Commercial Real Estate Investing: A Creative Guide to Succesfully Making Money »

Dolf de Roos is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and prolific real estate investor. He is the Chairman of Property Ventures Ltd, an innovative publicly-held property investment company with holdings ranging from office towers to vineyards, and a founding director of Best Choice Properties. His other real estate titles include Real Estate Riches, The Insider's Guide to Real Estate Investing Loopholes, The Insider's Guide to Making Money in Real Estate, The Insider's Guide to Tax-Free Real Estate Investments (all from Wiley), and 101 Ways to Massively Increase the Value of Your Real Estate without Spending Much Money, from Timelife Direct. For more information, visit www.dolfderoos.com

Dolf de Roos’s Commercial Real Estate Investing reveals all the differences between residential and commercial investing and shows you how to make a bundle. De Roos explores the different sectors—retail, office space, industrial, hospitality, or specialist—to help you discover which is right for you. He shares key insights on finding tenants and avoiding vacancies, financing large investments, managing property, setting a tax-smart corporate structure, and take full advantage of tax breaks.

Preface     xi
Acknowledgments     xiii
Notes on Reading This Book     xv
Introduction     xvii
Just What Is Commercial Real Estate?     1
People versus Contracts     5
Why Invest in Commercial Real Estate?     11
Lease Duration     11
Assignment of Lease     15
The Tenants Pay the Outgoings     17
Tenants Earn Their Income on Your Premises     18
Landlord Pays for Improvements to Commercial Premises     21
Certainty of Collecting Rent     22
Upward-Only Rent Reviews     24
Government Interference     25
Management Overhead     27
The Downside of Commercial Real Estate     29
Much More Difficult to Acquire Commercial Tenants     29
Banks Will Lend a Smaller Proportion of a Commercial Property     30
The True Value of Real Estate     33
How to Overcome the Disadvantages of Commercial Real Estate     41
How to Attract a Tenant     45
Who Wants to Run a Funeral Business?     45
Finding a Tenant for a Warehouse in an Oversupplied Market     50
The Power of the Internet     55
Many Prospective Tenants KnowYour Building     56
Engage a Real Estate Firm or Property Management Company to Find a Tenant     59
Wait for (or Cause) a Zone Change     60
Split a Single Tenancy into Multiple Tenancies     62
Consolidate Multiple Tenancies into One     64
The Ultimate Way to Attract a Tenant     66
How to Increase Rental Income (and hence the Capital Value)     71
Helipads     72
Cell Phone Towers     73
More Rooftop Antics     74
Naming Rights     76
Air Space     77
Parking     81
The Humble Webcam     89
Interior Remodel     93
The Triple Win of Alarm Systems     100
Rent Reviews to Market     101
What Were the Disadvantages of Commercial Real Estate?     103
Finding Commercial Real Estate     107
Newspaper Advertisements     107
Real Estate Firms     112
The Internet     114
Keeping Your Eyes Peeled     116
Networking     118
Word of Mouth     118
Helping Other People     124
The 100:10:3:1 Rule     126
Summary     130
Analyzing Deals     131
Due Diligence     132
Four Questions to Ask about Any Commercial Property     142
Return on Investment     144
Negotiating Commercial Real Estate Deals     155
The Uncooperative Seller     156
Other Negotiations     159
Financing Commercial Real Estate     163
Proposal for Finance     166
Summary Paragraph     171
General Description of Property Offered as Collateral     174
Property Portfolio Statistics and Cash Flows     176
Statement of Assets and Liabilities     177
What to Include in the Appendix     178
How to Use the Proposal for Finance     179
Umbrella Loans     182
Structuring Commercial Real Estate Ownership     183
Managing Commercial Real Estate     187
Tenant Selection     188
Rule Enforcement     189
Rent Reviews     190
How to Get a Tradesman to Do Your Work First     190
Accounting     193
Summary     193
How to Beat the Average     195
Geography     196
Zone Changes     199
Proximity to Views      200
The Center of Town     200
High Technology     201
Leasing and Management Tactics to Beat the Average     202
Combining All Methods of Beating the Average     202
Raw Land     205
Best Choice Properties     208
Spring Mountain Ski Ranch     211
The Benefit of Having Great Partners     214
Getting Back to Commercial Real Estate Investing     216
Extraordinarily Odd Commercial Deals     217
Oil in Them Thar Hills     219
Marine Farms     222
Property Ventures Limited     225
Five Mile     230
Never Sell     233
Thirteen Golden Rules of Commercial Real Estate Investment     239
Risk Is Equal to Yield     239
Ensure Safety of Principal     240
Control Your Liabilities     240
Add Value to a Deal     241
A Broker or Agent Must Bring Something to the Deal     242
Real Estate Is a Long-Term Investment     243
The Number of Voting Partners Is Directly Proportional to the Failure of the Project     244
You Are Going to Be in a Lawsuit     244
It Only Takes One Deal to Go Broke     245
It Only Takes One Deal to Make a Million Dollars     245
The Value of a Property Is Limited by the Tenant's Ability to Pay Rent     246
Appreciation and Inflation Are Compounded Annually     246
You Cannot Give Kindness Away-It Is Always Returned     247
Investing Abroad     249
Live Life to the Fullest     261
About the Author     269
Resources     271
Index     281