All Forum Posts by: Cherie Ganesh

I am a commercial re broker in Memphis and own multiple commercial and residential properties. I have a person who helps us with maintenance on our SFR investments who needs a place to live but has limited resources so we're looking at a new HUD listing in Memphis, TN that's in a pocket we would typically invest in. Since only OO bids can currently be made, if we do a bid showing my husband, me and the handyman as purchasers but only my handyman being the OO, is there a minimum percentage of ownership required by HUD for the sale to be legal OO purchase? Also, we want to make a bid that gives us best opportunity for acceptance by HUD so planning to not ask for any closing costs from HUD, no buyer broker commission, and cash closing ASAP. If we offer 90% of asking price and no one overbids asking price, should that put us in a favorable position? Am I correct in assuming if not buyer broker commission that only commission HUD pays is the $1250 to listing broker? Property just went on market on day ago. Thanks for all input.

I would first determine what the current code is for billboards to assure that is still a legal billboard.  Then you would want to determine if there appears to be a demand for billboards in that location: i.e. high traffic counts, lack of available billboards in that area.  It can be difficult to try to lease the billboard sides yourself since you would be responsible for installing the new billboards and maintaining them, providing electricity and insuring them for wind damage, etc.  In my experience it makes a lot more sense to either lease the entire billboard to a billboard company or contact the major billboard companies about them purchasing it.  It could be that cell phone companies might have some interest in the billboard if they are installing the new antennas that boost service to users.  When I worked in the real estate dept for a major retailer I was approached by one of the cell phone companies about putting those small antennas on our pylon signs or tops of buildings in no pylon sign.  They were looking to lease but a deal never came together due to combination of corporate red tape and just the newness of this antenna program.  They might also need a tower in your location so if site is zoned to allow for cell phone towers that could be a way you could generate perpetual income for a ground lease. There is probably a cell phone tower company in San Diego that does most of the work with the major tower users.  Good luck and hope this helps.