I would tell him that you're not in the market to fail, and with his lack of knowledge, you don't have all the correct and current facts about this business until you get your hands on it....and you don't want to pay that amount to find out it won't be as profitable as he thinks. So you can pay him the rent, and take it off his hands for $5K. The benefit being, a long term tenant and not an empty space for him to fill.
This is all after we run the reports of course.

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Grammar Tip of the Year - Apostrophes are for condensing and belonging...NOT pluralizing.
SandiGirl ~ Changing tanning forums one apostrophe at a time.