Tag Archives: Buying commercial real estate

Analyzing Commercial Real Estate|Crucial to Successful Buying

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To do a proper commercial real estate analysis, you must understand its market value. Long term successful investors make money when they buy, not just when they sell. You reduce risk and increase your chance for great returns when you buy properties at or (preferably) below their market values.

3 Techniques to Value Properties

Investors, lenders and appraisers rely on three techniques to value properties.

1. Cost approach:

  • Calculate how much it would cost to build a subject property at today’s prices;
  • Subtract accrued depreciation;
  • Add the depreciated cost figure to the current value of the lot.

2. Comparable sales approach:

  • Compare a subject property with other similar (comp) properties that have recently sold;
  • Adjust the prices for each positive or negative feature and/or differences of the comps relative to the subject property. Note:  It is best to have three or four properties to compare.

3. Income approach:

  • Estimate the rents you expect a property to produce;
  • Convert net rents after expenses (net operating income) into a capital (market) value amount. In other words you divide the net operating income of the property by a market cap rate for that particular type of product in the marketplace.

You evaluate a property from these three perspectives to check the value estimates of each against the others. Multiple estimates and techniques enhance the probability that your estimate reflects reality. If your three value estimates don’t reasonably match up, either your calculations err, the figures you’re working with are inaccurate, or the market is acting “crazy” and property prices are about to head up (or down).

3 Factors of Income Approach

Concerning commercial real estate analysis, the approach I put the most emphasis on is the Income approach. The three factors of the Income approach are Effective Gross Income, Operating Expenses, and Capitalization rates (Cap rates).

When looking at effective gross income and operating expenses, be careful that you’re looking at the actual numbers – not the “pro forma” numbers. Pro forma numbers are projections and you want to be dealing with actuals. Cap rates are derived from the comparable sales of comparable properties in the immediate market area and/or by the rate of return that you want on your money. If you talk about a 6 cap, then you are saying that you want a 6% return on the existing net operating income of the investment.

4 Things to Determine a Good Buy

When I analyze a property, I calculate the following four things to determine if I want to buy the property:

1.  Net operating income (NOI):   Net operating income = effective gross income – operating expenses.

2.  Annual cash flow:   Annual cash flow = net operating income – debt service

3.  Cash-on-cash return:   Cash-on-cash return = annual cash flow divided by down payment

4.  Cap rate:   Cap rate = net operating income divided by sales price

Other Important Factors

Also note that other important factors in your commercial real estate analysis are the use of/or zoning of the property, the location of the property, the credit worthiness of the tenant(s), the leases in place, the condition of the property, the contracts on the property and any possible environmental problems with the property.

1.  Use of/or zoning of the property – Make sure the current use matches the zoning of the property.

2.  Location of the property – Is it in a growth area, are there complimentary users around, is there easy ingress and egress, do the demographics match the use, what are the traffic counts around the site, what is the vacancy factor in the marketplace – These are all questions that verify a good or bad location for the property.

3.  The Lease(s) – Is it or are they NNN, NN, N, Gross, how much term left, if there isn’t much term left, what is the likelihood of renewal, are there any hidden Landlord costs, what is the entity on the lease and is it guaranteed, is it a standard lease for the marketplace or is it unusual for the area, is it assignable, does it have options, review all amendments – These are some of the things that you need to be reviewing in the lease to make sure you understand just what you are buying – Some people believe they are buying a building while others believe they are buying a lease or leases.

4.  Condition of the property – Do a thorough inspection of the property to include the roof, the mechanical systems, the structure, the electrical, the plumbing, the parking lot and all of its fixtures – Estimate the life span of each of these things and make sure that you put this into your financial picture of the property.

5.  Contracts on the property – Make sure that you review all existing contracts and the vendors so that you know your obligations and whether they go with the sale – These contracts are also an indication of whether the property has been consistently maintained – If there are no contracts, then you need to take this into consideration so that you can paint an accurate financial picture.

6.  Environmental – Are there any obvious environmental issues that need looking into and have there been any environmental notifications sent to the current owner or to any of the tenants – You should also check with the local environmental agency to not only learn about your building, but the area in general.

With careful analysis you can take away some of the risk when purchasing the property.

As I have said before, if you have any questions or I may be of assistance with your real estate questions please contact me. My way of giving back is to give away my knowledge. Thank you for reviewing this article.

