Writing adverts and marketing material in commercial real estate is critically important in that you have to capture the attention and the mind of the prospective buyer or tenant. Marketing a property today is now even more specialised in that we have more channels to ‘spread the word’. The internet is fast becoming the advertising channel of choice to get the message out.

Here are some processes to improve your copywriting processes in the promotion of investment property.

AIDA

One golden rule of designing marketing material is AIDA. It has been used by many over the years and is well known in the advertising trade. It helps significantly when you design an advert to promote a commercial property for sale or lease. When you know who or where your target market is for the property then you can use the AIDA formula with great effect. It should also be the rule behind the design of all your property:

Signboards Brochures Banners E-brochures Flyers Direct mail

Essentially AIDA means the following:

Attention – the top of the advert is designed with a headline to grab the reader’s attention. Interest – when you have the attention of the reader you must extend their reading with something of interest. This is the detailed part of the advert. Desire – in this area you put in some elements of desire to make the reader want to have the property. This must be emotional and play to the basic human desires. Simply use the Maslow’s Hierarchy charts to determine which emotion you will write the advert to and attract. Action – at the base of the advert you should always close on a call to action. Make it easy for people to find and contact you with any questions. This call to action close will be something like ‘call me now on phone XXXXXXX’.

In this order of AIDA you can design a great piece of marketing material or advertisement.

Advert Content

Given the previous comments, any advert should be built with and around the following information:

Type of property sale or lease (e.g. Auction, Sale, Tender etc) Timing of Sale or availability Name of Property, Identity Major Selling Point or points Type of Property Location detail Photograph or Drawing (optional and subject to budget) Agents Company, Logo, Address Salespersons Name, and Contact telephone Advert Size vs. content

Golden rule of Advertising: Always be factual – never speculate. Speculative claims are misleading and can come back to haunt you later through legal dispute.

Editorial

A good Editorial for commercial real estate should always accompany the advert ‘roll-out’ of a notable or different property when it is released for sale. If the property is unique in some way, it will always be of interest to the media. The subsequent running of an Editorial costs nothing and is of high value to your campaign. Expect the media to change whatever Editorial text you give them, but make sure that you give them all the facts that will make your property interesting to the readers. Develop a sense for what is news and emotion for the readers. Adopt the following strategies when making editorial part of your property promotion plans:

‘Think like a Great Reporter’

Contact the media several weeks before the advert release to give them a brief of your upcoming sale. Give the facts, including the details of that might spark the reporter to follow the story and sale further. Look at angles with the property dealing with history, human interest, and geography. Understand deadlines and timetables. A weekly paper or property section usually has an early cut-off for content deadline. Make sure the information for your property gets to the paper before that deadline and do a follow-up check with a telephone call to the reporter. Develop a one-on-one relationship with the media in your area. It always has great benefit. Understand their target audiences and thereby the content that they prefer to use. Play to the topics that are of special interest to your media contacts. When you help them sell papers, then you are their ‘friend for life’.

‘Package your Press Release’

The following guidelines should apply to writing your editorial:

Use a ‘slug line’ to capture attention. This is a brief description of the property. Put it in the upper left hand corner of the page Place your agency detail, name and telephone number as a contact in the upper right hand corner. This allows the editor to contact you easily when they need more information. Use the ‘who, what, where, when, why’ format in writing. Editors cut stories from the bottom up, depending on their space requirements, so include the most important facts at the front of the story. Give property and regional facts in your content. Numbers, history, names, all have interest to the reader. This says that you must do your research for a great property editorial. Use the element with widest commercial real estate appeal in your lead statements. This approach makes the editorial look less like a publicity ploy and more like legitimate news. Always double space your story and try to confine it to one page. Simplicity and interest are the keys to a great editorial. If you must write two pages of content for the editorial then centre the word ‘more’ at the bottom of the first page. The editor will know that there is a second page somewhere to follow up on (you would be surprised how many second pages go missing in the editors office). Imagine that you are the reader of the editorial. What would make the most impact on the reader locally? Remember that you want to attract a certain target market for the property and the editorial should be designed with this in mind. At the bottom of your last page centre ’30′ or the symbol ‘###’ to signify the end. This is media ‘jargon’ to state that there is no more detail to follow.

