The guarantee that wasn't

Different deal, same lesson wearing a disguise. Nice building, ten years of term, a tenant with a name you'd recognize on the sign out front. Everyone assumed the corporate parent stood behind the rent.

They didn't. The guarantee was the franchisee's single-store LLC. One location's bank account, standing behind a long promise. If that one store has a rough couple of years, there's no deep-pocketed parent to make the payment. There's just a struggling operator and your mortgage.

The building was fine. The lease was fine. The guarantee was the whole risk, and it was hiding behind a logo.