This is a difficult post to write.
After 4 months of intense discussion, excitement, frustration and hope, the motel we have been attempting to enter into a Lease To Own agreement with has fallen through. While I will undoubtedly go into more depth when I reach the motel in the stories, ideally after I've had some time to separate myself from the emotion, the short story is that he wanted more money than we had to give, and we started to have some real doubts about the stability of the property, both the buildings themselves, and the owner.
It was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but we reached a point where we could see that more time discussing it would only be delaying the inevitable, and make ending it harder for us. This motel was the only one we contacted, out of 20 that was willing to consider a deal with the amount of money we had to offer.
Of course, we're nothing if not persistent, and we are determined to run a motel. It's our dream, and we are confident that we could excel at it in ways never imagined. Between our artistic ability, dedication and friendliness, all we need is a chance. There is one other property we are looking into. It's smaller, and less than half the price of the other, and after a lot of reflection, we've decided that not only are the buildings in better shape, but we like the area well enough to try for it. The problem is that the owners aren't interested in a Lease To Own, or other owner oriented plans, essentially, they want to get the money and forget about the property.
Throughout this entire process, Lindsay and I have been explicit in wishing to do this ourselves, relying on help only in a moral support capacity, but we have come to the conclusion that we need help if we're to achieve our dreams. We are currently looking into lenders, SBA, Government-assisted loans, hard money people and every other conventional methods we can, but we have come to the conclusion that if we are to find the 20% we need to secure a loan, we are going to have to ask people for assistance.
If any of you, my friends and family, know of any angels out there willing to invest in our future, at a good interest rate, please fire us off an email at avalon_ink@yahoo.com. We are hoping to find one single investor for the property, but we are willing to take on multiple investors to reach the amount we need, if we can find them.
Thank you!
Kristopher & Lindsay
Showing posts with label Ocean Spray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ocean Spray. Show all posts
Monday, March 2, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Grayland, WA - The Tour - Part One
After eating breakfast and driving around the area looking at cranberry bogs, we met Mabel, our Realtor at the Sea Spray Motel. She was pretty much as we'd pictured, a slightly older lady, friendly, and nice, but somewhat biased and set in her ways. Immediately, we could see that she was surprised by our ages. I'm 30 and my wife is 24, and we look young, Our age would continue to be a problem as our search continued, and that day we could see that she hadn't anticipated our youthfulness. She was very friendly though, and it was nice to finally put a face to the voice online. Mabel also handed us a card, featuring her picture holding a couple of cute little dogs, which was both a shameless advertising ploy on her part, and yet still utterly fitting for her to have on the cards.
Having checked out the Motel, we were pretty anxious to get the show on the road.
The Sea Spray Motel consists of 11 structures, with 9 individual 1 bedroom cabins, and one duplex, as well as an owners residence/office. The property is 1.2 acres in size, and is on the corner of the main road through Grayland and the main beach access there, which is utterly perfect! Online, the motel is posted as having ocean frontage as well, though that clearly was not the case upon arriving, as there was roughly 4 blocks to the beach, and in between there were plots of land for sale, but it was still in a great spot for a motel.
Naturally, the manager was being incredibly difficult. He would only allow us to look in certain cabins, and Mabel was reluctant to push him, so we reluctantly agreed to look at the ones allowed and the office/residence. It was pretty apparent from the start that the motel had once been cared for. The cabins were cute, and had a lot of character, and were decorated pretty whimsically from the outside. Unfortunately, as we started looking around inside, it became clear that at one time, the owners had started decorating and painting it, and as the owner became ill and the manager took over, that stopped, and things were left either poorly painted, half finished, or just made up enough to get by.
Colors were all over the place, ugly hotel bedspreads mixed with clashing sofas and paintings...
"vintage" appliances and tile right out of a 50's nuclear disaster readiness film...
and where they had attempted to add some decor, it was badly waterstained posters and glued together puzzles, hung without regards to the other things in the room.
The walls were amazing too, odd colors, often painted over old paneling, and poorly patched with colors roughly matching...
Clearly, this should have been a clear sign that the Sea Spray Motel was an R.O.U.S. - then again, we'd essentially ignored the previous Rodents Of Unusual Size associated with the venture, the inefficient Realtor, the utterly unprepared and clueless owners, the surly and uncooperative manager, and like those, we ignored this stuff, after all it was all cosmetic, and could be easily fixed with some elbow grease and LOTS of paint. We still really liked the Sea Spray! It had a lot of character, and a lot of potential!
Then we toured the grounds and office.......
Having checked out the Motel, we were pretty anxious to get the show on the road.
