The financial planner did not discuss the surrender charges in great detail with me and now I see the reason why he did not go into a detailed explanation.

I know my partner keeps up with his geographic area and knows how to buy well enough to make the deal profitable for both of us.

Dion, thanks for your post and explanation.  

This is a great how-to explanation along with customizable forms for purchasing the business.

Go to the link in my sig for a much better explanation, but he has an investor network willing to fund short sale purchases for you.

driving around by car though obviously you need to identify a narrower geographic region (a city or town) first.    

Even if you do your "due diligence", there has to be some rationale, some of which may be completely outside your control (geographic marketplace, loss of industry, etc) that creates a high-cap situation.

Can also diversify geographically and many types of investments.

Now, sometimes the GLA on public record is erroneous, in which case the appraiser will have to reconcile their measurements with what has been recorded but usually there is a explanation for the difference.Along with the overall square footage there should also be a certificate of occupancy on file which will describe the legal use of the property.

This allows many advantages over doing it on your own such as being able to invest in much larger properties, a larger number of asset classes, more geographic diversification, lower borrowing costs, a lot less work once you are in the deal etc.