Tuesday, May 8, 2012
It's That Time Of The Year Again!
Property Line welcomes ICSC RECon 2012 to Las Vegas. New members signing up before the convention get a FREE MSA eMarket blast! Visit us at PropertyLine.com or email us at busdev@propertyline.com and get it on the action!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Bankruptcy Reorganizations Utilized by Commercial Real Estate Loan Borrowers
Browsing through the CRE news earlier today, we found this article worth sharing with everyone. Kevin M. Levine, Executive Vice President of Peak Asset Solutions (http://www.peakassetsolutions.com) writes via PRWeb:
“Over the past few months, we have been seeing an increase in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganizations as a tool utilized by commercial real estate borrowers in their negotiations with lenders,” stated Kevin M. Levine, Executive Vice President of Peak Asset Solutions (http://www.peakassetsolutions.com). “More and more loans financed on a short-term basis of 5 to 7 years are maturing, but lowered property values are a barrier to refinancing,” he said. “So if the borrower and lender cannot come to agreement and the lender is threatening foreclosure, the borrower may have no alternative but to seek bankruptcy court protection. The automatic stay resulting from the bankruptcy petition filing will buy time for the borrower to seek alternative investor financing."You can continue reading the entire article here: Bankruptcy Reorganizations Increasingly Utilized by Commercial Real Estate Loan Borrowers.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
PL Member Spotlight: Michael Bull, CCIM
Michael Bull writes for Property Line's PL Member Spotlight:
What lured you into commercial real estate to begin with?
I liked dealing with people rather than things, the people around us; that is what makes life interesting, not the stuff around us. I enjoy interacting with people and adding value to the people around me. Commercial real estate is a great business to do just that.
Tell us about your first deal...
I was 19 when I closed my first deal. It was a 20 unit apartment building in Midtown Atlanta at 1066 Piedmont Ave. I was hooked on the business.
How many deals have you done in your career?
I have closed about $3 billion in sales and leases between 1979 and today.
Describe your dream deal for the PL Membership.
I like following the biggest firms in the country on exclusive for sale listings and providing much better results. It’s rewarding to see the clients response and creates fans for our platform. Those are the deals I enjoy the most.
What was your toughest deal?
I guess the toughest one personally was many years ago closing a small apartment sale. The buyer asked me the same questions over and over again. He did not know me and wanted to see if I was being honest I guess. While it frustrated me, I answered politely, but chose not to work with him again. For the most part in this business we get to pick who we work with, which makes it even more enjoyable.
Do you have any thoughts about the current state of the real estate marketplace or economy?
The already-strong sectors, such as multifamily, single-tenant net lease, and medical office, will continue to strengthen in the next year. The sales volume of these assets will increase and capitalization rates will remain stable or compress even further on properties with longer leases. Cap rates for stable assets in secondary markets will improve for sellers as investor demand spreads to these markets.
Industrial, office, and retail sector performance will continue to improve very slowly and in that order. The growth will be slower for class B properties and even slower for C properties, especially in suburban locations not tied to an employment or education center. Improving performance will be partially due to lack of new construction.
Who (or what) is most played on your iPod?
Benny Benassi, James Taylor and Marc Cohn.
What are you reading?
YouTube for Business, by Michael Miller.
Tell us about your use of social media and your radio show.
The media and advertising world is changing before our eyes. Two years ago I seldom spoke to groups, had never had an article published and had never even been interviewed on the radio. Now I speak regularly and have had dozens of articles published nationally. I’m followed by thousands in social media, produce videos and I host a popular radio show.
The press calls the radio show, America’s Commercial Real Estate Show. It’s a national talk radio show about commercial real estate with new topics every week. The listeners say the shows are enlightening and informative. The shows are available on demand anytime on iTunes and the show web site, www.CREshow.com. They are also available on-air including flagship station Biz1190 WAFS at 10:00am EST every Saturday in Atlanta. The show has listeners all over the world.
How do you determine the topics?
Topics are chosen based on current issues in commercial real estate. For example, we have updates on the various property sectors as well as shows that address buying and selling distressed assets, the health of the banking industry, lease issues and commercial loan workouts. We’ve also had some great shows providing commercial real estate training, and shows on sustainability, zoning for dollars and social media marketing.
