Commercial Loans and Fun Blog

Commercial Loans and the Leased Fee Estate

Posted by George Blackburne on Thu, May 30, 2019

R&D BuildingWhen underwriting commercial loans, commercial lenders need to be very careful about properties that are leased out for far more than their fair market value.  A story will make this clear.

GrandpaJack was a brilliant man.  He was also a darned fool.   Forty-five years ago, he spotted the fact that Silicon Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula was inching southward towards the cheaper land in San Jose.

Grandpa Jack therefore bought a large, vacant lot on the corner of First Street and Trimble Road, where it approached Milpitas, figuring it would be great location someday for R&D and flex space.

 

Apply For a Commercial Loan to Blackburne & Sons

 

Constipation 2

 

Video Course - How To Market   For Commercial Loans

 

Thirty years later, the world was beating a path to his doorstep, begging to build and lease back a 200,000 square foot high-tech manufacturing facility.  Anxious to provide for his family for several generations into the future, Grandpa Jack leased the entire facility in 2004 to Oracle Corporation for a flat fee of $1.92 million per year ($9.6 per square foot per year).

When discussing commercial lease rates, it is customary to always speak in terms of rent per square foot per year.

Judging by his vision, Grandpa Jack was brilliant.  Judging by his choice of Oracle as his tenant, Grandpa Jack showed even more brilliance.  Oracle Corporation, the financial behemoth, sailed comfortably through the Great Recession.  Grandpa Jack's three children got every single rent payment on time.

 

Submit Your Loan to 750 Commercial   Lenders Using C-Loans.com.  It's Free!

 

Outside the Box

 

Free List of 3,159 Commercial Lenders  Sort By Your Own Criteria

 

But Grandpa Jack made one bonehead mistake.  He leased his massive R&D building at a fixed rental rate for a whopping thirty years.  He didn't even build in an annual CPI increase.  Today the market rent for R&D space in San Jose is $20 per square foot (per year).

We are now finally able to discuss a leased fee estate.  A leased fee estate is the ownership interest that the landlord or lessor maintains in a property under a lease, with the rights of use and occupancy being conveyed or granted to a tenant or lessee. In other words, it is the ownership interest in a leased property.

In plain interest, the property you own is leased out to someone.  What is your property worth when it is burdened or blessed with the existing lease?  

 

Money Tight?  200-Page Income Property Underwriting Manual - $199

 

moon


Hey guys, do you know any filthy rich investors?

Do You Know A Wealthy Investor?  We'll Pay You a $250 Referral Fee

 

Now the concept of a leased fee estate comes up most often in MAI appraisals.  A good MAI appraiser will usually only bring up the concept of a leased fee estate when the property is leased out for a long term at far under the market rate or at far over the market rent.

Now Back to Grandpa Jack:

Let's suppose the huge R&D building was not burdened with the below-market, long-term lease to Oracle.  If it was rented out at $20 per square foot (pop quiz:  per month or per year?), the building would be worth - at a 7.5% cap rate - $40.5 million.

But the property is NOT leased out at $20 per square foot.  It is burdened with a long-term lease of just $9.60 per sf, which is less than half the market rate.  At a 7.5% cap rate, the leased fee value of the property is just $19.5 million.

 

Nine-Hour Video Training Course  How to Broker Commercial Loans

 

B Gee

 

Become a Hard Money Lender.  Approve Your Own Deals!

 

Get Both Video Training   Programs For Just $849.

 

"But George, what about the fact that in 15 more years the lease expires, and the owners can renegotiate the rental rate to market?"

A good MAI appraiser will take out his trusty Hewlett Packard 12C hand-held calculator and will perform a discounted present value calculation, taking into account a rental rate of $9.60 sf for 15 years and $20 sf thereafter.

Unfortunately for the heirs (Grandpa Jack passed away in 2006), the reversionary value of the property fifteen years hence, when the old lease expires, does not affect the present value of the leased fee estate as much as you might think.  It has to do with the fact that the big pop in value doesn't happen for a long period of time.  By the way, reversionary value refers to the value of property upon the expiration of a given time period.  

 

Get Four Free Commercial    Training Courses

 

Frog Parking

 

Commercial Mortgage Brokers You're Doing It All Wrong

 

Another Example - It Works Both Ways

Sun-Mei Chang is a dynamic, Chinese-American woman.  Sun-Mei is always on the move, and she could sell anything to anyone.  She is a bona fide Alaskan icebox saleswoman.

