Urban Property Investor

I have been exploring real estate marketing techniques lately and discovered a free and easy way to get exposure for your rental properties.  Ever heard of Blogger.com?  Well, it’s a great method to market your rentals.  Here is a great example of such use.  “Condominium for Rent in Downtown Bellevue” Check it out.  It includes a link to the condominium website, the description of the unit being offered and a floor plan.  In addition, it also has a great layout.  So for your next property, without the need to buy a domain name, one could make a blog hosted on Blogger for free and with little effort. For more information about marketing of properties, please continue to check out UrbanPropertyInvestor.com, your leading resource for property investing tips.

This is part one of our ongoing series: All About Property Transfers.

A Quit Claim Deed is basically a method to transfer real property without any type of warranty.  Usually quit claim deeds are used to transfer real estate to heirs at no cost, or some other type of no cost structure, such as divorce settlements and so forth.  Another situation one may use such a deed is for a spouse to disclaim his/her interests that the other spouse owns.  One can also use quit claim deeds to transfer property to one’s corporate entity like an LLC.  Usually, depending on the jurisdiction, the assessor’s office will only charge a small fee for such recording.  For convenience sake, many companies offer forms for sale, so one doesn’t have to avoid costly attorney fees to settle such transactions.

For more information about quit claim deeds and property transfers, please continue to check out UrbanPropertyInvestor.com for the latest in property investment news and resources.

Restaurants are one of the riskier, yet highly profitable businesses to be in these days.  To be the real estate partner of a restaurant is a solid investment as even if the space has quick turnover, there is sure to be another tenant who has ambition to be a successful food service operator.  Thus, retail spaces that come with all the commercial kitchen FF&E have more demand than supply.  For example, I helped a client list a commercial kitchen and I got over 20 expressions of interest within the first day.  There are many potential groups of tenants: coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, catering companies, food preperation companies, etc.

Yet, if one wants to lease out a space for restaurant usage, especially for high-end ones, there usually is a lot of tenant improvements or build-to-suits that need to be done.  And for those to be done successfully, one must enlist the talents of a skilled architecture firm with good solid work in the restaurant field.  Recently, I have been reading Commercial Construction News and they have listed the following as the top 10 restaurant architects, in terms of billings:

10th… EDG Interior Architecture + Design
9th… Cuningham Group Architecture
8th… Stantec Architecture
7th… CASCO Diversified
6th… CMA
5th… Cubellis
4th… Chipman Adams Architects
3rd… Greenberg Farrow
2nd… Leo A Daly
1st… WD Partners

Overall, for your retail property, having a food related tenant is a good component of the tenant mix and keeps your pool of tenants diversified, so that if one market segment fails you are still covered.  And as an owner of the property, especially large scale shopping centers and other retail properties, it is essential to have design and construction standards that are consistent with the value of your property.

This is part 4 of our ongoing series, Top Commercial Architects.  I continue to read Commercial Construction News and they provided the following for top 10 architects in the hospitality sector.  Hotels, especially need good design in order to attract guests and get the highest daily room rate in your market segment.  The following architects should have a high level of speciality with hospitality projects:

10th place… RTKL Associates
9th place… Hnedak Bobo
8th place… Cooper Carry
7th place… TVS Design
6th place… BBG-BBGM
5th place… BLT Architects
4th place… Leo A Daly
3rd place… Pro Con
2nd place… WATG
1st place… HKS

For your hospitality investment, I wish you the best of luck.  Overall, architecture is one of the more important areas your customers will look for.

This is part 3 of our ongoing series, Top Commercial Architects.  Today, we will talk about top architects that have top 10 billings in the retail field according to the Commercial Construction Magazine.

10th place… Design of the Interior
9th place… Nadel Architecture
8th place… FRCH Design Worldwide
7th place… Little
6th place… Stantec Architecture
5th place… Cubellis
4th place… Perkowitz + Ruth Architects
3rd place… WD Partners
2nd place… Greenberg Farrow
1st place… RTKL Associates

These 10 architects have actively been engaged in the retail sector.  They should have a decent amount of work in their portfolio and may be a solid choice to consult with for your retail project.

This is part two of our ongoing series, Top Commercial Architects.  Now, once again, why are architects important to urban property investors?  Essentially, without them buildings can’t be built and nobody could invest in improved real estate, other than buying and selling land.  This time they will be ranked by the number of total projects.  Once again, this listing was based on Commercial Construction Magazine.