How do you select your guests?
We invite guests who are well-known for their experience related to each topic and we’ve established relationships with top analysts at Fitch Ratings, Trepp, Reis, Real Capital Analytics, E&Y, PwC, and many other industry-leading analysts. We also interview well known developers and real estate investment trusts. Guests also include leaders from the top commercial real estate associations, such as CCIM, BOMA, ICSC, ULI and NAR.
About Michael BullMichael Bull, CCIM is an author, speaker, trainer, consultant, radio show host and commercial real estate broker. He has been successful in the commercial real estate brokerage business for 30 years assisting clients in over $3 billion dollars of sales and leases. Mr. Bull is the founder of Bull Realty, Incorporated, a regional commercial real estate brokerage firm with three offices, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The firm was founded fourteen years ago with two primary missions. 1) To provide a company of stellar integrity and reputation, and 2) To provide the best commercial real estate marketing in the nation. Michael Bull's real estate experience includes owning, renovating, managing and extensive brokerage experience with of all types of commercial real estate. He is member of ICSC, ALG, AGREE, ACBR, NAR, GBA, REGA, CRB, and CCIM.
Michael grew up in Atlanta attending local area schools, Grady High school, Georgia State and the Georgia Institute of Real Estate. Michael lives in the Atlanta area with his wife of seventeen years and his two children. His favorite pastimes include spending time with his family, music, basketball and performance boating.
On Twitter Michael Bull (@BullRealty) tweets about show topics, commercial real estate, business news and occasionally about technology, social media, sales, motivation and humor.
Michael Bull, CCIM, CRB, ePro
Founder, Bull Realty, Inc.
800-408-2855 ext 2001
Michael@BullRealty.com
Want to be in the spotlight? Email marketing@propertyline.com for interview questions.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Six Reasons Most Commercial Real Estate Agents Fail
From the Desk of Peter Droubay and Bob McComb, Co-founder of Top Dogs Commercial Real Estate Training:
The First of Six Reasons Most Commercial Real Estate Agents Fail and How to Ensure That You, or Your Agents, Avoid These Mistakes.
Mistake #1: Agents often take too long to develop expertise.
The biggest reason agents fail to make it in commercial real estate brokerage is that they take too long to develop the expertise they need to be hired consistently by clients. Most people who enter the business have a limit on the amount of time they can spend earning little or nothing. The goal for most is to get into the business and learn what is necessary to begin earning a good income before that time runs out. Unfortunately, the clock runs out on many.
There are two reasons for this: The first is that many agents never specifically set the goal of developing expertise. They have a general idea that knowledge is needed for success, but they never really decide to become an expert in one segment of the market. Make no mistake about it, commercial real estate agents and brokers are hired for their expertise. Clients want to know that their agent knows what he or she is doing. To succeed, agents need to develop this expertise as quickly as possible. To do so they must start by specifically setting the goal to master the information as quickly as possible, and most never do.
While most of the blame for this rests on the individual agents, firms are often culpable of not setting the proper expectations or presenting new agents with the tools to learn. In fact, many of the methods for training new agents currently in use actually discourage the kind of learning that will lead to expertise. In many firms the attitude presented to new recruits is one of "fake it till you make it" while your out in the field learning from trial and error. This attitude usually adds years to the process of developing expertise. Other firms match new recruits up with veterans and tell them to rely on the veteran agent for the expertise they need. Again, in most cases, the new agent adds years to their own development process by learning to rely on someone else like this. Both of these scenarios actually postpone the learning process and dissuade agents from becoming experts.
The second reason that most new agents do not learn in time is they don't have a system and the tools necessary to learn quickly. Until recently, it was very difficult to learn quickly because there were no courses or materials set up to lead agents down the path to expertise quickly. The path to expertise in commercial real estate is no different from most high-paying professions, namely, obtaining a good general expertise in the industry and then specializing by building a practice in one segment of the industry. For instance, a doctor attends medical school for the general expertise and then specializes thereafter. A lawyer attends law school and then builds a practice focused on one specialty. And so on. Unfortunately, there has not been a good way to follow this same path in commercial real estate, starting with the general knowledge of the industry. Most courses have been expensive, time consuming and not very comprehensive. There's been no way to quickly learn the fundamentals of the business.
