382. Valuables being auctioned off, business assets sold, utilities still collecting

Chapters

• 1:03 Studio update and staffing changes
• 1:45 Asset valuation and bank approval
• 3:05 Bankruptcy liquidation process
• 4:13 Utility company communication issues
• 5:37 Moving forward in the new year

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

All right. Well, it's been like two weeks since the last update. Long story short, nothing really has happened. We had our proceeding. Yeah, I found out there's already some staffing changes at the studio with the new owner, so I hope they find the management team that they're looking for, whether it be instructors or managers or whomever. All I was told is that they're looking for, whether it be instructors or managers or whomever. Um, all I was told is that they're making some changes and so I hope that, whatever they are, that it's a smooth and painless one for both the staff and the ownership. Um, finally heard over the weekend the bank approved the, the amount and so just kind of interesting.

Speaker 1: 1:14

So the book when I bought the studio, the book value of the assets was gosh, 40,000, 38,000, something like that. And so when the business closed, the buyer said, hey, I'd like to buy the assets from you. I think it's worth around seven. And I said oh, based on my like, depreciation and all that stuff. And I said oh, based on my depreciation and all that stuff, I think the value is probably like $25,000. So the bank would probably be willing to take $20,000 just to make it smoother, less cost and stuff. So let's pitch the bank at $20,000. And the buyer said eh, I'm not fully there, let's split it and go to like $12,000. At the end of the day, the bank that has the SBA loan, they're the ones that have to approve this and they're the ones that receive the funds. So this is not nearly enough to cover all of their losses, but just enough for them to recoup. And so, on their behalf, I came to a value that I think is okay. So I think the bank would accept. And so we submitted that over the weekend. Bank said yep, this looks fine, we will sell the assets to the new owner, for I think it was like $17,000, $16,000, $15,000, something like that. And so now the buyer just has to wire funds and purchase the assets. So that'll be good, and one less thing to think about Still plugging away at the day job.

Speaker 1: 2:34

Oh yeah, for the liquidation, the trustee is now keeping us in the loop. So they repossessed some valuable, tangible assets and we told them what we believe the value was and they said okay, well, based on that, here's how much the estate's going to conclude at. And so we dropped off those valuables to the bankruptcy attorney and they told us hey, we're hiring a liquidation company to sell these. So we're not going to sell them, but we're going to hire someone to do it. I don't know what happens from here. I don't know if they sell it. And then if we said the stuff was worth $5,000 and if they sell it for $6,000, do we get a credit back? If we said it was worth $5,000 and they sold it for $4,000, do we now owe them $1,000? I have no idea, but I can't control that and so I can't focus on that.

Speaker 1: 3:29

But that's just another interesting thing. We still have to wait for the funds and accounts to settle up, so I don't know how long that'll take, but that's what we've been told. We're still getting calls and emails from the utility companies saying hey, your electricity bill is past due, please sign into your account and send us the money. And I keep responding back like, hey, we've declared bankruptcy, we don't have the funds, please cancel our account, we don't authorize any further collections attempts. And those always come from like one-time phone numbers or like no reply emails. So every time we respond back to them, it doesn't go anywhere. And so I don't know how to tell the people at those utility companies that, like we tapped out like we don't have it, we don't have the money, we don't have the account anymore. So that's just kind of interesting One-way communications to us as the customer. They are not reachable and so we can't tell them. But what will probably happen is they'll forward our business info to collections. Collections people will be more reachable because they buy debts for a fraction of the price and then they need to get to closure on those accounts, and so if I can call, text or email somebody back, I can tell them where things stand.

Speaker 1: 4:49

But as of right now they don't. So there's all that. So yeah, nothing really new to report. It's been kind of a slow two weeks. As the estate kind of wraps up, as the items get liquidated, just keep plugging away at the day job. I suppose that's about it. It's a new year, we just got a new president sworn in, and so carry on with life at this point. That's where we're at, that's where we're going. Let's rock and roll.