7/31    Very funny.  Someone changed my original post from "gas station owner"
        to "gay prostitute."  Here's the post again.  -op

        I am interested in changing my profession from a full time engineer to
        a full time gas station owner.  Any comments and/or URLs with more info
        regarding gas station ownership, maintaince, liabilities, etc.?
        \_ curious. where would you have this gas station? have it in hawaii
           \_ Preferably somewhere around the Bay Area.  Slightly further away
              is fine, but not too remote.  -op
        \_ Are you from the middle east or south asia?
        \_ most people think that owning a gas station is a way of making
           money while sitting on your ass all day long.  It's not.  It's
           actually a complicated REAL ESTATE business.  It's all about the
           location.  The difference between housing real estate and
           commercial real estate is that it's a lot harder to liquidate
           commercial real estate. You'll need to find another sap who wants
           to make money sitting your ass all day, just like you.
           \_ And you have to take the risk of getting robbed and breathing
              toxic fumes all day long.
              \_ Actually some 21 y/old HS drop out is running the counter.
                 You're at home watching cartoons.
        \_ I made acquaintance with two would-be gas station owners. One of
           them leveraged the equity in his station to acquire another and
           so on. He was grossing about $80K/month, but I don't know what
           his net was. He seemed to be doing well. The other paid $400K to
           buy a station and later had the EPA shut it down because it
           needed some ridiculous sum of money to comply with some new
           law. He lost everything. There's a lot to it. Why, may I ask,
           are gas stations in particular appealing to you? Do you have
           experience or friends/relatives with experience in this field? --dim