Using the Web and social media to sell real estate

A section of the Q&A session from the commercial real estate investment seminar we have organized that gives a rapid overview of how a commercial short sale is being negotiated on a high level.

Find out how you negotiate a commercial short sale.

Find out how you can make between $ 100,000 and $ 150,000 for just doing the negotiation and how you can select the property that merits your attention.

It takes many steps to complete a successful negotiation and you need to locate the correct connection inside the bank and select your argument very carefully.

How does a commercial short sale affect the future credibility and business of a commercial real estate owner? Find out the answers from top professionals that have been doing commercial short sales for years and know all aspects of this special type of negotiation.

Roberto Mazzoni

Investors from Europe are coming back, but they select their markets very carefully.

They are only looking at gateway cities like: Washington DC, New York, Boston, not Atlanta. They are looking some in Miami because of the industrial base.

But they don’t like to be in a scenario where they need to compete with many local investors. Also in commercial real estate we need to go back to a traditional scenario where owners need to have at least 30% down, both domestic and international, which is a major shift as compared to the last few years.

Roberto Mazzoni

The commercial real estate world is becoming more complex every day and it will be increasingly common to see properties that are offered for sale which are also part of a bankruptcy.

The commercial real estate market is changing deeply.

Find out how the property is going to be assessed and how the short sale process could happen in this case.

There is an interesting interaction between the court, the appraiser, the bank and all the parties involved.

Roberto Mazzoni

Commercial real estate short sales are a very complex process that is very different from the conventional short sale that we know from in the residential market.

Commercial short sales are much more complex than residential short sales.

First of all you are dealing with a very different type of bank, usually a local bank, who has very tight control on the loan it services and who also undergoes a tremendous quantity of scrutiny from the government.

These banks need to maintain certain performances and certain capital reserves and non performing loans are a definite threat to their survival. So the first thing they will do is trying to control the property before the foreclosure is through. A much more aggressive process.

Roberto Mazzoni

Commercial shortsales and foreclosures is going to become one of the main targets of interest for international real estate investors and therefore it will also enter into the scope of content of my blog. It is a completely new playing field even though the names and concepts seem similar to what we have come to know well in the residential field, they are VERY different.

The next new wave is going to be commercial foreclosure, but you really need to know how to ride it.

These are the five key differences:

1.The legislation on the subject is substantially different and therefore it requires a different approach and a different type of knowledge.

2.The owners of a commercial property have much more experience and knowledge in the field than a regular home owner that is gone in foreclosures. So we are not dealing with distressed owners any more, but we are rather dealing with business men who we are not necessarily trying to substitute, but rather ally with.

3.The cycle of a commercial real estate project is much longer: usually 18 months or more versus 3 to 6 months being the typical cycle length for a residential property.

4.There is very little knowledge on commercial loan modification and many owners don’t really know what they should do, yet they HAVE to do something because commercial loans usually are 5 years long not 30 years long. Therefore people go in foreclosure not because they can’t make their mortgage payments anymore, as it happens in residential real estate, but because they have to renegotiate an existing loan for a property that has lost value.

5.The value of the property is more dependent on its proper management rather than on the actual value of the building itself. Location, age and state of repair have naturally something to do with it, but proper management and marketing are paramount.

Why is this interesting for international investors? They can invest on a single deal with a local investor that they trust rather than having to do multiple residential projects. The risk is more concentrated because you have all your money in one single project, but there are many more tools to establish the worth of the project and the competence of the local investor working with them.

Much less people will be able to play in this field, and that will weed out many of the losers.

Roberto Mazzoni