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Evaluate Tenants and Reduce Your Risk

Evaluate Tenants and Reduce Your Risk

We own an office building on Long Island that houses our own offices, as well as several tenants. We recently had a tenant close his doors after only a single year of occupancy. How do we avoid this in the future? As a landlord, you will be investing thousands of dollars in securing a new tenant...

Six Essentials in Acquiring Real Estate

Six Essentials in Acquiring Real Estate

We need to expand our office and warehouse and find ourselves back in the real estate market for the first time in 10 years. What are the most important guidelines that you can give us? I have been exclusively representing companies for many decades, guiding them in the acquisition of commercial...

Save Big with Section 1031 Exchange

Save Big with Section 1031 Exchange

I own the building that houses my construction business. We are considering purchasing a larger building and moving. My broker suggested a 1031 exchange. How does that work and is it worth the effort? It is absolutely worth considering in your situation. Briefly, it allows you to “kick the can...

Maintaining Flat Roofs & Your Sanity

Maintaining Flat Roofs & Your Sanity

We spent a significant amount of money to repair the flat roof on our commercial building about four years ago. It is already leaking again. How do we maintain our roof and our sanity? The major problem with flat roofs is that they are flat! This means there is often an opportunity for water and...

Why Not-for-Profits Should Buy Real Estate

Why Not-for-Profits Should Buy Real Estate

Our organization is not-for-profit and we are leasing space that we now have outgrown. Does it make sense for us to consider the purchase of new office space? I would answer with a resounding, “Yes!” There are many factors that contribute to whether any organization should buy or lease a property,...

Gotchas

Gotchas

We need to relocate our offices in the next year, and think we have most of the bases covered. Are there any common mistakes that you see on a consistent basis that we may be missing?  I could probably fill a book with the mistakes that I have seen (and made) in relocating businesses. Larger...

Generating Cash with a Sale/Leaseback

Generating Cash with a Sale/Leaseback

Our business has owned and occupied a small office building for over 15 years, and we are considering refi­nancing. Would there be an advantage to a sale-leaseback over refinancing? Each method, refinancing and a sale-leaseback, have different advantages and disadvantages and neither is the...

General Contacting or Construction Management?

General Contacting or Construction Management?

We will be closing on an industrial building shortly, and will need to reconstruct approximately 12,000 square feet of office space. I have heard that Construction Management is a better way to build. Is it, and how does it work? There are two major ways to hire a contracting company to work for...

Maintaining Your Property Like a Professional

Maintaining Your Property Like a Professional

Our firm is not large enough to employ a full-time property manager for the building we own. Do you have guideline or checklists that one of our senior managers could use to make sure everything is completed in a timely manner? You do not have to have a full-time property manager to maintain your...

Useable and Rentable Square Feet

Useable and Rentable Square Feet

Brokers seem to quote space as both useable and rentable square footage. What is the difference between useable and rentable square feet, and how are they both calculated? The space that a tenant can actually use is called “useable”, or sometimes “carpetable,” square footage. This may be very...