She buys a closed elementary school (30,000 sf) from the county for pennies on the dollar, and then she spends just $25,000 sprucing it up a little.  Next she convinces a state-sponsored trade school to rent the property for a whopping $15 per sf.  The market rent is just $6 per sf - but like I said, Sun-Mei is a world-class saleswoman.

 

Fee Agreement and Fee Collection Course. Just $199.

 

Scooby Do 2

 

Intermediate Commercial Real  Estate Finance

 

Then Sun-Mei applies for a loan against this property.  If the property was valued solely on an income approach, this former school would be worth a fortune.  If the appraiser is a good MAI appraiser, he should quickly spot the fact that the existing lease rate is much higher than the market.

A competent MAI appraiser would therefore submit his finished report with two different values, the value of the leased fee estate and the fair market value - assuming the big lease did not exist.  The value of the leased fee estate would be on the order of $3.8 million, but the fair market value might only be $1.52 million.

When underwriting commercial loans, commercial lenders need to be very careful about properties leased for far more than their fair market value.  Not every MAI appraiser is well-trained enough to produce a report with two different values.  The lender has to be careful not to make too large of a commercial loan because if the property comes back in foreclosure, the lender will probably only be able to lease it back out at $6 per sf. 

 

Free List of 200   Commercial Lenders

 

Phone booth

 

Need a NMLS License  Or Your Renewal Hours?

 

Subscribe To Blog  

 

 

Topics: Leased Fee Estate

Commercial Loans and Clearing Gangsters Out of Apartments

Posted by George Blackburne on Mon, May 20, 2019

Billie ClubI have an investor buddy who has made millions of dollars by buying up distressed apartment building in low-income, high-crime, and high-drug-use areas.  Many millions.  Many, many millions.

When he buys these buildings, they are largely vacant, dilapidated, and infested with gangsters.  So I asked him yesterday how he clears out the gangsters.  These guys have guns, and they have drug and prostitution businesses to protect.  One gang in one in one of his buildings even had the address of his building tattooed on their upper arms.

 

Do You Know A Wealthy Investor?  We'll Pay You a $250 Referral Fee

 

Baby Stare

 

Submit Your Loan to 750 Commercial   Lenders Using C-Loans.com.  It's Free!

 

Think about it.  How large of a private army would it take to clear one of these buildings?  After all, these gangsters have guns, and they are not afraid to use them.

So many gunshots did it take to clear out the worst of his buildings?  Not a single gunshot.  Not a single swing of a billy club.  Here is how he did it:

He put a fence around the entire building, thereby creating just one entrance.  Then he hired after-hours policemen to man the entrance.  These police guards visibly took pictures of every person entering the apartment complex.  They also required that every person produce a photo ID.  The names and license numbers were visibly written into a large journal.

 

Earn Up to 12% Interest

 

Birdseed

 

Nine-Hour Video Training Course  How to Broker Commercial Loans

 

Now ask yourself.  If you were a young college student wishing to buy drugs, would you run this gauntlet?  Of course not!  Soon the gangsters had no customers, and they were forced to move out.  Haha!

Then, to keep the apartment complex safe moving forward, he enforced a "no baggy pants" rule.  If some gangster came to visit his mother or grandmother, and he was wearing baggy pants, the grandma would be fined $100.  If he showed up again dressed as a punk, his grandma would be evicted.

Before you think that my investor buddy is some evil ogre, you should know that these apartment rules were posted and carefully explained to grandma before she moved into the complex.

 

List of Commercial Lenders  2,500 For Just $79.95

 

Roosters

 

Free Commercial Loan Placement Kit

 

As a result of these rules, the immediate neighborhoods surrounding his buildings now have a lower crime rate than the city as a whole.  This is an incredible accomplishment, considering he only buys buildings in the most crime-infested areas of the city.  The tenants enjoy a safe, quiet place to live.

Another thing that he does is that he holds monthly meetings with the police, attended by all of his apartment managers and assistant managers.  Nearby apartment owners bring their own managers too, but my buddy makes sure that these meetings always take place in one of his own buildings, in order to cement police rapport.

