How to sell a shopping strip? Where to start?

[Martin Neal]

Hello,

My wife is a realtor and just got her first commercial listing. It's a 5 unit shopping strip in Chicago on the west side, with one unit available to lease. 

What does she need to know/ advertise to inform investors and attract buyers? I know that she needs to know the CAP rate but what else??

Here's what I know about the listing:

Sale Price: $550K

Four Units: Occupied and Leasing for $1500

One Unit: Open for Leasing for $2500

Taxes: Approximately 17K

Tenants pays all utilities except water

Any and ALL feedback is welcome. Thanks in Advance!!

[Steve McGovern]

@Martin Neal, you need some help here.  Commercial is another world.  It's going to depend on a number of variables:   

$1500 isn't going to cut it around this crowd--  they (we) need to know about the psf (price per square foot).  If it's $1500 for 20,000 Sq. F.t., then that's very different than $1500 for 200 Sq. F.t.  Also, the psf rate is an ANNUAL amount.  So your psf  is ($1500/mo x 12 mos)/ Sq. Ft.  per Unit.= psf.  

Commercial doesn't shine on the MLS. Look to LoopNet and other Commercial sites for marketing.

Are the Tenants locked into an NNN Lease? What is the Owner doing to justify his OpEx, CapEx reimbursements?

For that matter, are they in a lease at all?  How long are the terms?  Do they all expire together?  

Is there a Lender to pay off? What is the DSCR of the Mortgage? Is the Mortgage assumable?

Finally, Cap Rate is another animal-- and there's at least three ways to read/analyze one.  Just 'knowing a rate' does almost nothing for you-- where are you expecting to find that rate?   

You've got a lot of work to do.  If you'd like, PM me, we can chat.  I'm in Boston area, not an IL Broker by any stretch... but I can at least get you some base-level info so your wife can do this with an ounce of knowledge.  

Good luck. 

Steve