Seed Money vs. No Thanks

[Jenny Drabant]

I'd love other opinions on this. So my wife and I both work (and basically run) part of a management company of about 30 apartment buildings. We make decent, fair $. Our shared goal is to own our own properties. While my wife likes property management, I have recently finished a MSRE degree in RE Development and have no desire to run another person's properties any more.

We want babies, to start our own investing and real estate venture, and are always always super exhausted. We work our tails off. Our plan was to help fix the unorganized company, then move out of state to a more desirable city. Plan was to move South.  

My boss (there are two) doesn't want us to leave, so he made an incredible offer. He offered us $1,000,000 in seed money for apartment buildings so that we stay at the company, we get to own something, and he still gets to own too. He offered us each 1/3 ownership with a small percentage (3-5%) on his money. He may just be blowing smoke, as is his usual deal-closing behavior, but he has come through on every promise he has ever made me. He has worked me to death, but he has never cheated me so to speak. So we think he's serious. He's not a bad guy, but he's already made his millions and can be incredibly unclear at times and difficult to work with. Other than that, his experience is invaluable to us. We put him to the test already, and he made a small cash offer. (It didn't go anywhere as we pulled out.) He would likely find the deal since they don't buy anything but off market. We are trying to find a deal ourselves, but it may take a while.

So my question is, do we take the offer and stay at a job that we have outgrown? Do we need to ask additional questions? Do we just ask him to give us all the buildings and pay us a management fee so he can stop being in the management business and just be a broker? We are beginner investors with a ton of education and experience. We've just always worked for others. My wife is a power broker, she just hasn't stepped into it yet because she puts all her energy into managing leasing apartments). I project manage and flip entire apartment buildings. I'm leaning toward saying no because it is money in exchange for my time and career. It's not just money in exchange for us managing it. It's money that may never come. Or money that may come, but will force us to stay at a badly thrown together management company that they don't 100% let us run. My wife is thinking it's not an offer we are likely to get elsewhere from a partner who will likely never even drive past the properties. Also, she hates Chicago. We're kind of torn. We'd love your feedback on this.