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Commercial Real Estate

Commercial Real Estate

Apartment Vacancy Rate Hits Its Highest Point In Nearly 25 Years

by Christina Inman | November 2, 2009

In what is an interesting phenomenon, apartment vacancies have hit their highest point since 1986 in cities across the country. 
According to Reis Inc., a New York real-estate research firm that tracks vacancies and rents in the top 79 U.S. markets, the vacancy rate reached 7.8% this summer, which is normally a strong period for rentals. [...]

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Commentary

Deja-Vu… All Over Again! This time in the Commercial Real Estate Market

by Peter Giardini | October 21, 2009

I was surprised by some of the comments regarding Dr. Doom AKA Nouriel Roubini and his predictions that we are not yet out of the economic woods, and we are most likely going to experience continued turmoil in our economy in general and real estate specifically.

To the point – it seems that everyone is now paying attention to the coming challenges with the commercial mortgage market.  And who can blame anyone for thinking that the commercial market is on the edge, and will likely go right over the side in the coming 2 – 3 years.

Using Old Valuations Can Lead to Disaster!

Making this situation worse is the fact that most lenders are valuing the underlying properties collateralizing their mortgages at their original values (just like what is happening with residential properties), further forestalling the pending crisis in bank defaults.  If banks revalued their portfolios to the real (current) values of their underlying collateral… it is possible the entire system would collapse. I found an interesting dialogon public radio amongst various experts regarding the pending (actually it has already started) commercial collapse that demonstrates that some people may have their head in the sand. 

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Commercial Real Estate

Attorneys for Commercial Loan Modification. What You Need to Know.

by Ted Karsch | October 14, 2009

Commercial real estate owners who are considering hiring an attorney to handle their commercial loan modification should investigate the background and experience of the person they hiring so that they know in advance what to expect.

In my experience as a commercial loan modification specialist I have found that many attorneys who advertise themselves as commercial loan modification attorneys actually have very little experience performing successful loan workouts. Unfortunately, as many people know, there is an over supply of attorneys in the United States. This forces many lawyers to follow the latest and hottest trends in order to get new business and survive. You may see the same people who used to do accident and injury work now advertising their services as loss mitigation specialists because it has become such a needed service. For this reason the commercial real estate owner should definitely do their homework and research the actual experience of the person they are hiring.

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Commercial Real Estate

Developing Real Estate: How to Price Land for Profit

by Craig Grella | October 2, 2009

Pricing land for development can be a daunting task for the untrained investor. As a niche subset of both residential and commercial real estate, using comparables for land can be as dangerous to a developer as it is mysterious, sometimes causing the failure of what was certain to be a fantastic development.

However, for the savvy investor, there is one universally accepted land valuation method used by development professionals, corporations, and appraisers alike; the Land Residual Method. By using this method you will be able to determine the current and future value of any piece of land, whether its use be residential or commercial. You will also be able to price land, such that any development you propose will have built in profit. With some practice, you will be able to employ the land residual method in just a few moments, summing up the value of almost any property just on sight.

The land residual method has a fancy sounding name, but to use it all you need is an understanding of some simple math. The land residual method is a calculation that takes the highest and best use of a particular piece of property and subtracts out the total cost of development to arrive at the residual value: the land value. Once you have the numbers it’s that easy. “How do you get the numbers?” You ask. It takes some research, but even a novice investor can figure it out relatively quickly.

For the sake of this article I’ll be speaking to residential single family development or single family lot land. Rest assured, commercial development uses the same principles, though the calculations are a little more in depth.

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Commercial Real Estate

If Your Building is 100% Occupied, Your Rents Are Too Low!!!

by Kyle Koller | September 28, 2009

Income properties are, to many, the ideal investment. Not only does one receive rental income on a monthly basis, but he also gets to enjoy capital appreciation—or at the very least, a solid hedge against inflation. With favorable tax treatment throughout and available 1031 tax deferred exchanges, one would be silly to not at least consider real estate investment.

And so he does. Hypothetical investor Bob purchases his first income property: an 8-unit multi-family in sunny San Diego, California. He loves the fact that it’s in a great location, has a favorable unit mix, and there has only been one vacancy in the last two years—and that vacancy didn’t last very long. As far as Bob is concerned, he has made the perfect investment. How could he do any better?

Raise the rents!

Typically, investment properties in low-vacancy, heavily renter-occupied housing areas that incur vacancies about as often as the Chicago Cubs win World Series have one problem: their rents are too low. If the rents weren’t below market, they would incur significantly more turnover.

That’s the key word: turnover

Turnover is a good thing; vacancies, themselves, are not. What’s the difference? A vacancy occurs when a unit has been turned (i.e. “rent ready”) and it does not have a tenant, or a prospective tenant. Turnover occurs when someone moves out of a unit and another moves in.