A few firms are part of networks or franchises that offer some training for new agents, but the training is usually delivered through scheduled regional or even national classes. This means that new agents need to wait until the next time the course is being offered. When they do attend, many of the courses are not very comprehensive, offering too little, too late. Besides, there is always a sunburn effect to this type of training: It wears off after a short time. Fortunately, there's now a way to quickly develop the kind of expertise needed. The Top Dogs course, "How to Fast-Track Your Expertise in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage" is a three to four-week intensive course designed to give new agents the broad understanding of the industry they need. It is delivered on-site and can be started immediately after a new agent is hired. Before its release, it often took years to acquire the knowledge that is acquired now in just three to four weeks.
Once professionals, like doctors, have a broad understanding of the industry in which they work, they must specialize in one aspect of the market and spend time devoted to learning everything there is to learn about that segment of the market. Much of this learning needs to be in-the field, as hands-on learning, accompanied by classroom study, as they build a practice in one specialty. Commercial real estate agents are no different. They must develop expertise in one segment of the market to begin with, because it's almost impossible to become an expert at every aspect of the business in the first couple of years. Unfortunately, most new agents and most firms don't think about or even promote this kind of specialization. Instead, new agents are often left to their own devices, which means they grasp at anything that comes along that they think might result in a commission.
A new agent might see someone in the office earn a large commission from an industrial lease and begin dabbling in industrial properties. Meanwhile, their manager hands them a couple of very tired listings that no one else wants that are office space. Upon inspecting the office listings, the new agent finds that the ground floor has retail that is unoccupied and dreams of commissions to be earned from retail leasing. Then a friend calls and says he would like to invest in some apartment buildings and before you know it, the new agent is dabbling in every segment of the market, usually running all over town, and quickly becoming the "jack of all trades, master of none." Serious clients want agents who are experts at what they do.
The owner of a large office building wants an office specialist to handle the building. At minimum, he wants someone who knows everything about office space. The real rub is not so much that new agents are working hard and not earning enough money. It's that there is no end in sight to the situation. Agents begin to realize that under the current way they're going about it, it will take years of struggle before they have the expertise that the top brokers have. Usually this leads to frustration and disillusion and the agent eventually quits.
But it can be very different. Agents need to start their career by gaining the general expertise they need with the Top Dogs Course: "How to Fast-Track Your Expertise in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage." Once they've completed the course, with their knowledge and their confidence high, they need to complete the Top Dogs course entitled "How to Run With the Big Dogs in Commercial Real Estate." It's a three-month course that teaches them how to build a practice in one segment of the market. Agents who follow this route, completing all of the assignments given in the courses, develop the expertise they need within the first four to six months in the business. Simultaneously, they're building their practice. The average new agent who follows this system, earns between $60,000.00 and $120,000.00 in personal income from commissions in their first full year in the business (depending on the area of the country in which they're working). They generally earn twice that amount in their second year. For most, this is more than enough to stick it out and continue growing their career in commercial real estate.
Click here if you would like to read more on Six Reasons Most CommercialReal Estate Agents Fail… And How to Ensure That You, or Your Agents, Avoid These Mistakes
The above article was re-posted with permission from the author, Bob McComb.
The First of Six Reasons Most Commercial Real Estate Agents Fail and How to Ensure That You, or Your Agents, Avoid These Mistakes.
Commercial real estate agents have varied levels of success. Some have brilliant careers and happy, abundant lives. Unfortunately, many fail miserably. In fact, more than half of the people who begin a career in commercial real estate brokerage quit the business in less than three years! Many more plod through their days in quiet desperation, hoping to someday succeed. We've worked with thousands of agents over the last 20 years and we've spent many, many hours working to figure out what makes the difference between those who succeed and those who fail.