The Sea Spray Motel consists of 11 structures, with 9 individual 1 bedroom cabins, and one duplex, as well as an owners residence/office. The property is 1.2 acres in size, and is on the corner of the main road through Grayland and the main beach access there, which is utterly perfect! Online, the motel is posted as having ocean frontage as well, though that clearly was not the case upon arriving, as there was roughly 4 blocks to the beach, and in between there were plots of land for sale, but it was still in a great spot for a motel.
Naturally, the manager was being incredibly difficult. He would only allow us to look in certain cabins, and Mabel was reluctant to push him, so we reluctantly agreed to look at the ones allowed and the office/residence. It was pretty apparent from the start that the motel had once been cared for. The cabins were cute, and had a lot of character, and were decorated pretty whimsically from the outside. Unfortunately, as we started looking around inside, it became clear that at one time, the owners had started decorating and painting it, and as the owner became ill and the manager took over, that stopped, and things were left either poorly painted, half finished, or just made up enough to get by.
Colors were all over the place, ugly hotel bedspreads mixed with clashing sofas and paintings...
"vintage" appliances and tile right out of a 50's nuclear disaster readiness film...
and where they had attempted to add some decor, it was badly waterstained posters and glued together puzzles, hung without regards to the other things in the room.
The walls were amazing too, odd colors, often painted over old paneling, and poorly patched with colors roughly matching...Clearly, this should have been a clear sign that the Sea Spray Motel was an R.O.U.S. - then again, we'd essentially ignored the previous Rodents Of Unusual Size associated with the venture, the inefficient Realtor, the utterly unprepared and clueless owners, the surly and uncooperative manager, and like those, we ignored this stuff, after all it was all cosmetic, and could be easily fixed with some elbow grease and LOTS of paint. We still really liked the Sea Spray! It had a lot of character, and a lot of potential!
Then we toured the grounds and office.......
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Grayland, WA
We arrived in Grayland well after nightfall. It was actually a beautiful drive, cruising along the coast of Washington, the ocean audible beyond the lush greenery, the rain drizzling down, with beams from the lighthouse cutting through the sky.
When we reached Grayland, naturally, the first thing we did was scope out the reason we'd come, the Sea Spray Motel,* and from what little we could see in the dark, we liked.
As this trip was being performed on the cheap, we didn't have any lodging lined out, planning to sleep in Strontium, like we had on a previous trip to the coast. Sleeping in the back of a Honda Element is amazingly comfortable, after some trial and error on our first trip. I'm around 6'2" and have the proportions of a yeti, and my wife is just over 5' and quite small, but we've created a pretty nice little setup for sleeping in the rig. We have an inflatable twin mattress that runs on a little battery pump, and we leave it laid out in the bottom of the Element. Then, layered on top of that is a full size pillowtop mattress cover, plenty of blankets, and around 6 pillows. Then we just pile our luggage and cooler on top of that. When it comes time to bed down, all we have to do is slide the seats forward, stack our luggage in the driver's and passenger's seats, inflate the mattress, and tuck the pillows into the odd crevices around the doors. I was shocked how comfortable this was the first time we did it, and it's incerdibly nice to be able to just pull to a dark place, inflate, and sleep. We've slept behind Safeways, in isolated campsites, construction zones, on the sides of roads and hotel parking lots, all with little to no problem. The first time we used Strontium like this, we made neat little cardboard and cloth window covers, which were nice, but a huge pain. For this trip, we just went bare windowed, and hoped no one wanted to peek in. Eventually, I plan to come up with some sort of clever window covering system, but for now it seems like we do a pretty good job of fogging up the windows by sleeping in it!
Anyway... we drove around the area for a while looking for somewhere to sleep, and were shocked to discover the campground, which had well over a hundred spots, full up! Eventually, we just found a dark, semi-private road, and parked on the side for the night.
Camping, Element-Style!
The Sea Spray Motel* (Not it's real name)
When we reached Grayland, naturally, the first thing we did was scope out the reason we'd come, the Sea Spray Motel,* and from what little we could see in the dark, we liked.
As this trip was being performed on the cheap, we didn't have any lodging lined out, planning to sleep in Strontium, like we had on a previous trip to the coast. Sleeping in the back of a Honda Element is amazingly comfortable, after some trial and error on our first trip. I'm around 6'2" and have the proportions of a yeti, and my wife is just over 5' and quite small, but we've created a pretty nice little setup for sleeping in the rig. We have an inflatable twin mattress that runs on a little battery pump, and we leave it laid out in the bottom of the Element. Then, layered on top of that is a full size pillowtop mattress cover, plenty of blankets, and around 6 pillows. Then we just pile our luggage and cooler on top of that. When it comes time to bed down, all we have to do is slide the seats forward, stack our luggage in the driver's and passenger's seats, inflate the mattress, and tuck the pillows into the odd crevices around the doors. I was shocked how comfortable this was the first time we did it, and it's incerdibly nice to be able to just pull to a dark place, inflate, and sleep. We've slept behind Safeways, in isolated campsites, construction zones, on the sides of roads and hotel parking lots, all with little to no problem. The first time we used Strontium like this, we made neat little cardboard and cloth window covers, which were nice, but a huge pain. For this trip, we just went bare windowed, and hoped no one wanted to peek in. Eventually, I plan to come up with some sort of clever window covering system, but for now it seems like we do a pretty good job of fogging up the windows by sleeping in it!
