Commercial Real Estate Blog

Net Operating Income (NOI): A Beginner’s Guide

Understanding Net Operating Income (NOI) is essential in commercial real estate. Without a firm grasp of net operating income, commonly referred to as just “NOI”, it’s impossible to fully understand investment real estate transactions. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at net operating income, discuss the components of NOI, and also clear up …

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How a Broker Price Opinion Works

The broker price opinion (BPO), also known as a broker opinion of value (BOV), is a popular way of estimating the value of a property. Typical reasons for ordering a broker price opinion include estimating value prior to purchase or sale, understanding collateral value when securing a new loan or refinancing, estimating liquidation value, buying …

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Gross Rent Multiplier: A Beginner’s Guide

The gross rent multiplier is a simple measure of investment performance used in the commercial real estate industry. Understanding the gross rent multiplier is important when evaluating commercial real estate transactions, but it also comes with several built-in limitations. In this article, you’ll learn: What is Gross Rent Multiplier (GRM) The gross rent multiplier, often …

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What You Should Know About Credit Analysis

Understanding the basics of credit analysis is important when raising debt financing for commercial real estate projects. Credit analysis is one step in the credit approval process a bank goes through to evaluate a corporate borrower, but it also comes in handy when evaluating the financial strength of tenants, corporate guarantors, and other individual operating businesses. In this …

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Percentage Rent: How it Works

Retail tenants and commercial real estate professionals should be aware of a common provision in leases known as percentage rent. This article will explain how percentage rent and breakpoints work, with clear examples along the way. Simply put, percentage rent is extra rent paid based on a percentage of gross sales. Percentage rent situations can be …

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CRE Loan Underwriting: A Practical Guide

Understanding the commercial real estate loan underwriting process can give you an advantage when seeking debt financing for a commercial property. In this article, we’ll discuss how lenders underwrite commercial real estate loans, and how to determine the maximum loan amount for a property. We will also cover how underwriting changes for different loan types, …

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Difference Between Rentable Square Feet versus Usable Square Feet

One of the first steps in evaluating a commercial property is determining the total rentable square feet. While this might seem like a straightforward calculation, it unfortunately doesn’t always end up being so simple. This is particularly true for multi-tenant buildings. In this article we’ll go over how to calculate rentable square feet (RSF), usable …

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Negative Leverage: What You Should Know

It’s common in the commercial real estate industry to use leverage, which means acquiring a property with debt rather than paying all cash. Positive leverage occurs when debt increases an investor’s rate of return. Negative leverage occurs when debt decreases an investor’s rate of return. At a high level, these leverage concepts are easy to …

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Cash on Cash Return: A Beginner’s Guide

Understanding the cash on cash return in commercial real estate is important when you are evaluating investment real estate transactions. What is the cash on cash return, and how do you calculate it for a commercial property? What are the nuances and limitations of the cash on cash return? In this article, we’ll tackle these questions …

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How to Create a Commercial Real Estate Marketing Package that Sells

After winning a new listing, the first step in any CRE marketing plan is to build a commercial real estate marketing package. But if you go on Loopnet or pull up some random marketing email blasts, it’s amazing what some brokers try to get away with. Most commercial real estate marketing packages are really bad, especially …

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