We've come to the conclusion that, while there are certainly some genetic and environmental influences, skills necessary for success in this industry are like any other skills; they can be learned. Success as a commercial real estate agent is largely the product of learned habits. Failure in this business is the product of errors in judgment that are repeated over and over again. We've identified six mistakes we find are committed repeatedly by most new agents. Besides these mistakes, there are, of course, many reasons agents fail. But, for this report we've chosen to focus on the most prevalent. These are the mistakes we've found that are being made across the country and in every type of firm. These six errors in judgment lead to failure for many agents and the frustration of under-achievement for many more. These errors are easily corrected if an agent is able to identify the mistakes and then pursue a course of action meant to develop new habits and skills. In fact, the best agents are the ones that have been able to avoid, or overcome, these mistakes.
Mistake #1: Agents often take too long to develop expertise.
The biggest reason agents fail to make it in commercial real estate brokerage is that they take too long to develop the expertise they need to be hired consistently by clients. Most people who enter the business have a limit on the amount of time they can spend earning little or nothing. The goal for most is to get into the business and learn what is necessary to begin earning a good income before that time runs out. Unfortunately, the clock runs out on many.
There are two reasons for this: The first is that many agents never specifically set the goal of developing expertise. They have a general idea that knowledge is needed for success, but they never really decide to become an expert in one segment of the market. Make no mistake about it, commercial real estate agents and brokers are hired for their expertise. Clients want to know that their agent knows what he or she is doing. To succeed, agents need to develop this expertise as quickly as possible. To do so they must start by specifically setting the goal to master the information as quickly as possible, and most never do.
While most of the blame for this rests on the individual agents, firms are often culpable of not setting the proper expectations or presenting new agents with the tools to learn. In fact, many of the methods for training new agents currently in use actually discourage the kind of learning that will lead to expertise. In many firms the attitude presented to new recruits is one of "fake it till you make it" while your out in the field learning from trial and error. This attitude usually adds years to the process of developing expertise. Other firms match new recruits up with veterans and tell them to rely on the veteran agent for the expertise they need. Again, in most cases, the new agent adds years to their own development process by learning to rely on someone else like this. Both of these scenarios actually postpone the learning process and dissuade agents from becoming experts.
The second reason that most new agents do not learn in time is they don't have a system and the tools necessary to learn quickly. Until recently, it was very difficult to learn quickly because there were no courses or materials set up to lead agents down the path to expertise quickly. The path to expertise in commercial real estate is no different from most high-paying professions, namely, obtaining a good general expertise in the industry and then specializing by building a practice in one segment of the industry. For instance, a doctor attends medical school for the general expertise and then specializes thereafter. A lawyer attends law school and then builds a practice focused on one specialty. And so on. Unfortunately, there has not been a good way to follow this same path in commercial real estate, starting with the general knowledge of the industry. Most courses have been expensive, time consuming and not very comprehensive. There's been no way to quickly learn the fundamentals of the business.
A few firms are part of networks or franchises that offer some training for new agents, but the training is usually delivered through scheduled regional or even national classes. This means that new agents need to wait until the next time the course is being offered. When they do attend, many of the courses are not very comprehensive, offering too little, too late. Besides, there is always a sunburn effect to this type of training: It wears off after a short time. Fortunately, there's now a way to quickly develop the kind of expertise needed. The Top Dogs course, "How to Fast-Track Your Expertise in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage" is a three to four-week intensive course designed to give new agents the broad understanding of the industry they need. It is delivered on-site and can be started immediately after a new agent is hired. Before its release, it often took years to acquire the knowledge that is acquired now in just three to four weeks.
Once professionals, like doctors, have a broad understanding of the industry in which they work, they must specialize in one aspect of the market and spend time devoted to learning everything there is to learn about that segment of the market. Much of this learning needs to be in-the field, as hands-on learning, accompanied by classroom study, as they build a practice in one specialty. Commercial real estate agents are no different. They must develop expertise in one segment of the market to begin with, because it's almost impossible to become an expert at every aspect of the business in the first couple of years. Unfortunately, most new agents and most firms don't think about or even promote this kind of specialization. Instead, new agents are often left to their own devices, which means they grasp at anything that comes along that they think might result in a commission.