Anyway... we drove around the area for a while looking for somewhere to sleep, and were shocked to discover the campground, which had well over a hundred spots, full up! Eventually, we just found a dark, semi-private road, and parked on the side for the night.
Camping, Element-Style!The next morning, we headed to the beach, desperate to see the ocean, and walk off some of the nervous energy we had. The first thing we noticed, was something we'd forgotten, that you can drive on Washington beaches. This is something we are not fans of. Lindsay and I are usually the people giving you dirty looks as you cruise past us on your four wheelers and dirtbikes on the trails of Idaho, and we figured that the beaches of Washington would be no different.
Luckily, even with tire tracks, the beach was gorgeous. Grayland is part of the Cranberry Coast, and they have 18 miles of beach. The beaches in Washington are a different breed, very cool and stromy, they definetly have a different feel to them than beaches in Oregon and California. More of an untamed, rebellious ocean. We loved it.
An old stump on the beach in Grayland, WA
After wandering on the beach for a while, we ate some decadently greasy chicken fried steak at the Local Bar, and drove around Grayland, finding it intriguing how many vacation houses were for sale, and how many other houses seemed to be slowly melting into the land. The cranberry bogs were also very unique, and we've sworn to eventually find out more about them, and hit a harvest, because they're very odd, and cool.
Eventually, it was time to meet Mabel, and take a tour of the motel... A place we were really hoping would become ours, especially after the charming morning we'd spent in Grayland!
Luckily, even with tire tracks, the beach was gorgeous. Grayland is part of the Cranberry Coast, and they have 18 miles of beach. The beaches in Washington are a different breed, very cool and stromy, they definetly have a different feel to them than beaches in Oregon and California. More of an untamed, rebellious ocean. We loved it. 
An old stump on the beach in Grayland, WAAfter wandering on the beach for a while, we ate some decadently greasy chicken fried steak at the Local Bar, and drove around Grayland, finding it intriguing how many vacation houses were for sale, and how many other houses seemed to be slowly melting into the land. The cranberry bogs were also very unique, and we've sworn to eventually find out more about them, and hit a harvest, because they're very odd, and cool.
Eventually, it was time to meet Mabel, and take a tour of the motel... A place we were really hoping would become ours, especially after the charming morning we'd spent in Grayland!
The Sea Spray Motel* (Not it's real name)Tuesday, December 16, 2008
In Preparation
A week passed. On Mabel's end, no news. The family was hard to get a hold of, the Listing Realtor, it seemed, had inherited the listing, and knew virtually nothing about it, the manager was very uncooperative, and our Realtor was seemingly unwilling to push any of them to get the info we needed.
On our end, we began investigating the property heavily, using any and all online sources available to us. Starting with a google search for images, and going so far as to emailing the Chamber of Commerce, and the Cranberry museum in Grayland, WA. The Motel had virtually no presence online, the homepage was a simple page, with one link to events in the area, and one link to a few more pictures of the cabins, they didn't even have any online ordering, just an address and a phone number. Outside of what we could find there, the information we found was intriguing though. While it was listed as being 11 cabins with ocean frontage, from what we could find in pictures, it was actually 8 separate cabins, one duplex, and the owners house/shop/office. It was on 1.2 acres, and from Google earth's vantage appeared to be the closest building to the ocean, but certainly not ocean front. We started conversations with the Chamber of Commerce and the Cranberry Museum there, primarily trying to find out people's opinions of the Motel, and then try and delve into the history of the place. We're both big history fans, Lindsay is a History Major from the University Of Montana, and I have a lot of interest as well, and we had plans to decorate one of the cabins with the history of the motel in mind.
Surprisingly, we learned that most of the residents of Grayland were imports, and the Chamber had no idea who we would even begin to talk to in order to learn more about the history or to find old photographs. For the time being, we just kind of filed it away, something to look into deeper after we got the place. The people we connected with were very friendly however, and we chatted off and on while we prepped for our visit. One thing we did learn was that the Motel was considered poorly run. That actually gave us hope, but in retrospect, should have made us nervous as well...