By: John Highman

About the Author:

Planning to purchase or finance Commercial or Industrial Real Estate? Shopping Center? Office Building? Restaurant/Banquet property? Parking Lot? Storefront? Gas Station? Manufacturing facility? Warehouse? Logistics Terminal? Medical Building? Nursing Home? Hotel/Motel? Pharmacy? Bank facility? Sports and Entertainment Arena? Other?

A KEY to investing in commercial real estate is performing an adequate Due Diligence Investigation to assure you know all material facts to make a wise investment decision and to calculate your expected investment yield.

The following checklists are designed to help you conduct a focused and meaningful Due Diligence Investigation.

Basic Due Diligence Concepts:

Commercial Real Estate transactions are NOT similar to large home purchases.

Caveat Emptor: Let the Buyer beware.

Consumer protection laws applicable to home purchases seldom apply to commercial real estate transactions. The rule that a Buyer must examine, judge, and test for himself, applies to the purchase of commercial real estate.

Due Diligence: “Such a measure of prudence, activity, or assiduity, as is proper to be expected from, and ordinarily exercised by, a reasonable and prudent [person] under the particular circumstances; not measured by any absolute standard, but depending upon the relative facts of the special case.” Black’s Law Dictionary; West Publishing Company.

Contractual representations and warranties are NOT a substitute for Due Diligence.

Breach of representations and warranties = Litigation, time and money.

WHAT DILIGENCE IS DUE?

The scope, intensity and focus of any due diligence investigation of commercial or industrial real estate depends upon the objectives of the party for whom the investigation is conducted. These objectives may vary depending upon whether the investigation is conducted for the benefit of (i) a Strategic Buyer (or long-term lessee); (ii) a Financial Buyer; (iii) a Developer; or (iv) a Lender.

If you are a Seller, understand that to close the transaction your Buyer (and its Lender) must address all issues material to its objective – some of which require information only you, as Owner, can adequately provide.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES:

(i) A “Strategic Buyer” (or long-term lessee) is acquiring the property for its own use and must verify that the property is suitable for that intended use.

(ii) A “Financial Buyer” is acquiring the property for the expected return on investment generated by the property’s income stream, and must determine the amount, velocity and durability of the revenue stream. A sophisticated Financial Buyer will likely calculate its yield based upon discounted cash-flows rather than the must less precise capitalization rate (“cap rate”), and will need adequate financial information to do so.

(iii) A “Developer” is seeking to add value by changing the character or use of the property – usually with a short-term to intermediate-term exit strategy to dispose of the property; although, a Developer might plan to hold the property long term as Financial Buyer after development or redevelopment. The Developer must focus on whether the planned change is character or use can be accomplished in a cost-effective manner. A developer conducting due diligence will focus on issues involving market demand, access, use and finances.

(iv) A “Lender” is seeking to establish two basic lending criteria:

1. “Ability to Repay” – The ability of the property to generate sufficient revenue to repay the loan on a timely basis; and

2. “Sufficiency of Collateral” – The objective disposal value of the collateral in the event of a loan default, to assure adequate funds to repay the loan, carrying costs and costs of collection in the event forced collection becomes necessary.

The amount of diligent inquiry due to be expended (i.e. “Due Diligence”) to investigate any particular commercial or industrial real estate project is the amount of inquiry required to answer each of the following questions to the extent relevant to the objectives of the party conducting the investigation:

I. THE PROPERTY:

1. Exactly what PROPERTY does Purchaser believe it is acquiring?

(a) Land?

(b) Building?

(c) Fixtures?

(d) Other Improvements?

(e) Other Rights?

(f) The entire fee title interest including all air rights and subterranean rights?

(g) All development rights?

2. What is Purchaser’s planned use of the Property?

3. Does the physical condition of the Property permit use as planned?

(a) Commercially adequate access to public streets and ways?

(b) Sufficient parking?

(c) Structural condition of improvements?

(d) Environmental contamination?

(i) Innocent Purchaser defense vs. exemption from liability

(ii) All Appropriate Inquiry

4. Is there any legal restriction to Purchaser’s use of the Property as planned?

(a) Zoning?

(b) Private land use controls?

(c) Americans with Disabilities Act?

(d) Availability of licenses?

(i) Liquor license?

(ii) Entertainment license?

(iii) Outdoor dining license?

(iv) Drive through windows permitted?

(e) Other impediments?

5. How much does Purchaser expect to pay for the property?

6. Is there any condition on or within the Property that is likely to increase Purchaser’s effective cost to acquire or use the Property?

(a) Property owner’s assessments?

