up148 wrote:That's what bothered me on the one and only Kohs project I participated in and MMW seems to run the same game plan. The time factor to completion is incredibly long. So many things can happen to sellers or buyers during that time frame. If a buyer becomes unable to complete the transaction, for any reason, his investment is gone. If the seller is unable to complete the project, for any reason, game over and all the buyers investments are gone. I'm too conservative (and old) for that game again. Seems to be all one sided. What's the rush to complete a project if your customers are paying for the build. I'll guarantee these comments would either get the thread locked on OGR or me personally banished to the netherworld. Oh well. BH
Butch, I won't begin to dispute anything you have said as you have lived the dream with your Challenger, and we certainly won't banish you to anywhere, but I think we don't look at things from the Importer's view quite enough, in that the customer can hang the importer out to dry just as easily as the other way around. An up front deposit just enough to know the customer is serious might not be all that unreasonable. People (as in customers) can be fickle and impatient, and sometimes unscrupulous. I know there used to be letters of credit issued to the importer to be paid to the builder at certain points, but how much of that exists today is a good question. I suspect most bankers would laugh at you if you went to them looking for money to import brass trains. Not sure how the financing is done these days. Always two sides to a story.