For over 30 years, I have had the opportunity to work within some of the most well respected companies in commercial real estate. Each has its own way of doing things – their own sets of processes and procedures. I have heard comments ranging from “No one does it as well as we do,” to… Continue reading Learning and improving throughout your career
“Ambitious men do not ask questions for fear their infallibility will be challenged” – Washington (or John) Roebling My apologies to David McCullough who wrote The Great Bridge about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge for not even knowing whether it was Washington or John Roebling who gave us that awesome quote above. But, whether… Continue reading Why you should be at least slightly conversational in accounting, finance and lease administration
There really is a secret to a good abstract and, I apologize in advance because it will sound a little patronizing at first, it is to read the lease and fill out the abstract. Seriously? It does sound patronizing, doesn’t it? But, it is very obvious reviewing an abstract that has been completed using the… Continue reading The secret to a really good abstract
When we perform acquisition due diligence on behalf of a buyer, we find two types of issues. The first is where the seller has presented information that overstates the income or conditions. The seller may have presented that a tenant’s minimum rent is $10,000 per month, but the lease states $9,000. Or, perhaps the lease… Continue reading Due diligence before the due diligence?
A comma can change the meaning of a sentence fairly drastically. And, for lease administration purposes, it can have an unexpected impact on cash flow. The clause below was from a center we worked on last week: “Tenant’s Proportionate Share” shall be equal to the number of rentable square feet included in the Premises divided… Continue reading Let’s eat, Grandma! Let’s eat Grandma!
A few months ago, we had a blog that addressed a difference in lease language where an excluded area was defined as any premises greater than 15,000 sf vs any occupant greater than 15,000 sf – a subtle change in lease language having a material impact on a lease’s or even a property’s cash flow.… Continue reading Leased vs. Leased and Occupied
One of our earliest blogs was about the landlord’s standard lease being the best case scenario. Changes that are made to that standard lease are being done at the tenant’s request because the tenants have seen, over and over, how not changing those clauses has impacted their financials. Tenants are dealing with tens or hundreds… Continue reading Just how good was that tenant attorney?
As underwriters of commercial real estate, we deal in facts. We read the leases, calculate all of the rents and reimbursements, examine the critical non-financial covenants, analyze the prior year cash flows and provide an analysis of the assumptions that our clients have made on vacancies and lease up and Tis and inflation and so… Continue reading Strange things are afoot at the Circle K
This week, we were working on an acquisition of a property in the southeast. One tenant occupied the majority of the property, with a handful of other tenants accounting for about 10% of the leasable area, but about 20% of the income. There was a restaurant tenant that had a unique name that I had… Continue reading A couple of percentage rent/gross sales issues this week
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