Real Estate Investing with Berkeley Investment Advisors

Buying, selling and investing in real estate involve big decisions and substantial financial commitments. Berkeley Investment Advisors provides the expertise needed to access the attractive returns available in U.S. real estate successfully, without the stress and hassle.

The starting point is understanding your financial situation, your goals, and your tolerance for risk.

We are a fully licensed real estate brokerage and investment advisory firm. As a result our advice is more comprehensive: covering liquidity, securities selection, tax planning, and overall investment portfolio management.

Let's examine the various aspects of the real estate investing process to see how Berkeley Investment Advisors provides value to its clients. First we'll look at the steps involved in purchasing real estate: filtering, due diligence, negotiation, and financing. Then we'll move on to management of real estate investments where we'll cover both operations and financial management.many-RE-agents, many properties.

Finally we explain Why We're Different from other Commercial Real Estate Brokers.

Click on the links below to jump to that part of the investing process:

  • Filtering
  • Preliminary Due-Diligence
  • Negotiating Price and Terms
  • Final Due-Diligence
  • Financing
  • Managing the Investment
    - Operating the Property
  • Financial Management

Filtering

At any one time there are over 350 investment properties priced under $1.5 million in the San Francisco multiple listing service alone. Bay Area listings exceed 1,000 while statewide there are probably more than 3,000. Nationwide there are many more thousands of properties for sale that might be good investments. From this universe of potential investments the goal is to find the best one for you. It takes time and expertise to winnow this down to a manageable number of candidates. Berkeley Investment Advisors helps the client narrow down the field to specific property types and geographic locations. This involves combining our knowledge of the client with our knowledge of various markets within California as well as those in other states with high return potential. We then obtain enough information about properties for sale in our target markets to determine whether they meet our first-cut financial criteria. For example, we may eliminate all properties priced at gross rent multiples greater than 9 so as to avoid relying on rapid income growth for our returns. We could then apply income criteria as a second level screen to identify the very best prospects to focus on in the next stage.

Preliminary Due-Diligence

Once we have identified the best candidate properties, we perform preliminary due-diligence to firm up our forecasts for financial performance, and in so doing, identify risks and issues that could affect pricing and terms. Berkeley Investment Advisors does a line-by-line analysis of the pro-forma operating statement and adjusts the numbers to ensure that the results are achievable. For example our investigation would generally include the following:tall-building

  • Local market rents and vacancy rates,
  • Projected growth in demand and supply of competitive units,
  • Whether earthquake or flood insurance is required and approximate pricing,
  • Visit to the property to evaluate condition and location attributes,
  • Preliminary loan quotes both amount available and pricing,
  • Estimate impact of local laws and regulations on future rents and expenses.

The issues and risks identified in this stage will allow us to structure an offer that can win the deal at an acceptable price while minimizing risks.

Negotiating Price and Terms

In order to win the deal on the best terms possible you need to know as much as possible about the seller's motivations, the property market in which you're investing, and how the seller perceives the market. Sometimes price is most important. Sometimes quick cash is needed Berkeley Investment Advisors can probe the seller to find out what items are most flexible and what key terms are necessary to get the offer accepted. We understand that there are a lot more elements to a deal than just price and we work creatively to negotiate a complete package so that our client can keep risks low and achieve their desired returns while still offering the seller enough to win the deal. For example, a seller who stands firm on price may be willing to finance some of the required equity By negotiating for additional leverage from the seller at a good rate we can boost return on equity by more than enough to make up for price concessions.

Final Due-Diligence

  • Once the property is in contract there are a number of contingencies to resolve:
  • Title is checked
  • Operating statements may be audited.
  • Leases should be reviewed.
  • The structure is inspected to determine if repairs are needed.
  • The property must be appraised.
  • Environmental concerns may be addressed through an inspection.
  • Other issues are investigated as deemed necessary to resolve uncertainties.

Berkeley Investment Advisors will manage the entire process for the client and help you find the right professionals for the inspections and, if needed, any subsequent estimates of the costs of remedying problems found.

Financing

Leverage is crucial for achieving high returns on equity. Berkeley Investment Advisors gives this aspect the attention it deserves. Some properties are commodity deals that can be financed by a multitude of lenders. In these cases we use the latest technology to seek out competitive bids for the business. Other times, a niche lender who understands that type of property best may be the best financing source for a property. For these, Berkeley Investment Advisors will work with the lenders in the niche to educate them on the earning power and value of the particular property. By working closely with selected lenders and providing maximum information about the property and the strategy for enhancing value, we can obtain the best terms possible for nonstandard deals.

Managing the Investment & Operating the Property

Although some owners may wish to manage their own properties, most will find that the money saved is insufficient compensation for the time and nuisance of dealing with tenants. Berkeley Investment Advisors can provide tenant-screening criteria and help select an onsite manager or a professional property management company to handle maintenance, rent collection and vacancy marketing. We also help manage property improvement to take the burden off of owners and ensure that value added exceeds the costs.

Financial Management

Financial management is the core of our expertise. It is our key advantage over other brokers and property managers and it is crucial to maximizing returns. This means:

Controlling costs

  • Setting appropriate rent levels
  • Efficient reinvestment of cash flows
  • Optimizing refinancing transactions
  • Forecasting and managing taxable income to avoid unnecessary tax expense
  • Proactive risk management

Berkeley Investment Advisors provides the accounting and budget reporting that is the foundation for financial management. As professional investment managers we benchmark rents and costs against other properties and shop for more cost efficient vendors when costs are out of line. We set up investment accounts that provide the best return for the client's risk tolerance and we implement procedures to speed up investment of cash.

Berkeley Investment Advisors has extensive experience in financial modeling, far more than any broker or property manager working for non-institutional clients. We put this sophisticated modeling to use in forecasting taxable income and returns on equity under various scenarios This helps determine when it is optimal to boost leverage by refinancing or to exchange the property for another. We also provide valuable advice about insurance coverage, lease clauses, legal ownership structures and other strategies for minimizing the risks of owning real estate. Add it all up and you've got the best financial management available and the results will show it.

Why we're Different from other Commercial Real Estate Brokers

Most commercial property brokers are focused on listing property rather than helping you buy it in the first place. The time it takes to attend to all the details of finding a property and performing the due-diligence, combined with the risks of being sued for a bad investment, make this business unattractive relative to the easy money that comes from listing a property. Consequently most commercial brokers focus on building their marketing machine to attract listings; it's easier and it fits better with the sales skills that got them into the business in the first place. Given their focus on listings it is far easier and more profitable for them to direct a buyer towards the purchase of one of their own listings than to objectively search for the best investment in the market.

Berkeley Investment Advisors is a different sort of firm because its founder, Ray Meadows, comes from an investment background rather than marketing or sales. Ray's philosophy is to use his competitive advantage in investment analysis (as demonstrated by his CFA designation and Investment Advisory license) to build a niche business focused on non-institutional investors. With a banker's attention to details and an investment manager's analytical tool kit, Berkeley Investment Advisors can thrive as a pure buyer's broker by building repeat and referral business through successful investments and excellent service. We apply sophisticated financial modeling techniques to identify opportunities that others may miss and to avoid deals that don't make sense given our predictions for the key variables affecting value. We are confident you will not find another real estate broker that will provide you such thorough analysis.