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Commercial Real Estate

What’s the difference between you and Sam Zell?

by Craig Grella | September 25, 2009

It’s no secret that the real estate market is at its worst since the great depression.   It doesn’t help that most of the media seems to set their sights on publishing only articles that highlight the latest crash or the biggest loan scandal.  Defaults are rising, foreclosures are at an all time high and Realtors are leaving their jobs to pursue careers in acting.

It’s not really as bad as it seems though.  At least, not in the long run.  Boom and bust cycles are nothing new, and thankfully there has always been a boom that followed a bust.  In part due to the investors who sweep with the time tested strategy of “buy low…sell high.”  The time has come to prepare for the next boom cycle, and those who can invest now will find great wealth in the near future.

You may be saying, “Thanks for the tip, Craig.  Tell us something we don’t know.  Problem is, we don’t have any money to invest.  How do we do it.”  Great question.  Let’s start by discussing how not to do it.

How Not to Get Money to Invest

A simple search on BiggerPockets for the term “bulk reo” yields over 400 forum posts and articles about buying or flipping bulk reo portfolios.  Go out further by searching “bulk reo” on Google and you’ll find just under a half million results.  Take a moment and read a few of them and you’ll notice many newbie investors stating their plan is to go out and search for the mother lode of REO portfolios, buy them at four cents on the dollar and then wholesale them at twenty five cents on the dollar.  They all plead for other people to invest with them stating if they could just pool some money they could go out and take over Citibank’s entire portfolio.  Mostly, those posts go unanswered or just get ignored, the would-be investor tucks his tail and moves onto the next brilliant money making scheme.  That’s a great example of how not to do it.

I don’t mean to pick entirely on newbie investors because there are many seasoned investors out there using the same strategy.   We all understand the math of “buy low and sell high” but it begs the question:

How is it that Sam Zell, even during bankruptcy, can raise $600 million to buy property in this market when you can’t raise a dime?  The answer: he’s got a plan and you don’t.

That is… until now!

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Commercial Real Estate

How to Choose a Commercial Loan Modification Company

by Ted Karsch | September 24, 2009

The vast majority of companies that facilitate loan modifications in the United States are solely dedicated to helping residential homeowners. It can be difficult for the commercial property owner who needs a commercial loan modification to actually find a company that has experience and knowledge in processing successful commercial loan workouts.

The commercial property owner who is facing the prospect of foreclosure has a few different options when he or she is attempting to modify their loan. For an illustrative example I will use a real life situation of a client of mine in Tampa, Florida. We won’t use their real names for privacy purposes and we will use the fictional name of Blue Harbor Apartments for their property.

Commercial Loan Modification: a Hypothetical

They own a 250 unit apartment building that they purchased for 8.3 million dollars in 2006. In the last year they have seen occupancy drop to 65%. This increase in vacancies has severely hurt their net monthly income. Their monthly rental income is now $92,000.00. Their expenses, including the mortgage payments are $118,000.00 a month. They are currently coming out of pocket over $20,000.00 a month just to hold on to the property. The loan they have is held by a major international bank and is amortized over 25 years at an interest rate of 7.5%. They are in a tough situation because the value of their property on today’s market is approximately 6 million dollars. They are unable to refinance with another lender because they don’t have any equity in the property. The only choice they have is to try to modify the commercial loan.

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Commercial Real Estate

Commercial Real Estate: The Iceberg is Melting Faster!

by Tom Koziol | September 18, 2009

This isn’t a global warming post in any sense of the phrase. Unless, of course, it is your bank account that is melting away faster than you care for it to melt away. This post is a kinda-sorta extension of last week’s post in which I said a new wave of foreclosures is in the immediate future.

My statement was based on the commercial real estate market and lo and behold the very next Monday, Corus Bancshares Inc. was seized by the Feds. As it turns out, CBI financed a 377 unit condo called The Montage in downtown Reno. Several years ago the latest craze to hit this city was to take shuttered casinos – yes, casinos go belly up – and convert them into condo complexes.

This particular complex had units priced from $150,000 to more than $1 million. This was during the high flying years. Today these same units won’t fetch $10,000 no matter where they are located in the complex.

My youngest son was in the market at about that time for a dwelling. He liked the idea this complex was only two blocks from his job and he could walk to work even in the dead of winter, and not freeze before he got there. I went along to see what was worth $1 million.

