As real estate investors, we know that the value of commercial buildings is determined by dividing its Net Operating Income (NOI) by its Capitalization Rate (Cap Rate). By definition, Value = NOI / Cap Rate. In other words, the property’s value is greatly magnified by relatively small increases in Net Operating Income. To illustrate, for a given Cap Rate (say 6%), every extra dollar in NOI increases the property’s value by $16.67 (=$1.00/0.006). In low Cap Rate areas like San Diego, that means there’s a huge opportunity to increase your building’s value dramatically!
Factors Affecting NOI
There are a number of obvious things one may do to positively affect the NOI of a property: raise rents, cure vacancy, decrease expenses. Well, what do you do if your building is 100% occupied at above market rents, and the property is so efficiently managed that you can’t think of a way to decrease expenses? Should you accept the status quo and simply keep up the good work? You could, but where’s the fun in that? You would be overlooking the unlimited number of ways to optimize not only your property’s NOI, but your returns as well.
Investing 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.
Joshua Dorkin
Stocks vs. Real Estate: Which is Better?
by Peter Giardini | March 11, 2010That is the title of a CNN Money article that is being discussed over on the BiggerPockets Forums. You can see that discussion here: Why invest in real estate when stocks are better? I believe, at least in the past 10 years, that this question has been asked a lot. The truth be known, had I [...]