My buddy provides sodas and snacks, and at the meetings, his mangers tell the cops about units where drugs are being dealt.  Soon the cops set up stings, and the drug dealers are arrested.

 

Free List of 200   Commercial Lenders

 

raccoon-on-the-back-deck-1

 

Free List of 3,159 Commercial Lenders  Sort By Your Own Criteria

 

My buddy now owns and manages more than 6,000 apartment units, and his safe buildings are almost 100% occupied.  It helps that he pays a small finders fee to existing tenants who refer him potential tenants.  

Remember, my buddy bought these apartment buildings for just $10,000 to $30,000 per unit.  Some apartment units in California sell for up to $300,00 per unit.  He really loves buildings in war zones because he can buy them very, very cheaply.  

Renters with poor credit and/or the inability to provide proof of employment (illegals) typically pay much more in apartment rent per square foot than good credit borrowers.  Don't blame this on my buddy.  This is true for the vast majority of all low-income apartment units everywhere in the country.  The reason why is because the owners of low-income apartment buildings suffer from very high collection losses.

 

Commercial Mortgage Brokers You're Doing It All Wrong

 

Lip Glue

 

Become a Hard Money Lender.  Approve Your Own Deals!

 

Get Both Video Training   Programs For Just $849.

 

But the renters in my buddy's buildings don't want to have to move because his buildings are so safe and quiet.  Loud music and big groups hanging out in the public areas is not permitted.  As a result of his buildings being so safe and quiet, my buddy enjoys higher than average rents and near-100% occupancy rates.  

These buildings are indeed cash cows.  A cash cow is a business, investment, or product that provides a steady income or profit.

Unfortunately (fortunately?) he can no longer find any deeply-distressed apartment buildings in the major city where his buildings are located.  He is now looking in other cities, where there is strong job growth and absolutely horrible areas.  Capitalism sometimes works, folks.  Remember, his 6,000 apartment units have a lower crime rate than the city average, even though they are located in war zones.  He doesn't use guns, billie clubs, or physical intimidation.  He just uses good property management techniques.

 

Apply For a Commercial Loan to Blackburne & Sons

 

Goat

 

Fee Agreement and Fee Collection Course. Just $199.

 

Money Tight?  200-Page Income Property Underwriting Manual - $199

 

Subscribe to the Commercial   Loans and Fun Blog

 

 

Topics: Clearing Out Gangsters

Commercial Loans and the First Hints of a Main Street Recession

Posted by George Blackburne on Sat, May 18, 2019

CompetitionSince the nadir of the Great Recession, I have been wildly bullish on the U.S. economy.  Seven years ago, I told my 1,500 wealthy private investors that the U.S. was about to enjoy the strongest and longest recovery in the history of the United States.  By the way, nadir means the lowest point in the fortunes of a person or organization.

 

Submit Your Loan to 750 Commercial   Lenders Using C-Loans.com.  It's Free!

 

Back Home

 

Free List of 3,159 Commercial Lenders  Sort By Your Own Criteria

 

Recently, however, I have been receiving anecdotal evidence that the U.S. economy may be slowing down.  Anecdotal evidence is not gathered scientifically.  It does not come from an expert.  Anecdotal evidence is evidence that is collected in a casual or informal manner and relying heavily or entirely on personal testimony.

Example:

Two auto industry analysts from different investment banks are chatting over beers.  One says to the other, "My brother-in-law works in the quality control department of Tesla, and he told me that they are getting tons of complaints about the blinker fluid system.  He thinks they may have to order a giant recall."  This would be anecdotal evidence that Tesla is having quality control issues.

 

List of Commercial Lenders  2,500 For Just $79.95

 

Keys

 

Earn Up to 12% Interest

 

Guys, Tesla is NOT having quality control issues.  I am a huge fan of Elon Musk, and there is no such thing as blinker fluid.  Here is a hilarious YouTube compilation of blinker fluid pranks.  OMGoodness, soooo funny!

This being said, anecdotal evidence should NOT be dismissed as unreliable.  It comes from people right on the front line.

So above I said that I have been receiving anecdotal evidence recently that the U.S. economy may be slowing down.  Here is what I have heard.  One of my golf buddies is a freight broker.  He matches up independent truck drivers with loads that need to be moved about the United States.  With truck drivers so much in demand, you would think that his business would be booming.

