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Recent Blog Posts
Challenges Homebuyers Can Expect to Face This Spring (and How to Handle Them)
Purchasing a first home is one of major steps in developing long-term financial stability. Sadly, many buyers are learning that the market's favor is no longer on their side. Still, with the right tools and resources, it is entirely possible to make your home purchase dreams a reality this spring. Learn more in the following sections, including how a seasoned real estate lawyer can help to tip the scales and even the play field as you enter the negotiaiton process in your home purchase.
Low Inventory and Higher Prices
During the Great Recession, investors flocked to the housing market. Many of them now own a significant percentage of livable homes throughout the country. While this may be good news for renters, who often struggle to find rental properties in high-demand areas, it also decreases the number of homes available for sale. This issue, paired with the slowdown of new housing construction after the Great Recession, means that home purchase prices are high right now, and will likely to remain high for the rest of the cycle.
CRE Development Basics: Building a Neighborhood That People Want to Live In
People measure real estate success in different ways. For some, it is their bottom line. Others only feel they are successful when they meet a certain investment goal (i.e. closing a specific number of deals in a year). Still, there are some who set their sites on sustainable, long-term wealth.
Building a Neighborhood - How Positive Community Impact Improves Investor Wealth
While there are those who fail to see the correlation between community development and long-term wealth, data shows that small-scale developers tend to build a stronger, more stable stream of income when they become intimately involved with the community in which they are developing. That is because they take interest in what the community wants, rather than simply relying on what is “trending,” which can be extremely important in certain parts of a city.
How Important is Price in a Commercial Real Estate Transaction?
When it comes to investing in commercial real estate, there are many factors that determine your final return - but just how important is the price of a property? Perhaps not as much as you think. Learn why in the following sections, and discover how our seasoned Naperville commercial real estate lawyers can provide you with additional leverage in your next CRE transaction.
Examining the Relevancy of Price in a CRE Transaction
While, ultimately, price does have an impact your bottom line in a real estate transaction, it may be far from the most important factor. Instead, matters like taxation, the potential long-term return on investment (ROI), utility costs, and other relevant issues may ultimately trump the importance of price on an investment property. As an example, consider the growth of Wham!, which started out at around $2.5 million for 50,000 square feet of space, but now weighs in around $11.5 million. If the investors who started out in this industry had been concerned about price in the beginning, they might have missed out on a highly profitable opportunity.
Should You Sell Your Home to an iBuyer? Examining the Potential Pros and Cons
As technology advances, the way we handle everyday tasks changes. One prime example is the way that home buying has changed over the last few years. Long gone are the days when you must spend days (perhaps even weeks) viewing houses in person. Instead, you can take a virtual tour using drones and cameras. You can even complete your entire real estate transaction using technology.
One emerging technology trend in real estate is the iBuyer. This option allows homeowners to quickly and almost seamlessly sell their homes without the fanfare that is typically seen in a more “traditional” real estate transactions. Yet, like most things in life, there are some drawbacks to selling your home to an iBuyer. Learn more about them in the following sections, and discover how a seasoned real estate lawyer can help protect your interests, regardless of how you decide to sell your home.
Landlord-Tenant Laws - Understanding the Basics of Tenant Rights
Renting out residential property out can give you a steady stream of income and increase your ability to build your wealth or a nest egg for your retirement. There are some risks involved, however.
Tenants may default on their rent or cause damage to the property. You could even be subject to a costly lawsuit if you violate the landlord-tenant laws imposed by local, state, or federal municipalities. Thankfully, by being educated and ensuring you have the right protections in place, you can decrease your risk of such issues. Learn more in the following sections.
Federal Landlord-Tenant Laws
While most landlord-tenant laws are imposed at the state level, the federal government oversees two of the most basic and well-known ones:
The Fair Housing Credit Act - Restricts landlords from discriminating tenants based on their race, national origin, color, religion, sexual orientation or status, or status of disability. It is important to note that this law extends beyond the rental criteria or approval process; it also restricts landlords from making discriminatory remarks in their marketing or advertising; and
Zoning and Entitlements in the Commercial Real Estate Development Industry
Few things in life are as satisfying as the purchase of an undeveloped plot of land. It is, essentially, a blank slate, an opportunity to build your vision. Land development requires more than just an idea, however. Investors must also navigate through a complex set of nuanced rules and regulations. Overseen and enforced by local, state, and even federal municipalities, the laws of greatest concern relate to how the land can be used. Learn more about zoning and entitlements in the commercial real estate industry (CRE) in the following sections.