Buying Commercial Real Estate|Closing the Deal

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In order to understand the closing of a deal when buying commercial property, let’s review the steps of the sales transaction:

1.    Buyer submits an offer to buy the property either through a Letter of Intent or a formal Purchase Agreement, any necessary negotiations are completed, and the Seller accepts the offer and executes the Purchase Agreement.

2.    Buyer opens escrow by submitting his earnest money deposit.  Typically, escrow is opened with a Title/Escrow Company or an attorney.

3.    Buyer begins the loan process by submitting documents to his lender.

4.    Buyer commences his Due Diligence process and does his physical inspection of the property.

5.    Buyer reviews title and proceeds to remove any contingencies in the contract.

6.    Buyer and Seller agree on any remaining issues in the contract.

7.    Buyer gets a loan commitment from his lender.

8.    Buyer receives the Closing Statement and gives his final closing instructions to the escrow company.

9.    At closing, Buyer and Seller sign the closing documents and Buyer submits his funds.

10.  The Deed gets recorded, the monies are applied and the Buyer takes possession of the property.

An escrow is an impartial party that serves all parties in a transaction to transfer property.  Duties that an escrow officer performs include:

•    clearing up any outstanding liens
•    ordering a title search
•    examining the title report
•    obtaining title insurance
•    handling and disbursing all monies in the transaction
•    preparing and issuing the final Closing Statements
•    recording the Deed
•    sending all loan documents to the lender

After you complete your due diligence and prior to finalizing the deal, I suggest that you go back and review your original thoughts on purchasing the property to make sure that your original assumptions concerning your plan and profit are still true:

•    Review your exit strategies again and check your goals to make sure your exit time frames still work
•    Make sure that the profit you originally projected still appears attainable after examination of the information you received during due diligence
•    Make sure your loan assumptions still work now that you have actual loan information from your lender
•    Check that your tax advisor still agrees with your tax goals.

You’ll want to review the final Closing Statement at least 48 hours prior to closing so that if there are mistakes, there’s time to correct them.  As a buyer, you should double check everything and take nothing for granted.  Some of the items that need close review include:

•    checking the loan documents to make sure that they are what you agreed to (check interest rate, loan amount, amortization period, loan term, monthly payment amount, prepay penalty, due date, impounds for taxes, insurance and maintenance reserve account)

•    the credits assigned to you

•    completed repairs by Seller

•    review rent prorations and security deposit amounts for accuracy

•    ensure that personal property is being transferred with an appropriate Bill of Sale

•    review the Deed for correct purchase price, names and dates

•    review all fee amounts for accuracy

•    verify that defects in title are cleared

•    have your down payment and closing costs ready to be wire transferred

•    make sure that you agree with the amount at the bottom of the Settlement Statement

•    verify that you are taking title in the entity that you have chosen

The sale officially closes when Buyer has paid all monies due, the escrow officer has received the signed loan documents, Buyer and Seller have signed the final Escrow Closing Instructions and a specific date to record the Deeds is chosen.  After escrow gets a check from Buyer’s lender to pay off the Seller’s loan, escrow sends the lender the closing loan documents, releases Buyer’s payment and gives the approval for the Deed to be recorded.  After the Deed is recorded, title will be transferred to you and the sale is officially closed.

Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of real estate.  Your work has just begun.  If you have bought the property right, you are on your way to financial independence.  If you have bought a rental property, it is now time to get to know your tenants or find tenants for your property.  Make sure that you treat your investment as a business., not a hobby.  You should be friendly with your tenants, but businesslike.  If it is your responsibility always take care of problems promptly and if it is the tenants responsibility let them know that so that you can keep the relationship open and communicative.

As I say throughout my blogs, if I may be of assistance with your real estate questions please contact me.  My way of giving back is to give away my knowledge.  Thank you for reviewing this blog.

How To Get Started Investing In Commercial Real Estate

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If you want to invest in commercial real estate and build significant wealth, it’s going to require that you take the time to think things through. It requires planning, patience and persistence – or, in other words, it requires you to develop a strategy or business plan. Think of this as your road map.

Mission Statement

Your first step in buying commercial real estate should include a mission statement. This is where you clearly define your purpose and should include some benefits that will be derived. Don’t spend a lot of time here at first, just put together some general concepts.

Goals

Secondly, you should set some goals. This step is the why am I doing this. Do you want to quit your current job or do you want to retire early or set up a way to pay for your kids college education or do you just want some extra spending money for that new car, dream vacation, etc. Set these out and refer to them often. I like to set short and long term goals. Short goals so that I can achieve them and have some immediate gratification and long term goals so that I always have something to look forward to. Your goals should also include how many properties you are going to buy or that you want to make $5,000 per month if that is your goal. The key thing in goals is to write them down and adjust or update them as you achieve them.