 

Nine-Hour Video Training Course  How to Broker Commercial Loans

 

Uber 4

 

Free List of 200   Commercial Lenders

 

My buddy said that in his 35 years as a freight broker, he has never seen such a lack of loads.  "Is it due to the China trade dispute?"  "No," he said, "it started before then."  "Is there a lot more competition among freight brokers?"  "No, my buddies are all saying the same thing.  It's a lack of loads.  We have never seen truck transportation this depressed.  I am thinking seriously of retiring."

For almost twenty years, this guy has been my leading economic indicator.  I would meet him on Tuesday nights for golf league, and I would always ask him, "So how's my leading economic indicator (his business)?"  Yikes.  But he is only one guy, right?

 

Apply For a Commercial Loan to Blackburne & Sons

 

Final Destination

 

Free $549 Training Course

 

I also spoke on Tuesday with the guy who runs the main office of one of the largest independent pension plan administration companies in the entire country.  It's interesting that this large pension plan administration company is based in the little corn field town of Plymouth, Indiana; but it makes sense.  The housing costs and wage rates in Plymouth, Indiana are among the most reasonable in the country.  Hooray for the internet!

My pension plan guy told me, "I'm a little concerned.  In all of my years in pension plan administration, I have never seen more companies shutting down their pension plans.  If in a typical year, we might have 40 or 50 companies get so financially battered as to shut down their plans.  This last year we had over 500 (!!) companies shutter their plans.  Holy crepe suzette.  It's important that you appreciate that he did not lose this business to a competitor.  These companies were losing so much money that they couldn't afford to keep these plans open anywhere.

So what is happening?  I think in the euphoria of this wonderful recovery that a bazillion trillion new companies have been formed on Main Street, USA.  Now I please want you to focus.  As my dear old father used to say to me, "Look alive, Blackburne."

 

Video Course - How To Market   For Commercial Loans

 

Catching Bugs Together

 

Fee Agreement and Fee Collection Course. Just $199.

 

It is a fundamental axiom of economics that, "Whenever there is ease of entry into a field, competition continues until competition is ruinous." 

This is one of the reasons why I push you desk-and-a-phone mortgage brokers to becomes hard money lenders.  You will never make BIG money in commercial mortgage brokerage until you graduate to becoming "the lender".  You need to separate from the guys who will work on a loan for the cost a copier lease payment.  "It's the servicing income, sillies."  But no one ever listens to me.

 

Become a Hard Money Lender.  Approve Your Own Deals!

 

Get Both Video Training   Programs For Just $849.

 

Dog Backyard

 

Commercial Mortgage Brokers You're Doing It All Wrong

 

Anyway, just as tens of thousands of new brokers are now competing for commercial loans, I suspect that this phenomenon is happening in many, many different industries all across the country.  For a great many small businesses, profits are getting squeezed by new competition.

What we need is a garden-variety recession to scrape off the weaker companies.  Warships during the Napoleonic wars used to have to go to dry dock every three years to scrape off the crud that would accumulate on their bottoms; otherwise, they would be become incredibly slow.

 

Need a NMLS License  Or Your Renewal Hours?

 

Are You a Developer?  Is Your   Construction Lender Requiring More Equity?

 

fun-place-to-go-swimming

 

Money Tight?  200-Page Income Property Underwriting Manual - $199

 

"Gee, George, that sounds so mean to wish for a recession that would force tens and tens of thousands small American businesses into bankruptcy."

The famous economist and Harvard economics professor, Jospeh Schumpeter, would argue that recessions (but not depressions) have an important "cleansing effect" that promotes future economic growth, much as forest fires clean out the choking undergrowth of healthy forests.

It's time for a recession.  Just sayin'.

 

Get Four Free Commercial    Training Courses

 

Invisible

 

Subscribe to the Commercial   Loans and Fun Blog

 

 

Topics: Recession Coming?

Commercial Loans and Wire Fraud

Posted by George Blackburne on Thu, May 9, 2019

Wire FraudAs I handed my dad his 50th birthday card, he looked at me with tears in his eyes...  Then he said, "You know, just one card would have been enough."

Yesterday I took my seven-hour annual update course for my NMLS license.  During the class, my wonderful NMLS instructor shocked me with a statement.

