Feb
14
One of the fastest growing and most popular reality shows on cable TV is A&E's 'Storage Wars'. This series follows four professional buyers as they try to outwit and outbid each other at auctions for abandon self-storage lockers. I find the show highly entertaining. But I also see numerous similarities between the characters on the show and many of the real estate investors that I deal with in Cleveland on a regular basis. To read the entire ...
Jan
26
All in all, 2011 turned out to be a decent year for Cleveland's real estate investment market. The overall sales volume again ticked upward, this after hitting the bottom in 2009. More importantly, last year saw several 'market' transactions occur, which is a great sign going forward. But this isn't to say that there werent' some ...
Dec
1
Real estate investors are a finicky breed, especially when it comes to analyzing a real estate investment deal. Some will go into great detail - analysis paralysis as I like to say - while others will give the numbers a quick once-over and go with a gut feel. But regardless of the approach, all have some type of return threshold or requirement as a target. In this month's Financial Strategies column of Properties Magazine, we will review some of the ...
Oct
25
In last month's Properties Magazine, we introduced the overall concept of Time Value of Money. There are six methods associated with TVM, called the six functions of the dollar. The first three are compounding functions, moving money forward over time, and these were covered in the September issue. The last three are discounting ...
Oct
4
In this month's issue of Properties magazine, we introduce the sometimes mysterious concepts associated with compounding and discounting. Although these concepts can be a bit daunting, they can also be extremely helpful to a real estate investor. With a little help from Rod Stewart, we take the mystery out of these concepts, which are ...
Aug
8
Although there has clearly been an increase in activity over the first half of 2011, the commercial real estate market continues to be a battlefield. In this month's Properties magazine, we take a look at some of the emerging trends in the Cleveland real estate market. And as you will see, there are certainly a lot more people looking for a fight than actually in one. To read the article, click here. ...
Jun
27
Although we like to think that real estate is at the center of the universe, the reality is that our profession is but one part of a very large puzzle. And many of the tools and concepts that we use to figure out our little puzzle can be applied to a variety of other situations. In the June issue of Properties Magazine, we discuss the concept of Net Present Value. As you will see, although the concept is quite useful when analyzing real estate ...
May
25
With the ushering in of the internet age, the amount of information (and pace which that information flows) has dramatically increased. In the old days, analyzing a real estate site or a market involved at least one if not several treks to the local planning department with the hopes of obtaining any kind of demographic information that might be stashed away in a file cabinent. The dawning of the PC era saw this data migrate from hard copy to digital ...
Apr
20
This month's Financial Strategies column in Properties Magazine continues a discussion that begin in the March issue. The topic for both months was Internal Rate of Return. In March, we gave some framing to the concept of IRR, explaining what it is and how it is used. And in the April issue, we tackle some of the shortcomings ...
Mar
21
One of the most valuable tools in the commercial real estate investor's tool belt is internal rate of return (IRR). If you've spent any time in the world of real estate investment, you have undoubtedly heard this term. But just what is IRR and what does it measure? In this month's Property magazine's Financial Strategies column, IRR takes center stage in the discussion. By using several examples, the concept behind IRR is explained, as well as how ...