(b) Real estate tax in line with value?

(c) Special Assessment?

(d) Required user fees for necessary amenities?

(i) Drainage?

(ii) Access?

(iii) Parking?

(iv) Other?

7. Any encroachments onto the Property, or from the Property onto other lands?

8. Are there any encumbrances on the Property that will not be cleared at Closing?

(a) Easements?

(b) Covenants Running with the Land?

(c) Liens or other financial servitudes?

(d) Leases?

9. Leases?

(a) Security Deposits?

(b) Options to Extend Term?

(c) Options to Purchase?

(d) Rights of First Refusal?

(e) Rights of First Offer?

(f) Maintenance Obligations?

(g) Duty on Landlord to provide utilities?

(h) Real estate tax or CAM escrows?

(i) Delinquent rent?

(j) Pre-Paid rent?

(k) Tenant mix/use controls?

(l) Tenant exclusives?

(m) Tenant parking requirements?

(n) Automatic subordination of Lease to future mortgages?

(o) Other material Lease terms?

10. New Construction?

(a) Availability of construction permits?

(b) Utilities?

(c) NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) Permit?

(i) Phase 2 effective March 2003 – Permit required if earth is disturbed on one acre or more of land.

(ii) If applicable, Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) is required.

II. THE SELLER:

1. Who is the Seller?

(a) Individual?

(b) Trust?

(c) Partnership?

(d) Corporation?

(e) Limited Liability Company?

(f) Other legally existing entity?

2. If other than natural person, does Seller validly exist and is Seller in good standing?

3. Does the Seller own the Property?

4. Does Seller have authority to convey the Property?

(a) Board of Director Approvals?

(b) Shareholder or Member approval?

(c) Other consents?

(d) If foreign individual or entity, are any special requirements applicable?

(i) Qualification to do business in jurisdiction of Property?

(ii) Federal Tax Withholding?

(iii) US Patriot Act compliance?

5. Who has authority to bind Seller?

6. Are sale proceeds sufficient to pay off all liens?

III. THE PURCHASER:

1. Who is the Purchaser?

2. What is the Purchaser/Grantee’s exact legal name?

3. If Purchaser/Grantee is an entity, has it been validly created and is it in good standing?

(a) Articles or Incorporation – Articles of Organization

(b) Certificate of Good Standing

4. Is Purchaser/Grantee authorized to own and operate the Property and, if applicable, finance acquisition of the Property?

(a) Board of Director Approvals?

(b) Shareholder or Member approval?

(c) If foreign individual or entity, are any special requirements applicable?

(i) Qualification to do business in jurisdiction of the Property?

(ii) US Patriot Act compliance?

(iii) Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering compliance?

5. Who is authorized to bind the Purchaser/Grantee?

IV. PURCHASER FINANCING:

A. BUSINESS TERMS OF THE LOAN:

What loan terms have the Purchaser, as Borrower, and its Lender agreed to?

(a) What is the amount of the loan?

(b) What is the interest rate?

(c) What are the repayment terms?

(d) What is the collateral?

(i) Commercial real estate only?

(ii) Real estate and personal property together?

(e) First lien? A junior lien?

(f) Is it a single advance loan?

(g) A multiple advance loan?

(h) A construction loan?

(i) If it is a multiple advance loan, can the principal be re-borrowed once repaid prior to maturity of the loan; making it, in effect, a revolving line of credit?

(j) Are there reserve requirements?

(i) Interest reserves?

(ii) Repair reserves?

(iii) Real estate tax reserves?

(iv) Insurance reserves?

(v) Environmental remediation reserves?

(vi) Other reserves?

(k) Are there requirements for Borrower to open business operating accounts with the Lender? If so, is the Borrower obligated to maintain minimum compensating balances?

(l) Is the Borrower required to pledge business accounts as additional collateral?

(m) Are there early repayment fees or yield maintenance requirements (each sometimes referred to as “pre-payment penalties”)?

(n) Are there repayment blackout periods during which Borrower is not permitted to repay the loan?

(o) Is there a Loan Commitment fee or “good faith deposit” due upon Borrower’s acceptance of the Loan Commitment?

(p) Is there a loan funding fee or loan brokerage fee or other loan fee due Lender or a loan broker at closing?

(q) What are the Borrower’s expense reimbursement obligations to Lender? When are they due? What is the Borrower’s obligation to pay Lender’s expenses if the loan does not close?

