San Francisco Commercial Real Estate Blog

Last month I was stunned to learn that over 55,000 people read my articles. This is an absolutely staggering figure given that my articles are not posted in any major publication. Today with the power of blogs, electronic news sites, Facebook, and other social media sites, anyone that wants to ex...

For investors looking for deals through distressed properties you may be surprised at the competition. During the last collapse of the commercial real estate market in 1991 there were virtually no buyers. Vacancies were high, financing did not exist, and prospects for tenants were low. Today ever...

In today's economic climate many businesses are facing declining sales by 20 percent or more from the time they originally signed their lease. With the prospect that sales will stay flat or continue to decline for the rest of this year and the next, businesses everywhere are trying to figure out ...

California voters recently rejected state budget measures intended to shore up our declining budget, which has stirred up talk about the need to revisit overturning Proposition 13, particularly with commercial properties. But removing commercial real estate from Proposition 13 protection may have...

"No", arguably the most important word in the world. The use of the word "No" has had the most important impact for all us personally as well for everyone as a whole. "No" has lead to wars, has lead to personal failure, and has lead to lost opportunity. It has held us back and it continues to pre...

As salespeople we have a high ego drive, we are also assertive, creative and multi task well. We usually have a strong idea orientation and can think on our feet well. Typically, our knowledge base is limited in scope. We tend to know something about a lot of things. However, we are not analytic ...

In good times with lower vacancies and higher rents, the importance of providing the highest standards of property management is not always emphasized. In fact, in a recent poll of commercial landlords the majority felt that property management firms were overall not very good. Some of the things...

Frozen? Time to Thaw Out   As a salesperson do you feel frozen in these uncertain times? Are you finding it harder and harder to make your sales calls, concentrate on your marketing because you feel in despair? Are you having trouble simply getting starting in the morning? Welcome to the crowd. Y...

As a commercial real estate broker this is my third down cycle that I have experienced. In each of the others the pattern to recovery was the same. People would lose their jobs, could not find new jobs and decided to start their own businesses to survive. The point of entry for many is to go into...

When I entered the commercial real estate business back in 1984, I entered the market just as it was collapsing. My very first offer that I made for a client was at $52.00 at a time when the office vacancy rates were in the low single digits. In one year the market crashed and not only rates tumb...