All Forum Posts by: Ash Patel

I am baffled at the question. If I see a deal good enough to pursue, I will not lose it.  I will get a hold of the agent one way or another.  I will call their colleagues, their broker, I've even called their previous employers.  In a recent transaction, the agent verbally accepted our offer but for whatever reason refused to send us a contract.  I tried having other people contact him and same deal.  I finally got my agent to put the offer in and he finally sent him the contract.  I have also threatened to call the property owner and let them know that their agent sucks.  That certainly gets their attention.  First mover advantage has made me a lot of money over the years.  Be relentless.  Send your balance sheet with your offer if that helps.  I got a hold of an agent early Sat morning for a listing that went live late Friday night.  Everyone else waited until Monday and some offered $200k higher than my accepted contract price.  Sending an email and waiting is not how you get deals done boss.

I wouldn't pay 10% for a purchase.  You can take care of him on the sale when you make money.  An envelope of cash is very memorable.

Look at a mixed use building if you are transitioning from residential.  Get your balance sheet and financial records in order for loan processing.  Find a local mentor.

My advice. Get in bed with a local lender that has less than three locations. I have been with the same small local lender for 10+ years. For the first couple of years I had to put down 30% on all commercial deals. Since that time, all of my deals are at 20%. This includes everything from NNN to vacant buildings. The same people that I dealt with 10 years ago are still there. Even regional banks have a lot of personnel movement which makes it harder to build relationships. I used to bank with a big bank and was part of their private client group. Big banks only want to finance the easy deals and often want nothing to do with smaller value add deals.

I would find a local lender in the area. They are much more likely to finance properties like this.

Tenants don't have a right to renew unless it's in their lease. Are there any hardship laws currently in place where you are at. Even in the most tenant friendly states the laws do not apply to commercial tenants. There should be specific statutes as to what month to month entails in your state.  Since the other side has an attorney, I would hire your own attorney as well. This shouldn't be much of a battle. I would also continue to speak directly to the client and copy the agent on all correspondence.

In my experience, the commercial unit should bring in more than what a comparable residential unit should bring in. I think the cost of converting to residential would outweigh the potential benefits.  I wouldn't worry too much about the dry cleaner/laundromat moving, that is an easy tenant to replace.  I have seen dry cleaners go out of business only to be re tenanted buy another dry cleaner right away.

Suburban office spaces are on fire right now for small offices.  I use FB marketplace and craigslist and am 100% filled.  

All of the above.  After 10 years of doing this, I can accurately guess what market rents are in my local markets for different types of properties/areas.  compstak is another good option.

Value add CRE is the name of the game right now. I would talk to other C-store owners to find out what they are paying in rent. Find C-stores that are for sale/rent and comp your store out. If you see a delivery truck at a c-store, pick the drivers brain. These guys know everything about their market.