Should I buy Commercial Retail Strip center in Greenville SC ?

[Tom Nguyen]

Hello BP

I am in the process of searching and buying a Retail strip center in the Greenville SC area so what do you guys think of that asset class performing in that area, What is the going Cap Rate there since retail has been hurting quite a bit from a pandemic? is it a good time to go in or should I wait until the pandemic over?
Also, is there any advice to look for in Retail commercial investing? What should I look for in a building, Cap Rate, and things to avoid 

what do in the Due Diligence process: Phase1 report, Inspection report, lease audit, What else?

Thanks all.

[Jin Chung]

Ask for a TTM (trailing 12 month) financial report to confirm if they provided rent relief or if there are current delinquencies, and also to confirm expenses.  If they stall or have excuses let them know you understand since there was a pandemic if they provided some rent relief or some tenants are past due and that won't affect your decision to buy (but of course it will affect the price you're willing to pay).  

Go to the local building permit office and business license department (sometimes in the same office depending on the locale) and look up all the past building permits that were applied for and business licenses that were applied for.  In my county the records go back to the 80's online so I can look them up from my computer.  That'll give you a clue if there was a dry cleaners, but it may not be definitive if that county doesn't have good records.  That might also show if they pulled permits for new roofs or major repairs or upgrades.  

While you're at the county check the property tax records and the assessed value of the property.  Find out how the county likes to assess property value - some counties try to stay within 80-90% of market value - some counties have different methods.  If the current assessed value is a good bit lower than your expected purchase price, your property taxes will go up - which is usually the biggest expense with commercial properties.  If that happens you can try to appeal, but when you have a recorded purchase sale price it's going to be hard to appeal.  

If the building is older major items that might need repair or replacement is the roof, HVAC systems, outdoor lighting, back flow devices, private hydrants, any fire suppressions systems like sprinklers/risers, parking lot, marque signs, awnings/canopy/overhangs.  Ask for any maintenance or replacement records.  Also, if the building is over 15 years old the electrical system and plumbing should be checked to see if they meet current code - which could be an issue when a new tenant does their buildout.  If the building is really old it may have galvanized steel plumbing which needs to be completely replaced - from the water meter!  Patronize some of the tenants and see if you see water stains on the ceilings, take a look at their thermostats to see if they look like they're from the 80's, see if you see fire suppression systems, look at the parking lot condition, outdoor lights (if they are still the metal halide then you'll want to replace them with LED).  These can all be used for negotiation and not really a deal breaker, except for galvanized steel plumbing which will require digging up the entire parking lot and into the building.  

As far as Cap rates, here's a dirty industry secret for multi-tenant retail, cap rates are easily manipulated and everyone or every company has their own way doing a pro forma. Some go by actual rents, some put in pro forma rents based on market rates if there's a lot of vacancies, some list actual expenses, some list expected expenses based on historical records, most will never include "one time" maintenance or repair items that actually recur regularly, and then some will put in vacancy contingencies and maintenance & repair contingencies and some don't, some include management fees some don't, some leases are NNN or NN or some mix of that or just flat rent, some property's pass through expenses are reconciled while some are partly reconciled while some tenants might have a clause that their rents can not be reconciled and some property owner don't know that means. Also, IRR's are thrown around a lot to make brokers look smart but IRR's can be very misrepresentative as well - especially when dealing with mostly leases with mom's and pop's that won't even last as long as the IRR tables that are being produced. There are standards recommended by authorities like CCIM, SIOR, etc but even with these there are still a lot of variables that can be differ depending on who is putting together the calculations.

You need to go over the financials of different properties and look at how they are doing the calculations and determine the validity and trust worthiness of the numbers and make your own adjustments based on your investigations and determine if that fits in with your comfort level. Also, you have different strategies if you are a long hold or a flip, and it's important to determine if the previous owner was a long hold or a flip as some tenants might be super flakey and just given a lease to fill out a rent roll.