Category Archives: Market Trends

Commercial Real Estate Market Trends

New Listing Indian Creek Apartments 1015-1025 N Farnsworth Ave Aurora IL 60505

eXp Commercial is pleased to present to market Indian Creek Apartments, a fully occupied 24-unit multifamily complex on the northeast side of Aurora, Illinois, bordering affluent Naperville, Illinois, just to the east. The property is in good condition, with considerable upside in rents with modest unit updates. All units have separately metered tenant-paid water, sewer, electricity, heat, and hot water. Also offered is an attractive low-interest assumable debt of $1.453 million at a 3.32 percent interest rate not due until December 2028.

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Running a commercial real estate asset on a day-to-day basis can be expensive. As such, it is important for operators to manage costs relative to rental income to ensure that the given property is profitable. From a management standpoint, costs can be grouped into two buckets: Operating Expenses (or “OpEx”) and Capital Expenses (or “CapEx”). While they are both categories of expenses, there are material differences between capital expenses and operating expenses.

Good Time for Investors to Unload

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Real estate investors have done well. Rents have risen and home price appreciation has been quite exceptional. In the past three years, the typical rental rate and typical home price have soared by 16.4% and 35.5%, respectively. Over the past five years, those figures are 24.9% and 50.8%. These returns were occurring at a time of low-cost financing.

Types of Commercial Real Estate

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Commercial real estate can be broken down into several different categories. At a high level, when people think of different types of commercial real estate, they typically think about shopping centers, office buildings, or warehouses. But the commercial real estate industry is much more precise when it comes to defining property types. Below is a list of different types of commercial real estate with a description of how each category is typically defined.

The Real Estate Proforma: A Beginner’s Guide

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

The first task in any real estate investment decision is to build a proforma, which is just a word that means cash flow projection. In this guide, we will define the term proforma, look at an example of a simple real estate proforma, review a more complicated real estate proforma, and also discuss some nuances you may see in the real world.

How a Broker Price Opinion Works

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

The broker price opinion (BPO), also known as a broker opinion of value (BOV), is a popular way of estimating the value of a property. Typical reasons for ordering a broker price opinion include estimating value prior to purchase or sale, understanding collateral value when securing a new loan or refinancing, estimating liquidation value, buying out a partner’s interest in a property, among many others. In this article we’ll take a deep dive into the broker price opinion, review the three approaches to market value, and also clear up some common misconceptions about the broker price opinion.

Net Operating Income (NOI): A Beginner’s Guide

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Understanding Net Operating Income (NOI) is essential in commercial real estate. Without a firm grasp of net operating income, commonly referred to as just “NOI”, it’s impossible to fully understand investment real estate transactions. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at net operating income, discuss the components of NOI, and also clear up some common misconceptions.

Difference Between Market Value and Investment Value in Commercial Real Estate

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Value is traditionally defined as the power of a good to command other goods or services when exchanged. Within this broad definition of value, there are various types of value given to real property, such as investment value, market value, insurable value, assessed value, liquidation value, or replacement value. In this article we’ll go over different types of real estate value, and then zero in and focus on the difference between investment value and market value, which is often confused by commercial real estate professionals.

Time Value of Money: A Beginner’s Guide

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Being completely comfortable with the time value of money is critical when working in the field of finance and commercial real estate. The time value of money is impossible to ignore when dealing with loans, investment analysis, capital budgeting, and many other financial decisions. It’s a fundamental building block that the entire field of finance is built upon. And yet, many finance and commercial real estate professionals still lack a solid working knowledge of time value of money concepts, and they consistently make the same common mistakes. In this article, we take a deep dive into the time value of money, discuss the intuition behind the calculations, and we’ll also clear up several misconceptions along the way.

Understanding Replacement Reserves in Commercial Real Estate

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

The topic of replacement reserves is often confusing for commercial real estate professionals. How much should be set aside for replacement reserves? Should replacement reserves be included in net operating income? How do replacement reserves impact cap rates and value? In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at reserves for replacement, clear up the confusion, and also tackle some common misconceptions.

Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR): A Calculation Guide

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

The Debt Service Coverage Ratio, often abbreviated as “DSCR”, is an important concept in real estate finance and commercial lending. It’s critical when underwriting commercial real estate and business loans as well as tenant financials, and it is a key part in determining the maximum loan amount. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the debt service coverage ratio, explain what a DSCR loan is, and walk through several examples along the way.

How to Calculate The Debt Yield Ratio

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

The debt yield is becoming an increasingly important ratio in commercial real estate lending. Traditionally, lenders have used the loan to value ratio and the debt service coverage ratio to underwrite a commercial real estate loan. Now, the debt yield is used by some lenders as an additional underwriting ratio. However, since it’s not widely used by all lenders, it’s often misunderstood.

How to Navigate the Real Estate Eviction Process

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

How do you feel about a criminal conviction on your record? Defending against a civil suit for intentional infliction of emotional damage? They don’t sound too bad? Well, how about a fistfight with a tenant on the front lawn of your rental property? If you’d prefer to avoid these scenarios, it might be a good idea to understand the process required to lawfully evict a tenant. While the details of the eviction process vary from state to state, the general principles discussed here are almost universal.

How Market Leasing Assumptions Work in Commercial Real Estate

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Market leasing assumptions define what happens after a tenant lease expires in a commercial property. Since it’s unknown whether the tenant will renew its lease or not, there are two sets of assumptions. One set of assumptions is used if a new tenant needs to be found. The second set of assumptions is used if an existing tenant renews its lease. Then, there is a renewal probability that creates a weighted average between these two sets of assumptions.

The Essentials of Commercial Real Estate Sale and Purchase Agreements

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

A commercial real estate sales contract can be one page or one hundred pages. There are no rules, and every term, every word, is up for negotiation. Nonetheless, there are provisions that are typically included in most CRE purchase agreements, and understanding these provisions is essential for both buyer and seller to protect their interests.

The Definitive Guide to Understanding Section 8

Created to help low-income, elderly, and disabled households afford decent, safe and sanitary private housing, the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP), commonly known as Section 8, provides a federally-funded subsidy to eligible families, paying for all or a portion of their rent and utilities costs. The Program provides not only significant benefits to these families, but also an opportunity for those landlords who chose to participate to potentially make their property more profitable.

The Income Approach to Real Estate Valuation

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

The income approach is one of three techniques commercial real estate appraisers use to value real estate. Compared to the other two techniques (the sales comparison approach and the cost approach), the income approach is more complicated, and therefore it is often confusing for many commercial real estate professionals. In this article, we’ll walk through the income approach to property valuation step by step, including several income approach examples.

How The Loss to Lease Calculation Works

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Loss to lease is a commonly used calculation in a commercial real estate analysis. However, loss to lease can also be one of the most confusing calculations to understand, especially when you see it for the first time. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the loss to lease calculations and walk through several examples to help you understand what it is and how it works.

Eleven Types of Risk in Commercial Real Estate

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Every investment involves a certain amount of risk. There are certain general sources of risk that influence all assets – things like geopolitical risk and global macroeconomic risk. What makes each asset unique is the level of sensitivity that its rate of return has to those risks. In addition, specific types of assets have risks that are uniquely their own. In this article, we’ll look at eleven types of risk in commercial real estate investment.

Three Types of Commercial Real Estate Obsolescence

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

One of the unique challenges of commercial real estate investment is that markets, types of property, return expectations, and physical environments are in a constant state of change. As a result of these changes, a commercial property could be cash flow positive one day and undesirable the next due to shifts in tenant desires or some other factor. The real estate term for this type of risk is “obsolescence” and there are three types that CRE investors should be aware of.

Weak Macro Data Can Obscure Local Opportunities

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Weak Macro Data Can Obscure Local Opportunities Don’t overlook opportunities just because macro-level numbers suggest the market isn’t performing well. Investors can and should closely evaluate the macro trends, considering population growth, job growth, household formation, income levels, and all the other major metrics. But investors also need to dig under the surface.

What is an Estimated Net Proceeds Sheet and How is this Important to Estimate Capital Gains Tax Exposure

A seller’s net proceeds sheet is a document that estimates the amount of money a seller will receive after all closing costs have been paid. The net proceeds of a sale are important to capital gains tax exposure because they determine the amount of profit that is subject to tax.