B. DOCUMENTING THE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE LOAN

Does Purchaser have all information necessary to comply with the Lender’s loan closing requirements?

Not all loan documentation requirements may be known at the outset of a transaction, although most commercial real estate loan documentation requirements are fairly typical. Some required information can be obtained only from the Seller. Production of that information to Purchaser for delivery to its lender must be required in the purchase contract.

As guidance to what a commercial real estate lender may require, the following sets forth a typical Closing Checklist for a loan secured by commercial real estate.

Commercial Real Estate Loan Closing Checklist

1. Promissory Note

2. Personal Guaranties (which may be full, partial, secured, unsecured, payment guaranties, collection guaranties or a variety of other types of guarantees as may be required by Lender).

3. Loan Agreement (often incorporated into the Promissory Note and/or Mortgage in lieu of being a separate document)

4. Mortgage [sometimes expanded to be a Mortgage, Security Agreement and Fixture Filing]

5. Assignment of Rents and Leases

6. Security Agreement

7. Financing Statement (sometimes referred to as a “UCC-1″, or “Initial Filing”)

8. Evidence of Borrower’s Existence In Good Standing; including

(a) Certified copy of organizational documents of borrowing entity (including Articles of Incorporation, if Borrower is a corporation; Articles of Organization and written Operating Agreement, if Borrower is a limited liability company; Certified copy of trust agreement with all amendments, if Borrower is a land trust or other trust; etc.)

(b) Certificate of Good Standing (if a corporation or LLC) or Certificate of Existence (if a limited partnership) or Certificate of Qualification to Transact Business (if Borrower is an entity doing business in a State other than its State of formation)

9. Evidence of Borrower’s Authority to Borrow; including

(a) a Borrower’s Certificate;

(b) Certified Resolutions

(c) Incumbency Certificate

10. Satisfactory Commitment for Title Insurance (which will typically require, for analysis by the Lender, copies of all documents of record appearing on Schedule B of the title commitment which are to remain after closing), with required commercial title insurance endorsements, often including:

(a) Affirmative Creditors Rights Endorsement (extending coverage over policy exclusion 7 and policy exclusions 3(a) and 3(d) as they relate to creditor’s rights matters)

(b) ALTA 3.1 Zoning Endorsement modified to include parking

(c) ALTA Comprehensive Endorsement 1

(d) Location Endorsement (street address)

(e) Access Endorsement (vehicular access to public streets and ways)

(f) Contiguity Endorsement (the insured land comprises a single parcel with no gaps or gores)

(g) PIN Endorsement (insuring that the identified real estate tax permanent index numbers are the only applicable PIN numbers affecting the collateral and that they relate solely to the real property comprising the collateral)

(h) Usury Endorsement (insuring that the loan does not violate any prohibitions against excessive interest charges)

(i) other title insurance endorsements applicable to protect the intended use and value of the collateral, as may be determined upon review of the Commitment for Title Insurance and Survey or arising from the existence of special issues pertaining to the transaction or the Borrower.

11. Current ALTA Survey (3 sets), [typically prepared in accordance with 2005 Minimum Standard Detail for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys, certified to the lender, Buyer and the title insurer, including items 1 through 4, 6, 7(a), 7(b)(1), 8 through 11(a) and 14 from the Surveyor's "Optional Survey Responsibilities and Specifications" referred to as "Table A"].

12. Current Rent Roll

13. Certified copy of all Leases (3 sets)

14. Lessee Estoppel Certificates

15. Lessee Subordination, Non-Disturbance and Attornment Agreements [sometimes referred to simply as "SNDAs"].

16. UCC, Judgment, Pending Litigation, Bankruptcy and Tax Lien Search Report

17. Appraisal (must comply with Title XI of FIRREA (Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, as amended)

18. Environmental Site Assessment Report (sometimes referred to as Environmental Phase I and/or Phase 2 Audit Reports)

19. Environmental Indemnity Agreement (signed by Borrower and guarantors)

20. Site Improvements Inspection Report

21. Evidence of Hazard Insurance naming Lender as the Mortgagee/Lender Loss Payee; and Liability Insurance naming Lender as an “additional insured” (sometimes listed as simply “Acord 27 and Acord 25, respectively)

22. Legal Opinion of Borrower’s Attorney

23. Credit Underwriting documents, such as signed tax returns, property operating statements, etc. as may be specified by Lender

24. Compliance Agreement (sometimes also called an Errors and Omissions Agreement), whereby the Borrower agrees to correct, after closing, errors or omissions in loan documentation.