A new agent might see someone in the office earn a large commission from an industrial lease and begin dabbling in industrial properties. Meanwhile, their manager hands them a couple of very tired listings that no one else wants that are office space. Upon inspecting the office listings, the new agent finds that the ground floor has retail that is unoccupied and dreams of commissions to be earned from retail leasing. Then a friend calls and says he would like to invest in some apartment buildings and before you know it, the new agent is dabbling in every segment of the market, usually running all over town, and quickly becoming the "jack of all trades, master of none." Serious clients want agents who are experts at what they do.
The owner of a large office building wants an office specialist to handle the building. At minimum, he wants someone who knows everything about office space. The real rub is not so much that new agents are working hard and not earning enough money. It's that there is no end in sight to the situation. Agents begin to realize that under the current way they're going about it, it will take years of struggle before they have the expertise that the top brokers have. Usually this leads to frustration and disillusion and the agent eventually quits.
But it can be very different. Agents need to start their career by gaining the general expertise they need with the Top Dogs Course: "How to Fast-Track Your Expertise in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage." Once they've completed the course, with their knowledge and their confidence high, they need to complete the Top Dogs course entitled "How to Run With the Big Dogs in Commercial Real Estate." It's a three-month course that teaches them how to build a practice in one segment of the market. Agents who follow this route, completing all of the assignments given in the courses, develop the expertise they need within the first four to six months in the business. Simultaneously, they're building their practice. The average new agent who follows this system, earns between $60,000.00 and $120,000.00 in personal income from commissions in their first full year in the business (depending on the area of the country in which they're working). They generally earn twice that amount in their second year. For most, this is more than enough to stick it out and continue growing their career in commercial real estate.
Click here if you would like to read more on Six Reasons Most CommercialReal Estate Agents Fail… And How to Ensure That You, or Your Agents, Avoid These Mistakes
The above article was re-posted with permission from the author, Bob McComb.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Intro To CRE 101
Aki & Jim Palmer write for The Coloradoan: Get tools for success in commercial real estate investing.
Experts say success in commercial real estate investment requires the willingness to spend a lot of time and effort up front researching, developing the right relationships and identifying the right type of investment.We couldn't stress enough that having the right tools to backup your skill set is another addition to up your game in the competitive field of commercial real estate. The Coloradian article also stresses:
It's essential for investors to educate themselves on market fundamentals, including current vacancy rates and possible trends within a particular trade area. Investors shouldn't hesitate to utilize local real estate experts as a resource for market information.With that said, we're here to also shamelessly plug our upcoming webinar: Key to Finding Prospects with ProspectNow. If you are a proactive broker looking for ways to find and manage prospects, join us on February 7, 2012 at 10 AM - 11 AM PST for the FREE webinar. For more information, call us at 888.889.1063 or send email at webinar@propertyline.com. See you all there!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
CRE US Sectors Performs Well In Q4
Michael Gerrity writes about various CRE sector performances in the United States for World Property Channel:
Read the article via World Property Channel.
According to the latest data from CBRE Econometric Advisors (CBRE-EA), the U.S. office vacancy rate improved in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2011, declining 20 basis points (bps) to 16%.He then continues to touch on each sectors from the Office Sector through (especially) the Apartment Sector. It is also worth mentioning:
"The vacancy reductions across property types in Q4 is consistent with our expectations of a gradual recovery," said Jon Southard, Director of Forecasting, CBRE-EA. "While the drop in vacancy is a positive sign, Q4's performance underscores that 2012 will be marked by slow improvement, rather than a quick end to any lingering troubles in the markets."Each Commercial Real Estate sector has definitely been through tough times as of late and the entire business industry felt the ramifications. This 2012, everyone is gearing up for another year of battling the economy, but instead of a downhill struggle, this year promises a much much better outlook.
Read the article via World Property Channel.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
CRE A Good Bet
Roger Vincent writes for Los Angeles Times: Investors see commercial real estate as a good bet.
Despite the economy, investors are bullish on the prospects for office buildings, the largest commercial real estate sector, a survey finds. Apartments are viewed as the most favored categoryAdditionally
"Investors continue to view the apartment sector as an attractive play in delivering steady cash flows driven by solid rental demand and rising rents," said Susan Smith, editor in chief of PwC's survey. "As a result, investors view this sector as a hotbed for further investment activity."With 2011 behind us, 2012 looks to be promising to our recovering industry. Happy New Year indeed everyone!
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