creiZ about Real Estate

JPMorgan is buying Bear Stearns for the price that non-performing 2nd liens (notes) and HELOC portfolios are trading for. Incredible! And the fed is helping make it happen. Sweet deal!

JPMorgan is acquiring Bear Stearns at a huge discount of $2 per share. On Friday the stock closed at $30 per share.

Anybody else have a billion dollar company that they are looking to sell for 7 cents on the dollar? I have buyers for opportunistic investments!

Tags: non-performingnotes, discounted properties, distressed assets, bear sterns, JPMorgan, distressed companies, discounted assets, NPL, REOs, illiquid assets, opportunistic investments, vulture investing, pennies on the dollar, opportunistic investment,

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

OK, YouTube isn't so secret, but for much of the commercial real estate world, it seems like it is a secret except for Scott Smith, CCIM. In the November/December 2007 issue of Commercial Investment Real Estate (the CCIM Institute's magazine), Scott discusses how he uses YouTube:

Using this site for marketing has helped Smith broaden his audience and appeal to younger customers who now use Web-based programs on a daily basis, he explains. “Now I have calls and e-mails from all over the country requesting educational, consulting, and brokerage services,” Smith says.

Can't beat that! As you may have seen, I've used real estate videos before, but not to the extent that Scott. Looks like it is time to start shooting more videos...

So what do you think, will YouTube take over commercial real estate marketing? 

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

from the Houston Business Journal: Google "late Monday added street-level views of Houston, Orlando, Fla., Los Angeles and San Diego to its worldwide mapping project."

Google says the pictures are useful. People shopping for real estate can look at homes and neighborhoods, for example, the company says."

Houston is one of nine U.S. metropolitan areas and the only Texas city with Street Views so far."

comment: It would be interesting to see how much more real estate will be sold purely online in these areas. Real estate investors (companies and individuals) have been doing it for a while now, but consumers are just starting to get into it. My guess is that there will definitely be an increase in purely online real estate sales especially since most contracts have an inspection contingency. Now if we could only have closings online, that would be great!

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I just saw this in the Baltimore Business Journal online and thought it would be of interest. The Superblock is an area "consisting of 51 properties comprising 3.6 acres, the superblock is bounded by the 100 block of Clay Street and 200 block of West Lexington Street on the north, West Fayette Street on the south, North Liberty Street on the east, and the 100 block of North Howard Street on the west in the Market Center Urban Renewal Area." (source) Here's a link to the map of the Superblock.

It will be interesting to see what actually happens with this... BTW, anyone interested in submitting a proposal for part of the Superblock? Let me know. We have until 1 August 2007.

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I recently an article in the Global Real Estate Monitor titles "Counting on rent increases and value-added plays. Firstly, what drew me to the article was the title and the fact that it had value-add plays in it because those of are the types of properties I am looking for. Unfortunately though, it seems that more and more people are starting to use the term to classify many other real estate parcels that are not really value-add plays, but that's a blog post for another day... As I was saying I read through the article and came across the last paragraph, which follows:

“The value play is like a marriage, it’s in the eyes of the beholder,” says David Cohen, the Northeast Regional Director with GE Real Estate’s North America Lending Group in New York. “The sophisticated value-added buyers have some distinctive insight and knowledge, seeing something that somebody else did not, and because of that, they are going to be able to create value over the short or medium term to enhance the asset.”

So now as I reread the paragraph, maybe I understand why the term value-add is being used more often. It's because in the eyes of the seller, it looks like a value-add play. Which really begs the question: Why isn't the seller taking advantage of the value-add opp? Does it really matter? Yes, because if the seller is not interested because they realized that, for example, it was going to be impossible to get a zoning change after they bought the property (which they probably shouldn't have bought in the first place), then that is a good bit of information to know. And when I think about, in this case, the seller shouln't even mention that it is a value add play...

So is anyone out there looking for value-add plays? Or does anyone have any value-add opps? I am mainly interested in ugly value-adds, managing them and finding institutional investors that are looking for value-add plays...

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was just reading the "Welcome to Metropolis" article in Retail Traffic magazine. The article states that "MacFarlane already has 2.2 billion to invest. Meanwhile, DLC Management Corp. Has joined with G.L. Blackstone & Associates to form DLC UrbanCore LLC and is sitting on $100 million in capital." Imagine that! (I wish I had $100M to sit on!) I actually know of a couple of potential infill sites in Baltimore that could be ideal for redevelopment. In particular I know of one on the west side of Baltimore that currently has a number of vacant buildings. There are also vacant warehouses in several Baltimore areas that could be redeveloped.