10th place was Baskervill.  9th place was Leo A Daly.  8th place was Interplan.  7th place was CMA.  6th place was Fitch.  5th place was SSOE.  4th place was Little.  3rd place was WD Partners.  2nd place was FRCH Design Worldwide.  And last but not least, 1st place was Stantec Architecture.

In many cases, I have noticed that good architecture will lead to high return on investments.   Total number of projects can indicate the popularity of an architect. For your commercial architectual needs, I would recommend contacting a reputable architect in your area to help you design the building of your dreams.  Good luck!

I was reading Commerical Construction Magazine and I noticed they had a section about “Top Commercial Architects.”  Architects are essential to every real estate project.  Without them there would be no real design.  No real marketable selling point.  So the following is a list of top 10 commercial architects in terms of total billings.   Tenth on the list is Cooper Carry.  Ninth is TVS Design.  Eighth is Cubellis.  Seventh is WATG.  Sixath is RTKL Associates.  Fifth on the list is DLR Group.  Fourth is Pro Con.  Third is Stantec Architecture.  Second is Leo A Daly and the first is HKS.  Many of these firms appear to have offices internationally and many within the United States.  Although they are large, they should still have a localized regional approach to doing things.

For more information about architects for your real estate projects, I would suggest contacting a reputable licensed firm in your area.  Associations like the AIA are a great place to start.  Many areas have local chapters of such association.

Good List of Appraisers and Valuation Advisors

I was reading the CPN this morning and I noticed a great list of appraisers and valuation providers they have provided.  Appraisers are people who specialize in reviewing properties and then providing an estimate of how much the property is worth in comparison to other comparable properties in the market area.  In their ranking system, the first was Intergra Realty Resources, Inc.  The second was CB Richard Ellis Inc.  The third was Marshall & Stevens Inc.  The fourth was Duff & Phelps L.L.C.  The fifth was Binswanger Corp.  The sixth was Henry S. Miller Consulting L.L.C.  Seventh was Axial Advisory L.L.C.  The eighth was GVA Kidder Mathews, based in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and the ninth was Curtis-Rosenthal Inc. 

For more information about the value of your property or to find a good appraiser for your property, I would suggest contacting a professional in your area.

I was reading the March/April 2009 issue of Apartment Finance Today and saw a great list of the top 10 multifamily lenders.

In 10^th place was GE Real Estate who processed about $3.3 billion in loans.  Ninth place was PNC Real Estate Finance.  8^th place was KeyBank Real Estate Capital.  In seventh was Prudential Mortgage Capital.  Sixth place was Credit Suisse.  Fifth was Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.  Forth was Capmark Financial Group, Inc.  Third was Deutsche Bank Commercial Real Estate.  Second was Washington Mutual Bank (now a part of J.P. Morgan Chase) and the top multifamily lender was Wachovia was a volume of over $20.6 billion.

For more information about multi-family lending, I would suggest contacting a professional in your area who specializes in multi-family residential loans.

This is part one of our ongoing series – Boutique Apartments around the World.

Boutique apartments have becoming a trend in many places around the world.  The major selling point of such apartments is convenience.  They are typically located in infill locations in hustling and bustling commercial districts.  For example in Hong Kong recently, there have been a series of new and popular boutique apartment projects that have been quite successful.  For example, there is the SOHO 38 in the Mid-Levels Central, located right next to the escalator that takes one up and down the Central Mid-Levels and to major hangout locations like Lan Kwai Fong and SOHO.  Another project on Hong Kong Island is J-residence, located in Wan Chai, close to Admiralty, Pacific Place and the Central Business District.  Developers, such as K. Wah and Chinese Estates, in conjunction with the Urban Renewal Authority, have been successfully rolling out luxury infill boutique apartments throughout the Wan Chai area.  Again, the major selling point is convenience.  In the Kowloon side of Hong Kong, there have been quite a few new additions to the game, including Cite 38 and City 18, located near Prince Edward and Jordan MTR stations, respectively.  Both are developed by Henderson Development and prove to be quite popular.  Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong’s largest developer is currently marketing Bedford 28, a hip boutique complex near Mong Kok and West Kowloon.  Overall, boutique apartments are becoming quite popular in Hong Kong, especially for the new growing yuppie class.  As people wait longer to get married and have kids, the yuppie class will have extra income to spend on luxuries they deserve.

For more information about boutique apartments in Hong Kong, I would recommend contacting an estate agent or another professional who specializes in such market segment.  I also suggest checking out our affiliate blog, West Kowloon Properties for more information on real estate pertaining to West Kowloon, Hong Kong.