All Forum Posts by: Jason Mak

Hi folks,

Just wanted to get some input on how developers market vacant space to potential retailers.  I've managed homes and apartments and that's pretty straightforward and easy.  I know this is a very open-ended but please work with me.  Just curious of what the norms are with most commercial developers and owners.

I know you can simply put up a sign or put the property on loopnet but just curious if there are any more proactive approaches.  

Some websites for larger retailers list the tenant reps or company contact for their real estate but I feel like getting any attention from them at all is difficult due to the amount of requests they must deal with. And you are not likely to ever get a response.

I've reached out to some tenant rep brokers, outside of leveraging their network/experience/relationships/working the phones, what type proactive steps do they take to bring in tenants?   

Finally, what is standard fee for these brokers?  3%-5% on primary term?

I'm just not too interested in signing an exclusive listing agreement with a tenant broker yet.

Thanks for your input

Jason

@Jay H.

First most, thanks for posting this.  I'm interested in a similar development in CA and have searched the internet for this type of information, your journal as well as the conversation between everyone has got to be the most enlightening and straight-forward education I have found so far.  Also, hat's off to you for creating value out of thin-air!

Had a few questions that maybe others on the forum would benefit from being asked too; thanks again:

- Regarding initial contact with the tenant reps, how did it go? And how did you obtain contact info for each tenant rep?  Many are simply posted on the website but did you ever consider using tenant brokers?

-  Can you clarify your development terminology, horizontal vs. vertical?  Is horizontal referring to site work, demo, grading, etc and vertical referring to actual buildings cost of the structure?  Does the $65 psf include soft costs (entitlements, architecturual and site costs)? 

- How did you obtain traffic counts? did it yourself or hire someone?

- How long did it take tenants to do their feasibility analysis? (you mentioned about 1 month?)

- Regarding your construction loan, how much do you need down?  20% equity?

- During the LOI did you have any room to negotiate or was it pretty much "their way or the highway?"

wow - Bravo for the initiative at such a young age!!! My advice would be to go to college since this will keep many doors open for you in the future and this is also a time of personal growth. College is a great experience that you'll benefit from. During college, definitely get your RE license and like others said work for one of the top agents in the area. Be very forthwright with them and let them know that you want to learn and earn with the best. Keep on finding mentors that treat you well and teach you a lot. Good luck!!

i'm finding it quite difficult to get good cost estimates and projections for real estate development projects (ground up). I have a few spreadsheets from deals that I'm working on but wanted to see if there are any developers from the Southern California area that wanted to trade and share their deal sheets. We can scrub the addresseses It would just be nice to compare notes on cost estimates and projections etc... PM me if you are interested

keeping up with the joneses

yes absolutely - financing works similarly to residential flips. Just depending on deal size but you'll find all cash close, traditional financing, as well as private financing. The only thing to be wary of especially with traditional bank financing is that most of these loans carry a prepayment penalty which could adversely affect your returns

Congrats on taking the plunge John - the truth is there really isn't a typical "day in life" which is a good thing. Everyday is different and being your own CEO you have to take care of a myriad of issues. But to convey what typical things I do on a daily basis are: - looking at prospective deals, reading a lot of zoning regulations - emailing architects, other developers, city officials - visiting city halls and sitting in line to get questions answered - calling my onsite manager or checking P&L and rent rolls (weekly) - following up on projects and calling for estimates on new projects - chatting with fellow investors and developers on the phone or over lunch to keep the deal flow coming and staying in the know - driving around looking at properties - unfortunately, as I used to own a hotel, I spend a good amount of time filling out worker comp claim and dealing with employee issues - lots of random paperwork Fortunately for me, a lot of the mundane and bookkeeping tasks have been offloaded to my bookkeeper and onsite property managers hope that helps...

@Aaron Mazzrillo  check out this article - it basically summarizes several negotiation books and seminars and gives you the general gist of what they all say.  Pretty funny actually

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20030801/negotiation.html

HI BP,

Anyone ever look at the Karrass Negotiations seminar or can recommend one?  I'm looking for a good negotiations seminar and this one seems to fit my schedule but not sure if it is beneficial for real estate investors.

If you have an ipad, I would recommend that app called Goodreader.  While you are "online" you can download all your reading materials to the app which can then be read offline.  The app does a fantastic job in formatting your reading material.