So if anyone that reads this blog works for (or knows) any of the inner city developers, let them know I have candidate sites for them.

BTW, for those that are not convinced about inner city retail, here's an impressive stat from the retail traffic article:
"In 2002, ...inner city shoppers went outside their neighborhoods to buy $42 billion in goods, or 25 percent of the total $122 billion retail demand of those consumers, according to a study for the Boston-based Initiative for Competitive Inner City by Boston Consulting Group Analytics with Claritas Inc."

Another benefit (according to executives in the know) is the good returns. G. Lamont Blackstone of UrbanCore states that they are exceeding 13 percent returns and Victor MacFarlane says "the return rate for an initial $50 million (of a total $3 billion) invested by the California Public Employees' Retirement System was 30 percent in 1996."

Still not convinced, here's another extract from the article:

Baldwin Hills-and other inner city successes like Harlem USA, and Gulfgate Center in Houston-are convincing a widening pool of players that investment in minority communities is a good bet. "It will increasingly become mainstream as retailers recognize that there are few other commercial real estate opportunities in this country of the magnitude these present," says Capri CEO and Chairman Quinton Primo, III.

So where are the big inner city players looking next? (I thought you'd never ask... :)

According to Retail Traffic, they are looking in Seattle, Phoenix, Tucson, Dallas, Denver, Fort Worth, Austin, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville. While Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Detroit are flat.

So do YOU know of good potential inner city retail sites in a city near you?

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 03:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From the Houston Business Journal: More jobs were created in Houston between January 2006 and January 2007 than in any other metropolitan area in the nation, new figures show. "The [US Bureau of Labor and Statistics] numbers show Houston on a dramatic growth trend, outpacing the rest of the nation in jobs gained," said Jeff Moseley, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership. "This is great news for our region and further validates our board's vision of contributing to the creation of 600,000 new jobs and $60 billion in capital investment by 2015."

what this means for Houston real estate:

It means that there will be some growth in practically all Houston real estate sectors. After all, where are 600,000 people going to live, work, play and shop? One of the things that concerns me the most about Houston (which is probably the case with a lot of metro areas) is traffic. Downtown real estate is going to continue to increase in value so where will the majority of people (in the low to mid income range) end up looking for houses? More often than not they will probably be looking for real estate in the suburbs as property gets more and more expensive closer to downtown. (Remember, expensive is relative to Houston because you can still find decent single family homes under $200,000 within the main city limits whereas in DC, well...you'd be lucky to find a good 1 bedroom condo for that price!) So back to the topic...what this means is that there will continue to be more and more traffic! Naturally, developers and city of Houston and Harris County officials need to continue addressing the traffic issues immediately. Expand on the positive that Houston is already working on which Tory Gattis talks about in his houston strategies blog.

Personally, I think that more mixed used the development would be helpful. In many areas it is practically impossible to find places that you could actually walk to from home or work (except in the downtown areas). It'd be nice to actually walk to places without having to take a car everywhere and always have to find parking. I know that a common argument against this might be that it is way too hot to being walking outdoors in Houston, especially in the summer, but a good integration of trees would help too. (And according to Tory and the Houston chronicle, it looks like that is starting to happen too.) Only time will tell...

shameless plug: And I hope that my company can be a part of the Houston's future in the near future!

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

According to the Austin Business Journal: Prevention magazine and the American Podiatric Medical Association have named Austin the second best city in the country for fitness and walking.

"While it's nice to receive accolades, in my opinion, we're nowhere near as pedestrian-friendly as we need to be," says Austin Mayor Will Wynn. "Fortunately, the continued revitalization and repopulation of downtown, as well as other developments like the Triangle and the old Mueller Airport, are big steps in the right direction."

comments: so what does it boil down to real estate, if Austin developers and the City do not develop properties in a citizen friendly way, Austin would have no chance at this recognition. And what does that mean for the future of Austin, only good news really. Many people are looking for this type of environment and where there are more people, more employers and retailers will start appearing or expanding. Really, these are all positive signs for the Austin residential and commercial markets. Let's just hope that they don't grow too quickly...

Interested in finding out more about the Austin market or investing in real estate there, contact me. 

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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If you want to find out more about this blog post or what Esenai (my real estate and technology consulting company) can do for you, call me at 240-441-5086 or email me. (just remove the "-spamnot" from the email address.) Marvin a.k.a. eMarv

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Posted by eMarv at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)