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Posted by Donald Teel – Arizona Commercial

In today’s commercial investment environment, property taxes can be lethal. Many investors are still paying property taxes that are reflective of the market run-up of 2000-2006 and not necessarily on the current valuations of their investments.

The questions are what can you do about inflated tax valuations, where do you turn and more importantly, how can investors challenge property tax values successfully?
Continue reading “Challenging Property Tax Values”

Posted by Donald Teel, Arizona Commercial

Ours has become a business culture and climate often made up of the lack of economic appreciation for many things and it seems there is a growing unwillingness to recognize the value of expertise, service and product quality and to mistakenly perceive that all things are open to negotiation. Or, worse yet, there is often a perception that all things are of equal value.

With a declining real estate market there is a mistaken notion that the value of commercial expertise is somehow diminished when instead its inherent value is increased due to the complexity of the market.

Often, when a client attempts to negotiate the cost my expertise downward, there is a corresponding decrease in my desire to commit resources, creativity and indeed the labor necessary to accomplish a stated objective. Accomplishing a client’s objectives is difficult in good markets; in bad markets the required disciplne is often excruciating.

Watch the humor but catch the economic drift of this YouTube video produced by Scofield Editorial, Inc. and entitled, The Vendor Client Relationship.

Copyright © Scofield Editorial, Inc., sydicated from YouTube.com.

Donald Teel

Seldom can it be said that the market is both a ‘buyers’ and a ’seller’ market simultaneously. But this seems the case as we prepare to enter the second half of the 2009 commercial market.

Pinching down on Buyers is the absence of simplified capital lending, something necessary to their investment strategies. Sellers are experiencing what I call “refi shock” as banks tighten their rules for lending qualification in the wake of declining property values.

The conundrum is realized as buyers and sellers are forced to work in a market that favors both. The conundrum is one of uniquely creative transaction partnerships, where neither the buyer nor the seller can pop the cork on a Champaign bottle and light-up a victory cigar.

The Buyer vs. Seller Conundrum

This paradox of market realities or, clash of interests, is actually a moment of investment opportunities where banks can become the third party servants to buyers and sellers.
Continue reading “Buyer vs. Seller Conundrum”

Posted by Donald Teel, Arizona Commercial

CommercialWebPage.com has been saying that the commercial lending industry was likely to become problematic for current owners and new investors. This creates cause for careful analysis and a strong look at what and where the marketing opportunities will be.

Some small investors need to take a hard look at their refinancing blueprint, especially those with notes coming due in the next 12-36 months. For those owners who are fortunate to be F&C on their properties I advise they give careful consideration to selling with carryback financing.

Listen to this report from Tom Fink, Senior V.P., TREPP, LLC and former CFO for North American Development Bank and then draw your own conclusions.

For more assistance or consulting services with respect to your commercial investment strategies email Donald Teel or, if you prefer, call me toll free at 877-777-9100.

Future of CAP Rates

Posted by Donald Teel, Arizona Commercial

Commercial investors and real estate brokers/agents toss around the term “cap rate” as if it were some sort of tell-all with respect to commercial property value or the measurement of the strength of a commercial property investment.

Hold your horses!

Can a CAP rate determine a property value? Are CAPS an accurate measure of an investment? Can CAP rates be trusted as a true litmus test for investment?

Answer: No, no and no. In fact, CAP rate determinations are now coming under assault.

Brokers often convey value and pricing by dividing net operating income by a purchase amount, such as 125,000 (noi) divided by $1,125,000 (price) equals a cap rate of 11.1%.

CAP rates are simply the measurement of a property value for a given 12-month period “IF” the property were purchased “cash.” CAP rates are impacted when investors utilize financing and the terms of financing, such as interest rate, points, call date, etc., impact “true cap rate.”

Real World CAP Problems. What happens in a market where the actual or contemplated lease rates fall below levels suitable for so-called “adequate” cap rate?

Savvy investors know how important cash flow is and more importantly, how important predictable and sustainable cash flow is in a down market. Real world cap rate problems occur when the strength of rent rates is compromised by a struggling economy or by tenants who vacate properties due to their business failing to perform.

Example: If the prevailing and sustainable (emphasis on “sustainable”) market rents are anticipated to trend downward for more than 12 consequtive months due to a faltering national economy, cap rates may be a less than optimal way to determine purchase price value.

Welcome to today’s real world problem with cap rate valuation! I have a theory that the accelleration of tenant default has now become the single most powerful force in declining commercial property values. There goes sustainable NOI.

The Assault on CAP Rates. Shopping cap rates is usually a faulty initial premise in today’s market since most investors are unwilling or unable to park cash into 100% of the purchase price of a leased property.

Today, long term tenant performance is becoming less stable and the market competition for “exceptional” tenants is heating up. Vacancies are driving down NOI, lenders know this and are now adjusting their cap calculations to include historical property performance perdictions.