The FBI received last year on the order of 3,150 complaints about con men who had stolen - using wire fraud - over $1.2 billion!

 

Apply For a Commercial Loan to Blackburne & Sons

Algabra

Earn 7% to 12%  Interest

 

Here is how the con sometimes works.  A prospective real estate buyer receives an email from the title company containing wiring instructions for the downpayment.  The trusting buyer wires his $60,000 ... and then discovers to his horror that the email didn't come from the title company.  It came from a con man, who used a fake email account that had a URL that was just one letter off from the real title company.

Of course, the dough is gone.  The bad guys close the account shortly after the money arrives.  The victim has no recourse.  He is totally and completely screwed.

Our instructor then opened the discussion to the other students to tell their own wire fraud war stories.  One lady told the tale of what happened to the large real estate brokerage firm for whom she worked.  One of the firm's clients wired FIVE-HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS to one of these con men.  Poof!  All gone.  No recourse.

 

Free List of 3,159 Commercial Lenders  Sort By Your Own Criteria

 

Shaved Llama

 

Submit Your Loan to 750 Commercial   Lenders Using C-Loans.com.  It's Free!

 

As a result of the con job, none of the hundreds of real estate agents for this big real estate brokerage are allowed to deliver wiring instructions to the buyer.  The wiring instructions now have to come directly from the title company because of the legal exposure.

I could easily see a similar con job and wire fraud happening to a hard money mortgage company like mine.  Yikes!  Angela, Justine, Jesus - be very, very alert!

Many years ago, right out of college, I worked for a personal finance company.  We made personal loans secured by vacuum cleaners, furniture, and used auto's.  I got to actually go out and repossess vacuum cleaners and sticks.  Sticks were the borrower's furniture, stereo, and other personal property.

 

Free Commercial Loan Placement Kit

 

Fastest Land Animal

 

List of Commercial Lenders  2,500 For Just $79.95

 

My boss would say, "Go out and pop the sticks."  Obviously, pop meant to repossess.    You have never had an adrenaline rush like popping someone's car.  The loan officer meets the tow truck driver and together you follow the debtor.  The moment the debtor parks his car and goes into McDonalds, you rush into the parking lot, hook up his car, back out, and try to get away before he comes running out threatening to beat the crap out of you.  "Hey, dude, someone is hauling away your car!"  Some of these debtors were pretty big.  Yikes!  Haha.  It's funny now that I survived, but at the time your heart is pounding like a drum.

Here's an interesting legal fact.  Would I have been allowed to physically restrain the debtor while the tow truck driver drove off with his car?   Could I have pushed myself into an apartment to repossess a vacuum cleaner?  No.  A lender is only legally allowed to repossess personal property if he can do so without breaking the peace.

And then there were leg loans.  A leg loan is a loan made when some pretty young thing comes into the loan office, bats her long eyelashes, tells her sad story, and implicitly suggests to the branch manager that he may get "kissed".  Now the thing about leg loans is that the pretty girl never, ever makes a single monthly payment.

 

Nine-Hour Video Training Course  How to Broker Commercial Loans

 

Angry Face

 

Video Course - How To Market   For Commercial Loans

 

I remember being sent out after work to collect a leg loan made by my boss.  She tried to feed me this this nonsense that she was not the debtor, but rather just the debtor's roommate. Uh-huh.  After working for a personal finance company for a year, you see the wrong side of hundreds of lowlifes.  The experience in the gutter proved to be very helpful later in life.  Therefore I didn't buy what she was selling, including possible romantic favors; but I still failed to collect a dime.  The law didn't permit me to go all Tony Soprano on her (shapely tush).  

My branch manager had to pay off the leg loan from his personal pocket.  The big finance company for whom I worked actually had a "leg loan policy".  Haha!  Apparently it happened to branch managers all over the 60-branch system.  If you make a leg loan, you either collect it or repay it yourself.

 

Fee Agreement and Fee Collection Course. Just $199.

 

heavy-headed-statue

 

Money Tight?  200-Page Income Property Underwriting Manual - $199

 

I was surprised that my branch manager got conned.  He was a finely-tuned bullpucky detector.  He once taught me a VERY important lesson about con men.

"George," he said, "here is how you spot a con man.  If you are in a room full of 100 people, pick out the one person who you are absolutely SURE is not the con man.  He will be your con man."

