Originally Posted by 911Rob
I think I might've just screwed up a good friendship?
I'm always giving people advise here and there, so I thought I'd humble myself to the PPOT Brain trust and see if it helps?
Good buddy of mine, going on 9 years now; hubby & wife friends; Dinner, Drinks, Good Times People. Kids hang together too. Lots of fun, Lots of laughs.
He's an accountant for a large developer; one of the biggest in BC. He works as the right hand guy for the owner and as the right hand guy for the companies main CA. He knows construction, development and accounting; all good attributes. From time to time he'll get some input from me to help him negotiate his day job better.
Introduce the boom and he gets gifted a lot from developer boss, "pay me when you sell it, make some money" So I help him organize a spec home, he builds it by hiring a builder and I sell it for zippo for him. Poof, he made some good dough; like $75K.
He does it again, same results; I make a little commish on the 2nd home. Nice. Then I help him get his own New Home Warranty Program and become his own builder. I go onto the company officers to do this; grats. He builds his first house, no different than hiring a builder, only he's the builder. Does well, we sell it. I give him a good deal selling it; poof he make's $100G's. My friend starts paying for the odd dinner now (true).
So I decide to bring him into a development I'm doing and together we'll build a few homes; say 10. We do. First couple come in on budget, but I can't stand his accounting/control practices (and he's the accountant/job cost control) My wife and dev partner tell me, relax; we're on budget. OK, I do. Couple more houses come in on budget, but its just. Then all of a sudden in January one came way over and we were in the throws of building the last 5 all at once; this being the first of the five.
We take some immediate corrective action. We redo the CTCs (cost to complete) and reconcile all the accounts; profits are adjusted but everyone can live with it. February statements come in on budget.........
All of a sudden March comes in, (thus my note tonight) and we're way out of whack! Big Problem. We also just turned over the last of the 5 homes, with the completion of these 10 homes now; 3 were sold specs and 7 were custom builds under performance contracts. The custom builds gave him the challenges.
So we're deciding what to do with the crap and buddy says things like, "I'll get my lawyer to call you tomorrow" and "I want a contingency for the future warranties too" and "I want my fees paid regardless of the profits". Keep in mind he is being paid very well (he made the mistake of telling me how much his salary at work was....$60K/yr); we're paying him much better. Of course the LIEN word comes up.
Well this got me all pissed off and I went off on him; pretty much pounded him into the dirt and there's no chance he's coming out for awhile. My big challenge is the 9 years of friendship......... man, I don't want to throw that away and I need some suggestions?
I've worked hard at keeping the friendship, but he's become more about business than anything. He's never been a businessman before and he's gotten a rep for being a miserable prick. Your thoughts guys? I appreciate it, thanks.
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