All Forum Posts by: Bennet Sebastian

This is the first time I ever tried that but I’m sure I wasn’t the first and won’t be the last.

For you I guess it depends on how juicy your deal is and how quickly you think you could lease it up. Is it a strong market for small bay industrial users? Can you buy it low enough to where you could lease it below market and still get a decent annual return? 

Hi @Ryan Aurand I was in this exact situation a few weeks ago. I was under contract on a small office building that was 50% occupied with a tenant that had one year remaining on their five year lease. They also had five 1 year renewal options with 4% annual escalations. The listing broker assured me the tenant was not going anywhere but I couldn't take the chance of the building being 100% vacant so I asked the broker to propose to the tenant that if they were to extend for five years I would hold their rate fixed at a lower rate than what they were currently paying. I also offered two months free rent up front. Broker said Seller wouldn't allow him to make the offer until my deposit went hard. His concern was that if I backed out of the deal then the tenant would ask for the same deal from the Seller. Ultimately the tenant had a ROFR and decided to exercise it. But if they didn't I probably would have backed out of the deal.  

Thanks @Paul Moore. You are right, there is plenty more I can do to generate accredited investor interest. It does seem insurmountable at times but I'm not exactly beating a new path. It's been done many times by many different people and I just have to put one foot in front of the other until I get there. 

Thanks. The first quote I got was $20,000. The equity raise is only $250k for the deal I’m working so it’s a bit cost prohibitive. 

Update: I decided to go with Investnext and am pretty happy with my decision. The support has been great and the pricing can't be beat. 

Hey BP CRE pros,

I am trying to figure out how to make the leap from friends and family to larger equity investors like family offices or other professional or institutional investors. What are the key elements and profit splits these folks look for in a deal? What do they look for in a sponsor? Where do I start looking for them? CPAs, attorneys, wealth managers, mortgage brokers?  

I have read a lot of books on CRE having been both a broker and an investor and also have the CCIM designation. These are two of my favorite reads on the investment side:

https://www.amazon.com/Making-...
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Es...

What area of commercial real estate? Investment, brokerage, property type? 

Try a phone call. If that still doesn’t work then send a letter directly to the property owner letting know of your interest and lack of response from their broker.

The Real Estate Game by Harvard professor William Poorvu is a must read.