By John McNellis

In Rochambeau, paper beats rock. In life, paper sometimes beats deals.

We own a shopping center in a Sacramento suburb that we developed 25 years ago. At the beginning of the year, we earmarked this center and a couple other assets for sale. We listed it with a top brokerage firm, drifted through the tariff doldrums for several months and at last came to terms with a well-respected, publicly traded company that specializes in owning retail properties. In short, an ideal buyer for this property.

The buyer proposed a simple, straightforward letter of intent. We haggled a bit over the price and the free-look period, but were soon in agreement. Because we had gone into escrow to sell this asset some years ago, we had a fully negotiated contract with another professional buy

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