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Commercial Real Estate

The Top Ten Reasons Why Now is a Great Time to Buy an Apartment Building

by Ted Karsch | September 1, 2009
  1. Prices are Falling — Prices for apartment buildings are steadily dropping. Many apartment building owners paid way too much for their properties over the past few years and now their properties are worth less than what they owe. Apartment buildings are starting to show up as foreclosures across the country and it is further pressuring prices to the downside.
  2. Forced Appreciation — You don’t have to wait for real estate prices to go back up to increase the value of your apartment building investment. You can increase the value of you apartment building by increasing the rents, cutting your expenses or by making physical improvements on the property.
  3. Less Competition — Many investors are under the false impression that owning an apartment building is more difficult than owning single family homes, therefore their is less competition for prime properties.
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Commercial Real Estate

Increasing the Value of Multi-Families: Vending and Zone Coverage

by Kyle Koller | August 31, 2009

As investors, we’re always looking for ways to increase the value of our properties. Most of us are familiar with the more conventional ways of doing so: decreasing expenses and increasing income. What if I told you it was possible to increase income without raising rents or decreasing expenses? Let’s explore a few ways that is possible.

Increasing Value with Vending Machines

If you own a fairly large complex, it would make sense to install a vending machine. Assuming you’re an expert of your market, you could effectively target your tenants by placing products you know your tenants would want in the machine. The best place to put your vending machine is in an area that generates a solid flow of tenants; the laundry room or near the pool (if you have one and your property is located in warmer markets) are two good choices. Even modest vending revenues increase the property’s value significantly. Assuming the property is in a 6% Cap rate area with yearly vending revenues of $720, you would have increased the property value by $12,000! Not too shabby given our modest revenue assumptions.

Tapping rarer, but more lucrative, value potential

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Commercial Real Estate

Commercial Loan Modifications for Apartment Building Owners

by Ted Karsch | August 13, 2009

commercial-loan-modificationAs the residential real estate market has seen a massive level of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures over the past twelve months the commercial real estate market so far has not seen the same kind of fallout. However, this could soon change. In fact, Apartment Finance Today dedicated an entire section of their industry magazine in July to what they title “The Gathering Storm” in commercial real estate.

There are quite a few factors that have contributed to the coming problems in commercial real estate and one of the main issues is the fact that many commercial real estate properties were purchased with loans that were backed by commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS). These CMBS were underwritten with extremely aggressive terms, often offering as much as 90% financing with loan terms that only stretched for five years. Now, according to Apartment Finance Today, apartment building values have dropped as much as 30% and those loans are beginning to become due. “As apartment values continue to descend, the LTV ratio of existing debt gets skewed. A loan that was made at 75 percent LTV two years ago may now be at 85 percent LTV or higher,” said says Don King, head of national agency lending at Needham, Mass.-based CWCapital.

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Commercial Real Estate

Let the Buyer Beware! Reducing Risk as a Real Estate Investor

by Kyle Koller | August 10, 2009

real estate riskInvesting in real estate is just that—INVESTING. Risk comes with the territory. The key to successful real estate investing lies in the analysis and due diligence of a potential income property. When done prudently and methodically, the investor’s risk is not only greatly mitigated, but he or she should have clear line of sight as to the property’s return potential. Sounds relatively straightforward, right? Well, this task becomes much harder when the seller tries to make a monetary gain by feeding on the inexperienced investor’s lack of knowledge or inadequate due diligence. Luckily, we’re all savvy investors at BiggerPockets.com and we know how to spot these seller exaggerations and fallacies. Let’s examine some of the common ones.

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Commercial Real Estate

Executive Summaries for Commercial Real Estate Investors

by Ted Karsch | August 4, 2009

Executive summaries are one of the most important aspects of commercial loan package submission, however, many new investors spend the least time and energy on this essential component.  I recently had the opportunity to interview Lori McMahon of LJ Commercial Property Services.  She creates and submits executive summaries as her profession and is considered to be an expert in the field.  Below is a list of questions and answers exchanged by a new commercial real estate investor and Lori.

Commercial Executive Summary Q & A

1. Q: At what point do you begin putting together the Executive Summary? Before/during/after contract has been submitted?

Lori: It’s different every time. Before is fine as long we put that in as the status on the Funding Opportunity Page. Many of clients have wanted to find out if they could get any interest prior to signing the Contract to Purchase. Anytime is good as long as it is directly after you sign the contract because you must understand that in these times, it is taking anywhere from 45 to 90 days for funding…

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Commercial Real Estate

Commercial Tenants in the Driver’s Seat

by Brendan O'Brien | July 18, 2009

Nine years ago, my employer (a software company in Burlington, Mass.) was nearing the end of the 10-year lease term for its headquarters building.  This was just about the time that the software industry was beginning to decline, for two reasons: all of the Y2K bugs had been resolved, and investor money was no longer [...]

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Commentary

Is Multifamily Immune from Commercial Real Estate Decline?

by Ted Karsch | July 1, 2009

While the turmoil in the residential real estate markets continues to make headlines, some analysts and prognosticators are questioning whether we will see the same kind of meltdown and mass foreclosures in the commercial real estate side of the industry. And the general consensus of those quoted in various news services and website across [...]

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