All Forum Posts by: Michael K Gallagher

@Keira Hamilton thank you so much for putting this together, you clearly put a lot of time a thought into it.  This is the kind of content that makes these forumns trully unique and although I am not in the laundry biz, I see paralells to all aspects of negotiating and generally "getting deals done" regardless of the asset being traded.

Thank you again, I especially thought the "being a good buyer" section was enlightening and something I know I need to coach my buyers more on up front.  

Hey @Sean Michel welcome to the forums, we are glad to have you.  Appraisal is a strong background going into this, you've already got a leg up congrats.

I'm not in your market but I'm a big fan of all things affordable housing.  I think supplying the market with decent places to live at affordable prices is never a bad strategy.  

The issue we often run into is the pure cost to build...you have ideas or ways you are working around that?

@Naresh Yegireddi you also need to look into the locations of the building and general ability to re-tenant when then eventually leave or go dark.  They are generally large retail boxes that in my experience need to get demised for another user to take over, unless you find some kind of "local grocery" to backfill.  They can also be fairly remote and off the main "retail corridor" not always but its common. 

Ultimately you need to understand the underlying economics, psychographics and demographics of the market you are purchasing in to know if and how you can re-tenant the property.

I'm a bigger fan of dollar generals or family dollars that are in multi tenant shopping centers.  They tend to be set up to bring in a new anchor and re-stabalize after dollar general or the like leaves.  the additional tenants also help obviously in the vacancy costs.

@Kyle Schreur you can ultimatley do whatever you'd like, but whatever you do and whatever the arrangment should be put into writing.  

In general I'd not suggest the above regarding "contributing" to utilities.  It is common and customary acrossa almost all rentals except some A class office to pay your share of utilities.

Now you can make whatever arangment you'd like and work it out however you want with your tenant but if you are going to "share costs" I'd suggest keeping the utilities in your name, and then "back billing" the tenants for that share of their usage, but again thats a lot of work for really no gain in my book.

My recommendation would be to simply have the tenants pay all utilities.  If you want to offer a "rebate" of some kind after they stay up to date for certain amount of time, I'm more inclined to go that way, but in general theres no real good reason to put yourself as the owner in the middle of the utilities unless they aren't metered in a way to bill directly.  

@Ryan Prichard one of the better options out there that can handle commercial properties, for what I'd consider a "low cost" platform is Hemlane.  I believe some of their people are likely here on the forums and can jump in, they also had a booth and sponsorship at last years BP con so if you went you may have seen them.

I came across the service because I had a client who was going to self manage, and wanted me to lease the units for him, and the property was a mixed use building with his business operating out of the ground floor.  Most "traditional" or "free" type softwares out there couldn't handle the commercial address, and "commercial" specific softwares were exorbitantly expensive when I looked, now this was some 4 years ago now so perhaps there is a new player, but regardless that client jumped on hemlane, and I was able to get on as well as his leasing agent and he now has 8 units in total across a couple properties, both commercial and residentially zoned on the one dashboard.  Its a pretty flexible platform also especially if you are self managing.  

Thanks for the insights @Henry Clark the not so hyped or fundamental benefits are always worth coming back to in my book.  I love the concept of principal pay down as a piggy bank.  

@Brad Tull each of those markets would likely have something different to offer than the other.  Are you planning on using that cash you pull out for the full purchase or are you considering that a downpayment?  Happy to run you through the central OH market and why its worth considering, but if your price point is $150K and under you'll be fairly limited in areas you can consider. 

Hey @Evan Rossi welcome to the forums.  There's no real hard and fast way or only 1 way or doing your first 2 points. your subject line suggests you're not looking to go to a large shop like a JLL or a CBRE which honestly I don't blame you those offices are usually pretty bloated.

As far as monthly costs, if you are going to individually get a costar or other such license you are probably looking at $500-$1000 a month pretty easy in overhead once you have office dues, mls dues, marketing, etc.  obviously that can get pricey and is why joining a team or established brokerage can be so helpful.

I was lucky enough to have a family connection that is an established boutique commercial broker, and he was in his own words "drowning" and needed help. It started small, just helping to draft LOI's, running down property leads, making calls, but the important thing was just getting in and DOING it. I'm about 2 years into this "helper role" or "apprentice" role if you will and I'm starting to take on larger and larger roles and run my own deals.

My point is, you are on the right track with your thinking, so now to the "HOW" to actually get in, if like me, you don't have an in or connection.

First step is likely to get licensed, if you aren't already there are some other ways to get in the door and be helpful but licensed means they can pay you cuts of the deal and its less upfront cost and risk to them in helping you out.  

From there, or even while getting licensed, I'd pick a niche, and really niche down.  For example, the brokerage I'm helping at is specifically an urgent care brokerage, they do 90% of their deals in brokerage/development of urgent cares.  So pick an industry or business type you like, and I'd go talk to the businesses, ask them who their broker was, how was their experience with them and if they "specialized" in that industry.  

There are likely "dental" firms or "restaurant" focused, or "med office"... the list goes on.  If you like the niche and the subject matter it will help you dig in more and learn it.  

once you have an idea of who the players are, just start going to meetups and trying to get in front of them, they may be interested in some apprentice type help but be too busy to advertise or look and you asking is exactly what they needed!  

good luck, let us know how it goes and if you need additional insights.

@Jessica Privitera welcome to the forumns, sounds like you will have a lot of value to add here and help others along their own journey.

What was the driver behind the move from NY to TN?

@Kamal Sukhija What is the reasoning driving the 6,000 SF mark?  When I'm shopping for retail medical users we top out at 4,000 SF.  There are likely larger users out than than what I deal with, but at that SF at least in my world you are likely looking at multiple tenants, not sure if thats what you planned or not.

additionally something else to consider is the cost of buildout on a med office space. depending if they are going to have x ray or not its not uncommon to see $500-$800K buildouts in my experience.  the majority of even my national users are looking to keep cash in reserve and as such are looking to landlords to finance that TIA as additional rent at a return premium and then that extra rent bakes off in whatever term is negotiated. 

Just trying to illustrate that even after you build the building and deliver a shell, theres a good chance many of the users you are going after are going to ask for TIA and help with buildout to some extent.