Commercial Real Estate Investment Analysis – What are the most important things to look for in real estate? While location is always a key factor, there are many other factors that help determine whether an investment is right for you. If you are considering investing in the real estate market, here are some important things to consider.
The saying “location, location, location” still reigns supreme and continues to be the most important factor for profitability in real estate investing. Proximity to amenities, green space, scenic views and neighborhood status factor prominently in residential property valuations. Proximity to markets, warehouses, transport hubs, freeways and tax free areas play an important role in commercial property valuation.
Commercial Real Estate Investment Analysis
Considering the location of the property, a medium to long term vision of how the area will develop during the investment period. For example, today’s peaceful open land behind a residential building may one day become a noisy manufacturing facility, reducing its value. Thoroughly review the ownership and intended use of nearby areas where you wish to invest.
How To Carry Out Market Analysis For Commercial Real Estate Investment
One way to gather information about opportunities near the property you are considering is to contact city hall or other public agencies involved in zoning and city planning. This gives you access to a long-term area plan and determines how favorable or unfavorable it is to your own plan for the property.
A property appraisal is important when purchasing financing, listing price, investment analysis, insurance and taxes—all of which depend on the real estate appraisal.
Given real estate’s low liquidity and high value investment, a deliberate lack of clarity can lead to unintended consequences, including financial hardship—especially if the investment is a mortgage.
Cash flow refers to the amount of money left over after expenses. Positive cash flow is the key to a good return on investment property.
Commercial Real Estate And Financial Stability
Loans are easy, but they can be costly. You are tying up your future income to get today’s utility with interest expenses spread over several years. Make sure you understand how to manage this type of debt and how to deal with high level debt or what they call hyper-leverage. Professionals in real estate are also challenged by high leverage in adverse market conditions, and cash crises with heavy debt obligations can cripple real estate projects.
New construction usually offers attractive prices, customization options and modern amenities. Risks include delays, increased costs, and the unknowns of newly developed environments.
Here are some key things to look for when deciding between new construction or an existing property:
Maintaining physical characteristics over a long-term horizon is not for everyone. There are options that allow you to invest indirectly in the real estate sector.
Most Important Things About Commercial Real Estate Investing
Your credit score affects your ability to qualify for a mortgage, which affects the terms your lender offers. If you have a high credit score, you can get better terms—and add up to significant savings over time.
Discrimination in mortgage lending is illegal. If you believe you have been discriminated against based on race, religion, gender, marital status, use of public assistance, national origin, disability or age, there are steps you can take. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or the U.S. One such step is to file a report with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
A score above 800 is considered excellent and can help you qualify for the best mortgage. If necessary, work to improve your credit score:
As with any other type of investment, it is better to buy low and sell high. Real estate markets can fluctuate and it’s good to be aware of trends. It is also important to pay attention to mortgage rates so you can reduce your financing costs if possible.
Global Real Estate Investment
Real estate helps diversify your portfolio. In general, real estate has a low correlation with other major asset classes – so when stocks fall, real estate often rises. Real estate investment offers steady cash flow, substantial appreciation, tax benefits and competitive risk adjustment benefits, making it a sound investment.
Of course, as with any investment, it’s important to consider the specific factors listed here before you invest in real estate — whether you choose physical real estate, REITs, or something else.
The offers appearing in this table are from compensation partnerships. This compensation can affect how and where listings appear. Not all offers on the market are included. Over the past few months, I’ve learned a lot about real estate investing. Like many newbies to this industry, I initially focused on residential rentals. It separates the good from the bad, learns how to diversify real estate investments, how to value properties and how to critically analyze their returns. In this article, I’m going to explain the four pillars of real estate investment returns, explain some of my favorite metrics of investment performance, and share my rental analysis spreadsheet. Feel free to jump straight to the spreadsheet; I won’t stop you.
Each measure highlights one or more of these benefits, and each has its pros and cons. Some of the more popular measures include capitalization ratio, cash return on cash, return on equity, and internal rate of return.
Commercial Real Estate Definition And Types
Capitalization (cap) ratio. The most basic measure is the capitalization ratio. It is the de facto standard used for commercial real estate and can be used to quickly compare returns in different markets, for example. It is defined as net operating income / purchase price.
Cash on Cash (COC). This measure expresses the annualized return on invested cash flow. Generally, the cash-on-cash return is used for the first year, but you can calculate it for any year. It is defined as cash flow / total cash investment. Sometimes the purchase price is a substitute for the total amount invested. However, this ignores closing costs at the time of purchase and is not a true representation of the return on their full investment.
Return on Equity (ROE) or Return on Cash (COCE). Although this metric is not often used, it is excellent because it accounts for cash flow, appreciation and amortization benefits. Of course, if you calculate it using Cash Flow After Tax (CFAT) instead of Standard Cash Flow Before Tax (CFBT), you can get tax benefits too. It is defined as Annualized (Cash Flow + Principal Payment + Appreciation) / (Total Cash Investment + Prior Equity Increase). However, like the previous two measures, it represents a timeline of investment performance and therefore does not take into account the time value of money. (In other words, a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow.)
Internal rate of return. Probably the most popular metric for professional investors. IRR attempts to correct the errors listed above by discounting future values to determine their value today. Rather than a point-in-time snapshot, it provides a measure of investment performance over the holding period, or how long you intend to hold the asset. As with the COC and COCE measures, if you use CFAT it represents all four benefits, including tax benefits. It calculates the purchase price, annual cash flow and proceeds from the sale of the property at the end of the holding period. However, it suffers from other problems; For example, it assumes that all cash flows can be reinvested at the same rate. More sophisticated measures such as modified internal rate of return (MIRR) and financial management rate of return (FMRR) are available to overcome some of these shortcomings.
Gregg Haft On Linkedin: Acquiring Commercial Real Estate Presents A Remarkable Opportunity For…
Now that we have an understanding of how to measure real estate investment returns, we can work through an example property valuation using my Rent Analysis Spreadsheet.
The numbers in this example are from a property in Memphis, Tennessee that I found while browsing listings for a turnover real estate investment company that operates there. Indeed,
For this property, the purchase price was $53,000 and was recently appraised at $70,000. This means we have some built-in parts, which is great. (Same idea if you follow value investing with stocks; buy below intrinsic value for a margin of safety on your investment.) We offer a fixed 30-year loan with 20% down and 5% interest. Most investment properties require 25% down, but as in this case, some lenders allow with a 20% higher interest rate. (You can run both scenarios in a spreadsheet to see which is more profitable.)
We need to estimate income, space and many expenses. Some data can be obtained from records such as previous leases, last year’s property taxes, recent utility bills, a recent property appraisal or contacting an insurance company for a quote. Other information such as average vacancy rates, property management fees, appreciation rates and closing costs paid by the buyer and seller can be estimated for a particular market. The maintenance reserve requires a more informed estimate based on the age and condition of the asset, recent repairs and the age of individual components.
Commercial Real Estate Outlook
You enter these data and estimates on a financial summary sheet. (The blue boxes are editable. The rest are not.) Since this is a single-family home, we assume the tenant will pay all utilities and other expenses, so the single line items (editable) for these categories are hidden.
Using this information, Green Box gives you a quick summary