All Forum Posts by: Cason Acor

@Isrrael Mendoza find a commercial agent that will let you stay on the deal and show you the ropes. I’m co-repping a tenant right now with a residential agent that reached out to me because he didn’t have any commercial experience. I have the knowledge and experience that he needs, and he has the client relationship. He was originally willing to just refer the client to me, but I felt that wasn’t the best option because he’d already invested time in developing the relationship. So I told him I’d share the commission 50/50 with him to stay on, and I’d help him navigate a commercial lease negotiation.

It’s been a great experience thus far and I truly believe we’ll achieve a better result for the client because of it.

@Isrrael Mendoza the reason you're only finding residential land is because you're looking on the MLS. Before going the rezoning route, you also need to check the commercial listing sites. Most commercial real estate agents don't use the MLS to market properties. Start with CoStar and CREXI. You should be able to find more options there.

I also highly recommend that you don’t attempt to represent your client on a commercial transaction without at least consulting a commercial broker in your market. Asking questions on BiggerPockets won’t be enough to give you the experience you need to best serve your client. Commercial and residential real estate are completely different ball games. 

My partner is representing a buyer in a commercial land transaction right now that has a residential agent representing the seller. This woman has 17 years of residential experience but just got herself and her client sued because of several easily avoidable mistakes she made. She thought she had the experience to know what she was doing, and that turned out not to be the case. The last thing you want is for that to be you and open both yourself and your client up to liability. 

@Daniel Lioz What does the contract say Lamar's obligation is if the property taxes increase? I'd be shocked if their tax contribution wasn't capped in some way. But if not, driving up the taxable value could be a good way to motivate them to renegotiate. Worst case scenario, you get a nice new development and a third party that's on the hook for the property taxes.

@Daniel Lioz your best bet is to get a copy of whatever contracts the BB company has with the owner, and have a real estate attorney review them. If you’re lucky, some terms might be unenforceable. But whatever the situation, a good real estate attorney will advise you on what to do. Every situation and contract is different, but there’s likely not a scenario that doesn’t involve you spending a lot of money one way or the other. 

You’ve got to remember that a lot of these agreements were made with high dollar BB company attorneys on one side, and little old lady’s with no representation on the other. Because of that, whatever was signed is most likely predatory and iron clad. 

8-10% of gross rents.

Low ball them and tell them that’s the best they’re going to get because they won’t provide the information to justify a higher price.  

@Laura Hlohinec I was able to find the listing on CoStar with the info you provided. The marketing package looks well put together and it's listed with a reputable brokerage. A couple thoughts:

1) Medina is a small market, and this is a unique building. It looks like it's been on the market for 65 days. If I had this listing in my market, I would tell the seller to plan on three to six months to get it moved. It's a retail/office building at a time when retail and office vacancies are relatively high and retail spending is below expectations.

2) There are only ever two reasons why real estate doesn't sell. Either it's bad brokerage or the property is priced too high. I obviously have limited knowledge of the situation and I don't know their agent, so the following is based on my assumptions. They've listed with a reputable brokerage that appears to have a good presence in the market. The marketing package is well put together and has good quality photos. The listing is live on multiple commercial listing sites and appears to have a lot of exposure. All that is to say, I don't think bad brokerage is the issue here. If the owners haven't had a lot of interested activity in the 65 days it's been listed, then it's priced too high.

I would encourage your friend to have a conversation with their agent about what the interest has been to date and what feedback they've received from people they've talked to. Take this with a grain of salt, but CoStar says the average price/SF of a retail building in Medina County is $128. Your friend is asking $357/SF.