Zoning and Entitlements - What Are These Laws and Why Do They Matter?
New CRE investors are often surprised to discover just how important zoning and entitlements are to their real estate projects. Able to bring a development project to a complete standstill, zoning and entitlement issues can hike up costs and threaten a project's completion. So what, exactly, are these laws, and how can you avoid them in your investment projects?
CRE Investment Basics - Should You Wait for the Next Real Estate Crash to Make Your Move?
Tariffs, shortages within the construction industry, and the increasing costs associated with purchasing or renting a property point to the possibility of an impending real estate down cycle. It might be tempting to wait out this cycle, in hopes of making it big in commercial real estate (CRE) like many others did during the Great Recession, but is it a sound strategy? The following sections highlight the potential downfalls of holding out until the next market crash, and it explains how you can begin to take immediate steps toward successfully breaking into the CRE investment market.
Waiting to Invest in Commercial Real Estate - Sound Strategy or Major Mistake?
For those who have not yet entered the CRE investing market, waiting may seem like a sound strategy. However, seasoned investors know the truth: breaking into the market takes time. Knowledge must be acquired, and relationships must be built. These resources are all critical to success for investors, and if you wait to break into the market, you may struggle to find the ones that you need the most. Part of that is due to the changes that happen within the market when a crash occurs. Banks and lenders may merge, or they may tighten their lending criteria. Others may disappear entirely, even after approving your loan, leaving you without proper funding. In short, if you want to invest in the commercial real estate market, the time to get started is now.
What CRE Investors Should Know Before Adding Restaurant Property to Their Real Estate Portfolios
With more restaurants offering delivery services to their customers, and the popularity of food delivery services rising, the interest in the restaurant investment sector is growing at an unprecedented rate. Unfortunately, far too many investors dive into this industry without fully understanding its risks and nuances. As a result, they increase their risk of significant financial loss. Be proactive and avoid such a fate with help from the following information.
A Closer Look at the Restaurant Investment Boom
From a distance, it might appear that the entire restaurant industry is booming. However, upon closer inspection, current trends indicate that growth is confined mostly to Class A properties. All other properties are seeing little (if any) growth - and in many areas, closure rates for Class B and C restaurants are increasing. As such, investors wishing to break into the restaurant sector are encouraged to focus their sights on high-end properties. Just keep in mind that, because of the current boom, competition in the Class A restaurant sector is exceptionally high.
Tips for Increasing Your Agility in Today's Volatile CRE Market
Real estate has always operated in a cycle. Prices and interest rates drop, offering opportunities to seasoned and new investors alike. Then they rise again, causing what is known as a real estate downcycle. In these downcycles, some investors fall to the wayside, either through bankruptcy or because they leave the market in an attempt to preserve their remaining wealth. Others get creative, increase their agility, and manage to hold on to their businesses until the next real estate boom. Learn how you can be a part of the latter group, even in today's increasingly volatile commercial real estate (CRE) market.
Relevancy and Real Estate
Many of the issues occurring in today's real estate market can be traced back to a lack of relevancy. In fact, countless department stores, toy stores, restaurants, and hospitals have gone bankrupt because they failed to stay ahead of the curve or were unwilling to change. The very same thing happens to investors as well. Thankfully, by using the following three strategies, you can decrease your company's chances of experiencing such a fate:
Getting Your DuPage County CRE Zoning Variance Approved
In DuPage County, and virtually every other county in America, most land is zoned, or designated, to be used for specific things. For example, a plot of land could be zoned as single-family residential, in which case it could not be used to build an apartment complex or open a business. In most situations, large areas are made up of plots of property that are zoned in the same way. If you want to open a business in an area that is zoned as residential, you will have to get what is called a variance, or exception, to the zoning rules. In order to open the business, you would need a commercial real estate zoning variance.
Types of Variance
There are two types of variance available, and you need to apply for the correct one when seeking a commercial real estate zoning variance. The two options are:
- Area Variance – An area variance is quite common, and used when compliance with a specific zoning law would create an unreasonable restriction on the use of the land. For example, if a plot of residential land is oddly shaped, making it difficult or impossible to build a home on it while complying with standard setback requirements, an area variance would be granted.
1730 Park Street, Suite 117, Naperville, IL 60563
630-778-3818