Time Frames

The next thing to do is to set out time frames within which you want to achieve your goals. Be realistic in this aspect, but also stretch yourself. State when you are going to buy those properties or when you are going to be making the money that you want or when you will take that vacation.

Strategy

The next item to tackle would be to think about your strategy. There are many, many ways to make money in commercial real estate. If you want to buy a property a year, write that down. If you want to flip a property every 3 months, write that down. Your strategy is how you will be using real estate to accomplish your goals. Note that this can be an evolution over time, but you need to start somewhere. The key thing is to write down a strategy, then adjust if you need to as you go along. In the beginning you may think that you want to buy and hold apartment buildings, but you may find out that your preference is to buy apartments, fix them up, then flip them. The key thing is to work within a specific niche such as apartments or nnn properties or office buildings or shopping centers, etc. It’s best to start out in a particular niche, because you will have a learning curve to go through. It’s easier to learn about one particular type of real estate than to try to tackle all of them in the beginning.

Market Area

Your next step is to define your market area. Most beginning investors start in their own backyard, because you already have some knowledge about that area and you can easily drive it to find properties or locate brokers to call, etc. Once you have completed a couple of deals you will find that you can expand your area and look into other cities around you and then other areas of the state and so on.

Establish Criteria

To me this is the most important thing that you can do for your investing business. Sometimes the best deals are the ones that you walk away from. In this step you are establishing the return on your time and money. Setting your financial parameters as well as establishing the type of property you want to buy are the keys to setting up your success in this business. The financial items that you will want to consider are maximum purchase price, cash flow requirement, return on investment, loan to value ratio, maximum cash outlay, max rehab costs and time frames. Deviating from your criteria can be disastrous for you. By having clearly defined criteria you will be able to recognize your deal faster and let others know exactly what you are looking to buy. If you are not finding deals you can look at other markets or adjust your strategy. Always ask yourself “What is this property worth to me?”, not “What is this property worth?”. Also, remember that you want make your money when you buy the property. If you’ve bought outside of your criteria you didn’t make money when you bought the property, you have already put yourself behind.

Financing

Here is the point where you need to consider how you are going to finance your deal. You are not looking for specifics here, you are looking for concepts such as will you be using conventional financing, private money financing, seller carryback financing, hard money financing, using a lease option, using partners or some other type of creative financing. In my opinion, if you want to purchase several properties you will need to seek out private money financing so that you will have a never ending supply of cash available, however you typically need to establish yourself with a couple of deals first.

Marketing Yourself

This is where you need to state how you plan on attracting deals. How are you going to find the best sellers which are motivated sellers? Will you be using brokers or newspapers ads or direct mail or doing online searching through companies like LoopNet or just driving around or all of the above. Once you have established how you are going to find the deals, then you will want to clearly define your purchasing process. This should include submittal of the offer, acceptance of the proposal, putting up the earnest money deposit, submitting loan documents, commencing due diligence, review title, agreement to all terms and conditions and closing the deal. During this thought process you will want to define your team. Will you need an attorney, a construction or maintenance person, an accountant, an insurance agent, etc. You don’t need to know or state any particular people, but you do need to know your own strengths and weaknesses and how people on your team can help make your deals go smoothly.

Exit Strategy/Strategies

Another very important step is to define your exit strategy. Beginning investors should have more than one exit strategy. If you want to buy and hold, define the number of years that you want to hold and the return that you are seeking. While your preferred choice is to buy and hold, you may want to consider flipping the deal or wholesaling deal if you get into trouble with it. There are many ways to exit a deal other than just selling it. Some of them include 1031 exchanges, sell it on a note, sell the entity holding title or doing a lease option. Having back up plans is a must in the real estate game.

Personal Financials

Prepare a current personal financial statement and then project it into the future for five or ten years based upon the goals and strategies that you have plotted out above. You are going to want to update this as often as needed, but at least once per year. This is the fun part, projecting your wealth as you grow your portfolio.

Always remember that this business plan is a guide, not a hard and fast rule. You have set this up to guide and motivate you. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

As I have said before, if I may be of assistance with your real estate questions please contact me. I truly want to help.  My way of giving back is to give away my knowledge. Thank you for reviewing this blog.