Receiving due diligence items

[Lateefah Washington]

I am interested in buying a commercial property (office, retail) and was wondering at what point I receive information on income and expenses such as rent roll, leases, maintenance cost to calculate NOI and cap rates. I noticed in some listings the agents put the info but in lots of others it is not included. I have an agent and she has given me listing without this info and I find it very hard to make a decision without this info. She said after you show interest you will get more info but how can I know if I am interested without this info. Is this the normal process? Is she correct? Do you just need to sign LOI's to get it? Can someone explain how it works? Not sure if I need to get a new agent or what. Thank you. I am located in Texas in the DFW area.

[Evan Polaski]

@Lateefah Washington, I generally agree with Russell.  Buying commercial real estate is like buying or starting any business.  The value is more driven by what you think YOU can do with it, versus what someone else did. 

Now, professionally run properties will typically have financials available and professional owners will share them with the listing package.  Commercial brokers, particularly the larger ones (CBRE, Cushman, Jones Lang LaSalle) will typically only take clients that disclose these upfront and make them available in a war room through online portals.  Mom and pop owners often won't disclose either because they never kept records, or also common, they are writing off a lot of items to the property that make the property appear more financially burdened than may be the case (I may or may not have had a few dozen dinners out with my wife that get booked to my rentals).