Cap rates as a tell-all financial apparatus are under assault and weighted calculations for financing and property segment performance MUST be taken into account by investors more than it has in the past.

A trustworthy cap rate will always be adjusted by the cost of money and the cost of alternative investments measured against real estate investment returns.

The strength of lease agreements, tenant performance, type of business and the cost of money over time (typically 3-5 years) are now more significant than ever.

Want more information about cap rates and the central and northern Arizona commercial markets? Email me or, if you prefer, call me toll free at 877-777-9100.

Allan Woodruff, CCIM

We’ve all been hearing  and reading “gloom and doom” from the media.

But we know from history that turning points come while the masses are still moaning about how bad things are.

So are we at a turning point? Are we close enough to jump back into the market?

Here are a few facts investors can consider in refining their commercial real estate investment strategies on either the buy or sell side:

1. The deleveraging process will take more time as we work through the process of restoring sanity to private and corporate finances. We’ve lived through a period of very high leverage which must be unwound.  Habits and attitudes must change as investors take a more realistic view on risk, increase savings and reduce spending.
2. Yes, there are economic “green shoots” being seen this spring. Witness the stock market rally and an upturn in existing single-family residential (SFR) real estate sales in February. Consumer Confidence rose slightly from March to April, according to the Conference Board. SFR affordability has reached a multi-year high due to collapsed prices and interest rates at their lowest levels since about 1971. The “transition point” (the inflection point at which prices fall slower than they had been) seems to have occurred in the SFR market, so there is evidence that SFR prices will find a bottom soon.  Prices are typically at early-2004 levels or lower.

Continue reading “Is It Safe To Enter the Water?”

When I am asked, “What do you think my commercial property is worth?” I cringe and feel less than completely at ease with the answers I know honesty demands.

It is not that I am reluctant to be completely transparent with a client. That is the easy part. The difficulty lies in communicating to commercial property investors that they may be facing a new commercial reality.

Our new commercial reality contains several characteristics that make buying and selling, leasing and landlording and other forms of investment more precarious than perhaps in times past.

Heads I Win Tails You Lose

Commercial real estate values are tipping and for some investors it doesn’t matter what side of the coin comes up.

In a majority of major commercial markets commercial property is softening and for those who purchased in 2005-2007, things may be less than stellar. This is also true of commercial real estate markets like Prescott, Arizona.

Owners who purchased in the 2005-07 framework invested at the top of the market…they bought high.
Continue reading “Facing a New Commercial Reality”

Jim Pullaro - Broker

Posted by Jim Pullaro – Designated Broker

As the commercial market changes, Arizona Commercial and its entire team of professionals remains consistently dedicated to delivering the best commercial real estate services to our clients.

Although commercial investment strategies must and do focus on the financial aspects of a transaction, Arizona Commercial places an additional premium on the qualify of our relationships with each client. 

Things like transparency, integrity and trustworthiness are not old fashioned virtues at Arizona Commercial, they are current realities and they are something we believe investors want and look for in a commercial brokerage.
Continue reading “The Services of Arizona Commercial”

We cannot ignore the serious potential for commercial foreclosures inherent in the financial market today. To do so would be disingenuous and a violation of ethical standards related to client fiduciary.

What is the state of the commercial foreclosure market?

Will we see mortgage defaults in the commercial sector? Will the degree of defaults parallel the residential market collapse.

Sand State Foreclosures. Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida, the so-called “sand states” are experiencing the beginning of what can only be described as a plummet (my word).

According to the Las Vegas Sun, April 2, 2009, 25% of Las Vegas commercial real estate is troubled and Commercial properties valued at a whopping $7.885 billion are in trouble in Las Vegas as casinos struggle under the weight of the recession and office buildings and shopping malls lose or are unable to find tenants.

This phenomenon is being replicated in each of the “Sand States” as the federal government’s promised mortgage financing relief continues to be illusive to commercial investors.
Continue reading “Commercial Foreclosure – Next Exit”

Sound commercial investment is always based upon a perspective from aloft.

This aerial image of Prescott, Arizona’s downtown commercial area does not tell us much. It simply makes me wonder what is happening north, south east and west of the core area. There is a need to pan.

Market perspective plays a huge role in the analysis and decision making behind NOI, ROI and long term wealth accumulation for an investor. Putting distance between oneself and the market creates a better view.

Today, perhaps more than at any time in the last decade, market perspective counts and can easily impact a commercial transaction’s ability to perform and deliver the desired financial objective.

Lenders are looking at transactions with an eye toward long term performance based upon what I might call property actuaries. If a property segment (type) such as retail, medical, industrial, multi-family is on life support, the lenders are going to factor that illness into the capital risk formula.
Continue reading “Market Aloft: The Birdseye Approach”