On a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon my buddy and I stood on the first tee of our golf club.  He had just pulled out his driver when a young woman in a wedding dress came running up to him, crying.  She slaps him in the face, turns, and runs away.  My buddy turns to me and says calmly, "I don't know what her problem is.  I distinctly told her only if it rained."

 

Commercial Mortgage Brokers You're Doing It All Wrong

 

Bluetootu hose

 

Become a Hard Money Lender.  Approve Your Own Deals!

 

"My ex drove me nuts.  She was awful.  We're watching a television show once, and it was about euthanasia - you know, mercy killings.  And she said, 'Would you do that for me if I was really sick?'  I said, 'I'll do that for you if you get the flu.  Just let me know.’” — Mike Destifano

 

Get Both Video Training   Programs For Just $849.

 

Subscribe to the Commercial   Loans and Fun Blog

 

 

Topics: Wire fraud

Commercial Loans and the Look-Back Yield

Posted by George Blackburne on Fri, May 3, 2019

Looking backwardsGolfer:  "I'd move Heaven and earth to be able to break 100 on this course."

Caddy:  "Try Heaven. You've already moved most of the earth."

A look-back yield is typically computed when a high-cost lender is preparing his payoff demand on a commercial loan.  The borrowers asks, "Hey, lender, I want to pay off your commercial loan.  How much do I have to pay you?"

 

Video Course - How To Market   For Commercial Loans

 

Betty White's World

 

Earn 25.4% Annual Yield - Attorney Sponsor in Business For 39 years


The commercial lender will look back at the loan origination points that he charged, the interest rate on the loan, the prepayment penalty, any exit fee, and the size of the balloon payment to make sure that he has earned a certain minimum annual return.  This look-back yield is all agreed to in advance between the lender and the borrower, so there is no sneakiness here.

"You know you're too high when you're eating cereal naked, and your girlfriend says, 'Put your clothes on,' and then you realize it's not your girlfriend.  It's some woman on a bus.” -- Dov Davidoff

 

Nine-Hour Video Training Course  How to Broker Commercial Loans

Game of Loans

 

Don't Be Afraid of First Trust Deeds  We've Sold Them For Almost 40 Years

 

Why would a lender add a look-back yield requirement (minimum annual return) to a commercial loan?

Let's suppose a lender makes a commercial loan to a borrower who specializes in flipping rundown apartment building.  It's a super-risky deal.  The note rate was 8% interest.  There were three loan origination points to the bridge lender, ten discount points to the bridge lender's mortgage fund, and a five-point exit fee.  Since the term of this commercial loan was scheduled to be just two years, the lender expected to earn over 17% annually.

But a problem developed.  The existing apartment tenants refused to move out, so the apartment builder flipper had to spend 18 months in court to finally evict them.  Then he was finally able to start the two-year project of renovating and selling the building.  Even though the flipper was 18 months late in paying off his balloon, the lender saw no point in foreclosing of him because the flipper was very competent, and he moving as fast as he legally could.

 

Apply For a Commercial Loan to Blackburne & Sons

 

Invisible Tape

 

Free Commercial Loan Placement Kit

 

Free List of 3,159 Commercial Lenders  Sort By Your Own Criteria

 

When the loan finally paid off 18 months past maturity, the lender realized that he had gotten seriously shafted.  During that extra 18 months, the lender had earned just 8%, which was the nominal rate, and not 17%.  The nominal rate is the rate on the face of the note.

His yield was thereby diluted by the delay in the balloon payment to just 14.5%.  Had the high-cost bridge lender included a minimum look-back yield provision, he would have earned the 17% that he was expecting. 

 

Submit Your Loan to 750 Commercial   Lenders Using C-Loans.com.  It's Free!

 

Free Kittens

 

Free List of 200   Commercial Lenders

 

One day, when a golfer was playing golf on a famous golf course in Mumbai, some tourists pointed and said, "Tiger Woods!! Tiger Woods!!” The golfer was feeling pretty cocky because he had indeed just hit a great shot… until a tiger came out of the woods. 

 

Money Tight?  200-Page Income Property Underwriting Manual - $199

 

Electric Fence

 

Are You a Developer?  Is Your   Construction Lender Requiring More Equity?

 

Subscribe To Blog

 

Topics: Look-back yield