Fun With Government, Part 1

In honor of the horrifyingly complex documents otherwise known as my tax return, I bring to you this week some examples of some of the more interesting facets of our beloved US Government.

The background for today's story: Our real estate company recently purchased an assisted living property in Virginia. Since the debt markets have pretty well collapsed, we were thankful that our property qualified for a HUD-guaranteed loan (the HUD-backed loan market is alive and well). Sure, we thought, there will be a little more paperwork, but the terms are attractive (especially in this market).

I just got a package in the mail from our attorneys. Attached to a large stack of documents was a note containing the words, "unfortunately", "voluminous", "arcane", and "a few more documents". Apparently I had to sign a few more pages. In blue ink. (Don't you dare use black ink!) Not in duplicate or triplicate, but decicate, if that's a word. Scans and faxes aren't allowed. Only originals signed in blue ink, delivered the old fashioned way.

A picture is worth a thousand words (the tabs are required signatures):

And that is just the paperwork confirming that our company exists. We haven't even gotten to the loan documents.

Come back tomorrow for more Fun With Government.