We are so close

We are very close to having my store sold.  This lovely young couple has come in and offered us close to asking price so we are pretty happy with it.  However, they don't want to take it over until May 1st.  Which seems like a long time for us to wait when we are so ready to be done.  Still, we're not about to be difficult.

The only other hitch is that although we've given them the landlord's info, they have not gotten in contact with him yet.  They came in to sign the purchase agreement with us on Wednesday and to give a deposit. Apparently they have given notice to their employers and to their landlord and even were going to view an apartment in our fair city later that afternoon.

During all this our neighbour shows up, which he likes to do every time these people stop by, and casually asks them if they'd talked to the landlord yet and expressed his surprise when he found out they hadn't since everything was up in the air about the building etc.  WTF?   Seriously, I think this guy wants to completely sabotage this sale. Up to this point, we didn't know that they hadn't called the landlord yet.  Of course, we had to basically explain that there are rumours of Tim Horton's coming here and it being developed etc but we've never been told anything by the Landlord about it.  Which is 100% true.   He has never once called us. We just hear rumours.

So our only worry is once they talk to him and find out that he really is as laid back as we had said which basically translates into doing repairs and not into signing ... it may all fall apart.  We've tried to be as up front as we can without cutting our own feet off.

You see, our landlord would like to sell this building.  We didn't talk about that with the buyers.  There is a huge "for sale, for lease and build to suit" sign on the front lawn.  You cannot miss it.  They did not ask us about it.  We told them we don't have a lease nor do any of the rest the people in the plaza, we're not sure if he will sign a lease or not, he's never told us.  Not twenty minutes after we tell them this, our neighbour comes in to tell us that he talked to the landlord last weekend and the landlord said no leases will be given.  Well, wouldn't that have been nice to know when we had our chat with the landlord that afternoon.

Plus our landlord has been saying he's selling the land, tearing down the building, building a whole new development with spots for us for 6 years. SIX.  Further, we have it on good authority from the previous owner that he'd been spinning the same yarn to her for countless years before that.  But we didn't want to tell them all this.  We figured it'd be easier to keep it simple and just let the landlord tell them whatever he was going to tell them without any interference from us.  Last thing we want to do is badmouth, even mildly, the landlord and have them tell him what we said.  ONLY they didn't call the landlord yet.

So what do we do?  Wait and see, I guess.  Obviously if they are totally spooked by the landlord and decide not to invest their hard earned money into a business housed in a building that is going to eventually be torn down, then we will let them out of the contract.

Only if this deal is going to go south, I'd like to know sooner than later.  Still, I'm keeping my hopes up on this one.  They really seem enthusiastic about taking over the business.  Two months is going to be a long wait!

I just hope they won't come back to us and think that we weren't being honest with them about the whole landlord thing.