On our end, we began investigating the property heavily, using any and all online sources available to us. Starting with a google search for images, and going so far as to emailing the Chamber of Commerce, and the Cranberry museum in Grayland, WA. The Motel had virtually no presence online, the homepage was a simple page, with one link to events in the area, and one link to a few more pictures of the cabins, they didn't even have any online ordering, just an address and a phone number. Outside of what we could find there, the information we found was intriguing though. While it was listed as being 11 cabins with ocean frontage, from what we could find in pictures, it was actually 8 separate cabins, one duplex, and the owners house/shop/office. It was on 1.2 acres, and from Google earth's vantage appeared to be the closest building to the ocean, but certainly not ocean front. We started conversations with the Chamber of Commerce and the Cranberry Museum there, primarily trying to find out people's opinions of the Motel, and then try and delve into the history of the place. We're both big history fans, Lindsay is a History Major from the University Of Montana, and I have a lot of interest as well, and we had plans to decorate one of the cabins with the history of the motel in mind.
Surprisingly, we learned that most of the residents of Grayland were imports, and the Chamber had no idea who we would even begin to talk to in order to learn more about the history or to find old photographs. For the time being, we just kind of filed it away, something to look into deeper after we got the place. The people we connected with were very friendly however, and we chatted off and on while we prepped for our visit. One thing we did learn was that the Motel was considered poorly run. That actually gave us hope, but in retrospect, should have made us nervous as well...
Monday, December 15, 2008
A Headlong Leap.
Deciding to take a chance, we contacted our Realtor here in Pocatello, Jared, who found us a Realtor out in the area, contacted her and let her know we were interested. The first thing we were surprised to discover, is that a lot of Realtors move at a glacial pace. Jared, and everyone we'd dealt with previously at our local business have been energetic, friendly, up with the latest tech, and just absolutely amazing to work with, and we'd assumed the same would be the case in Washington. Apparently, email is something fairly foreign there. If we wanted to get ahold of our new Realtor, Mabel (Name changed) we found ourselves needing to call, and usually leave a message a couple of times, and the listing agent for the Motel was even worse, often deleting emails unread. It seemed odd to us that a tool like the internet and email would be so quickly discounted out of hand by these Realtors!
At any rate, we dove in, asking to see occupancy data, and asking the usual questions; days on market, date built, why the owners were selling, etc... Some of the information came back quickly, and the rest would never really be answered...
It turned out, the owner who had the same name as our Realtor, Mabel, was very ill, and that was why they were selling, and had been trying to sell for almost 2 years. They has bought it for her to run, and shortly thereafter, she fell ill and they hired a manager to live in, and run the place. This made us excited, adding fuel to the fire. They seemed desperate to sell, no longer ran the place, and had been trying to sell for quite some time! They were also willing to carry the loan, something very favorable to us, while we have good credit, we didn't have any real money for a down payment. Somehow, in the excitement, we kind of overlooked the lack of any occupancy data, income numbers, or any real effort on the part of the Realtors or owners. We realized that we had a few days off together in a few weeks, and asked Mabel to get us the data while we planned to come out and visit the property...
At any rate, we dove in, asking to see occupancy data, and asking the usual questions; days on market, date built, why the owners were selling, etc... Some of the information came back quickly, and the rest would never really be answered...
It turned out, the owner who had the same name as our Realtor, Mabel, was very ill, and that was why they were selling, and had been trying to sell for almost 2 years. They has bought it for her to run, and shortly thereafter, she fell ill and they hired a manager to live in, and run the place. This made us excited, adding fuel to the fire. They seemed desperate to sell, no longer ran the place, and had been trying to sell for quite some time! They were also willing to carry the loan, something very favorable to us, while we have good credit, we didn't have any real money for a down payment. Somehow, in the excitement, we kind of overlooked the lack of any occupancy data, income numbers, or any real effort on the part of the Realtors or owners. We realized that we had a few days off together in a few weeks, and asked Mabel to get us the data while we planned to come out and visit the property...
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Diving In
Okay, back on track...
When Lindsay got home that night, I prefaced showing her the property. "Don't get excited, I just thought it looked intriguing, that's all." I then showed her a property listing for a 10 cabin motel with owner's house on 1.2 acres roughly 2 blocks from the ocean, in Grayland WA. Withing 5 minutes, we were in love and wanted to try for it, all of our careful plans be damned!
When Lindsay got home that night, I prefaced showing her the property. "Don't get excited, I just thought it looked intriguing, that's all." I then showed her a property listing for a 10 cabin motel with owner's house on 1.2 acres roughly 2 blocks from the ocean, in Grayland WA. Withing 5 minutes, we were in love and wanted to try for it, all of our careful plans be damned!
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