It is useful to become familiar with the Lender’s loan documentation requirements as early in the transaction as practical. The requirements will likely be set forth with some detail in the lender’s Loan Commitment – which is typically much more detailed than most loan commitments issued in residential transactions.

Conducting the Due Diligence Investigation in a commercial real estate transaction can be time consuming and expensive in all events.

If the loan requirements cannot be satisfied, it is better to make that determination during the contractual “due diligence period” – which typically provides for a so-called “free out” – rather than at a later date when the earnest money may be at risk of forfeiture or when other liability for failure to close may attach.

CONCLUSION

Conducting an effective due diligence investigation in a commercial real estate transaction to discover all material facts and conditions affecting the Property and the transaction is of critical importance.

Unlike owner occupied residential real estate, when a house can nearly always be occupied as the purchaser’s home, commercial real estate acquired for business use or for investment is impacted by numerous factors that may affect its use and value.

The existence of these factors and their affect on a Purchaser’s ability to use the Property for its intended use and on the Purchaser’s projected investment yield can only be discovered through diligent investigation and attention to detail.

The circumstances of each transaction will determine what degree of diligence is required. The level of diligence required under the circumstances is the diligence that is due.

Exercise Due Diligence.

By: R. Kymn Harp

About the Author:

Consumer Price Index (CPI): It is the measure of inflation as experienced by urban consumers. CPI is more well-known among senior citizens as their Social Security benefit checks are adjusted to the CPI on January to keep pace with inflation. While most commercial real estate leases have fixed annual rent increases, e.g. 2%, some have annual rent increases based on the CPI. Therefore, knowing what CPI is and how to calculate it is an important factor in making a sound investment decision.

The US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics collects data about costs of various things from 87 urban areas in the US. The data is published each month and available from the website stats.bls.gov. The CPI varies for different regions: Northeast urban, Midwest urban, South urban, West urban, US city average, as well as 14 major metro areas.

So, knowing which CPI stated in the lease will enable an investor to correctly calculate the rent increase. For example, the CPI for US city average was 190.9 in Oct 2004 and 199.2 in October 2005. This reflects a 4.3% increase for the above period or in another words, the inflation was 4.3% during that period. So if the rent from October 2004 to September 2005 was $1000/month and the lease has CPI-based rent increase, then the new rent from October 2005 to September 2006 would be $1043 a month or 4.3% higher. The CPI fluctuates from time to time. When there is no inflation, the CPI is zero and thus there is no rent increase. It could also be negative during a deflationary period which in turn will translate to rent reduction for the tenant.

Cost of Living Index (COLI): COLI is a number that indicates the relative cost of living in various cities in the US with 100 being the average. Employers often increase an employee’s salary when they relocate the employee to a city with higher COLI. The COLI is weighted according to percent of income spent on groceries (12.49%), housing (29.84%), utilities (9.94%), transportation (10.73%), healthcare (4.07%) and others (32.93%). You could obtain the indexes for various cities from http://www.infoplease.com/business/economy/cost-living-index-us-cities.html.

The website http://www.bankrate.com has a COLI comparison calculator for over 300 US cities which provides the costs of 60 various items in each city. In 2007, the COLI for San Francisco was 169.5 while Dallas was only 91.5. This means you would have had to earn 85% (169.5 minus 91.5 then divide by 91.5) more in San Francisco to maintain the same lifestyle in Dallas. Most of the costs will be higher in San Francisco, e.g. housing is 285% higher (housing index is 278.3 in San Francisco and 72.3 in Dallas), some expenses may be lower, e.g. utilities are 11% cheaper in San Francisco compared to Dallas (utilities index is 88.1 in San Francisco and 98.9 in Dallas).

An investor often reviews demographic data of a city where the property is located and generally prefers to invest in areas that are more affluent. However, looking at data of the Average Household Income (AHI) alone does not give you the whole picture. Let’s assume you are an investor in the San Francisco Bay Area and you want to see how the AHI in Plano (Dallas metro) is compared with San Francisco income. You will have a better perspective if you adjust the AHI in Plano to the Cost of Living Index and then compare with the AHI in the San Francisco Bay Area. For example if the AHI is $100K a year in Plano, it would be equivalent to $185,000 in San Francisco. With this adjusted income, you know that Plano is an upper middle class area.

By: David V. Tran

About the Author: