunate with our “choice” of operators but have managed to “make up” for the financial and emotional “drain” by drawing upon our experiences to empower the next generation to understand that it is not so much “what goes around comes around with a vengeance” but there is no way possible for the next generation to end up more corrupt than our generation given the extraordinary depletion of our limited resources to mention little of the high level of risk in the capital and financial markets that barring each of us coming together real soon there wont be much to talk about as we all stand in food kitchen lines all over the world, those of us who have survived the “end of the world”.

 

Bottom line, I remain exceedingly optimistic only because I know it is very possible to bring us all together - again up to each of us to do the right thing and the smart thing which is also the right thing and use our heads, beginning with not be so dumb as to trust anyone at “face value.”

 

I also need to hear from you how much rent you can pay in advance as well as for you to let me know more about your personal financial situation; i.e. what your balance sheet looks like bearing in mind I know that if you were in a great financial position you would have purchased Seacrest.

 

Cheers,

 

Gary

 

Ps – Why not send me more details including photos of your dream spot.

 

Ps I – I was born and bred in Durban, leaving 1 week shy of my 21^st birthday back on March 17^th 1978.

 

Ps III – I assume you were able to click on to all 8 hyperlinks in my previous communiqué.

 

[Word count 424]

 

From: Cliff
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 6:56 AM
To: gsg@sellnext.com
Subject: Sea Crest

 

Hi Gary

 

Your selling price of £275 000 for Sea Crest is very reasonable. However we have been led to believe that you had an interest in initially renting, which is the route we would have to take. The reason being that our capital is, at present, is tied up in our current property (TA246NQ) which appeals to a specialist market. Let me explain!

We have a four bedroom thatched cottage in Carhampton complete with a bread oven 'walk in' fire place and a stream bordering the garden, built originally in the 1400's as a barn or stables, it was converted into a dwelling in the 1600's to house the officers participating in the siege of Dunster Castle. The downside being we are directly on the main road to Minehead. Thus making the house difficult to sell  - we have a responsibility to make sure it goes to the correct owner as this much history is not replaceable.

We would like to rent in the first instance so that we could prove turnover on a viable business to raise a business loan from the bank or alternatively give us time to sell the cottage, a shame really as we only have a couple of years to go on the mortgage.

We can furnish you with character references from local businessmen to prove we are not 'fly by nights' looking to rip off an absentee landlord. We have been in that position ourselves and are aware of the pitfalls and the costs accrued both in time and money.

If you are interested in this option then please reply asap as time ticks on and we would like to begin the running of Sea Crest before the season is entirely over to help finance the long dark days of winter.

Finally where were you in SA. I lived in Cape Town (wonderful) Claremont and Bergvliet and then Jo'berg (awful) Rosebank. We live there for thirteen years and I have revisited since and am watching developments with interest.

There is often delays in response as I work during the day and with these long light evenings I work late. Then shower and collapse and rehydrate via a beer or ten!

 

Regards

Cliff