WELCOME: TO A. COLETTE HARRIS PROPERTIES, LLC

Real Estate Brokerage Blog

Here you will find information about our real estate tips and real estate informational strategies we engage in.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

What Is A Property Manager?

 

 Hi Prospects & Friends!

Property managers manage and oversee the properties they manage whether residential or commercial properties, and they all have tenants and these managers are responsible for managing them and the properties these tenants are leasing. Property managers can be an:

  • Individual
  • Company 
It all depends on the person managing the property whether they're a individual or a company. Majority of property managers are companies, while there are some property managers who work independently as individuals to their rentals. Either way the tenant/landlord rules don't change, because the property manager is acting solely as an individual property manager or as a property manager with a company. So understand these key facts here, and you will fare well with understanding these differences. 

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Facing Foreclosure

   


 Hi Prospects & Friends!

Year end is near, and many of us are ready to start the New Year off right. Some of us are tangled up in foreclosure or facing foreclosure, and have very limited resources or sources to save the property. The best thing one can do is learn your foreclosure timeline in your state, and once you get that information, then next contact your lender and either;

  • Reinstate your loan
  • Modify your loan
  • Sell your home
If all else fails and you can't get the money fast enough to reinstate the loan, or get the application done quickly and timely enough to the lender to do the modification, then sell the property. What you don't want is the sale date to post with an actually date, because by then things will start to escalate with the lender and their foreclosure process, and your timeline will get more aggressive with how to get out of the foreclosure, and not lose the property.  So key here is to know before you contact the lender, what you're planning to do to prevent the foreclosure, and don't wait till you're told you have a sale date to take action. 



Monday, September 11, 2023

Over Pricing Your Property

  


 Hi Prospects & Friends!

Over pricing your property isn't a good idea at any given means, and it's even a worse idea if you end up in a bad market while doing it. We all want the best price for our property, but in reality market conditions actually have much of a bigger influence on what our property is worth versus what we think. You can make top notch repairs and improvements to your property, but it's a waste of money if your selling it in a bad market with:

  • Neighbors and close by markets discounting their properties for quick sales.
  • Foreclosures, shortsales, and loan modifications occurring more than normal proximate to your property and nearby market areas 
  • Investors buying properties as is to buy just to remodel and rent right back out. This technique actually profits the investor owner doing this, but it devalues the next owners property if the investor decides not to sell the property fixed up. Example would be the investor buys a property in your market area as is and pays cash, while decides to remodel but not resale for immediate gain, but rather wants to lease property back out. Well this sales comp will affect the other property values, because it was bought as is, and it can't be ignored when analyzing your property values if it's comparable. If it's not comparable then it won't affect you.
  • High Mortgage rates 
  • Been rezoned in a 100 year special flood zone, or in any flood zone. This will discount your property no matter what remodeling you do. Best to know if your property is in a flood zone before you buy it, so you can discount it then.
  • In a unrestricted community, but has some laws restricting certain business uses. This can really affect a properties value if you didn't research the property when you bought it. Example would be Sam bought his property 15 years ago. It was nonconforming and grandfathered in, and he has decided to sale it as a commercial property, which has allowed him to realize a 50% gain. Well new buyer decides to make offer on property thinking they will be able to use it as a daycare, but when buyer receives the updated zoning and deed restrictions they're informed they have to use it as is in it's nonconforming grandfathered use or tear down and use as SFR. Current owner realizes this issue will discount his property if appraised, and pulls off market and decides to rent out until get approval from their zoning committee to get rezoned as commercial, and hope it gets approved. 

These are just a few issues listed that could affect a already over priced property. Key here is to always factor in market conditions, and research the property thoroughly before you decide to sale it. Properties change just like anything else. You could be just fine while living in it as you have or even using it as commercial, but if things have occurred under your radar you never knew ocurred, you could affect your own properties values, and not even know it. No one wants their neighbors going to board meetings with a majority vote blocking other neighbors from doing things to their properties they thought they were allowed to do in the past. Attend those meetings, and if can't stay on top of the changes in your community. I recently ran across a MLS property where it went from $800,000 and reduced to $425,000. The agent said in comments "discovered bylaws have changed the use on this property and it's residential and can't sale as commercial like thought". Well I bet the seller is quite angry about this, since it's a lot money that they lost, but like I said research and stay alert with your community while don't overprice, and all will go well. 


Friday, September 1, 2023

Buying A Restaurant Business

 

 Hi Prospects & Friends!

Buying a restaurant business can be a great business endeavor if you know the aspects and handlings of the restaurant business, as well as have the appropriate assistance. When buying a restaurant business some things to take into consideration for analyzing as well as who would possibly needed to be hired would be:

  • Financial Statements, Balance Sheets, Income Statements
  • Appraisal of the business fixtures, and the business to make sure you're not over paying for it.
  • Real Estate Attorney
  • Real Estate Broker
  • Business Broker
  • Inspector
  • Lender
  • Insurance Company
  • Title Company

Depending on your particular situation for your restaurant business, as well as where you're within your negotiated contract, you may not need all these items listed, but it would be wise to make sure you do realize having any of these will allow for your contract to go smoother, once you pin point who will benefit you better in your restaurant business contract. So in conclusion buying a restaurant business doesn't have to be difficult, if you know who you should be approaching to assist you from the very beginning. 


Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Buying Down Mortgage Rate

  

Hi Prospects & Friends!

What are discounted points, and how would you use them? Discounted points are actually points connected to your mortgage rate that you pay for to buy down your interest rate offered to you from a mortgage company. These point can be costly, and while it does look enticing to buy down your interest rate, it would make better since to only buy them down if you will actually save money from your loan. Example would be Tom wants to buy an investment property and is quoted an 9% interest rate for his loan. Tom knew he would have to pay a higher interest rate, because of his property being an investment property, and he also knew, because of the current state the economy is in with inflation issues, and federal funds rate being raised to stabilize the economy, which this rate affects the other rates on loans. So Tom's loan officer offers Tom the numbers and says for each rate but down it will cost you $1,000. Tom does the numbers, and calculated it will only cost him an additional $3,000 to buy down his interest rate to 6%. So in this case Tom gives the ok to loan officer to do this. Once the interest rate is bought down to 6%, Tom knows this will be his new fixed permanent interest rate. So in conclusion buying down points can work well if;

  • Economy is unstable
  • Mortgage rates are much higher for your property than would normally be.
  • You can afford to pay the buy down point costs.
  • You're not just doing it, because it's a "norm" or pressured too.
  • You've done all the research on discounts points, compared all the lenders costs buying them, and you understand what you're actually doing in first place asking to buy down your rate with points.

So staying alert with some of these key tips will help assist, when thinking about buying down your interest rate.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Commercial Office Holdover Fees


 Hi Prospects & Friends!

When one leases a commercial office space, a key factor to know upfront is understanding holdover fees. If you're not familiar with holdover fees they will be explained in this post. Majority of landlords want to recoup their rent costs if you stay beyond your lease with a expired one or even not moving out on time if don't renew. What happens is holdover fees will generate against you coupled with even one months rent and you will be responsible for these fees. Example would be Mary's lease expired June 30, she doesn't renew and didn't move out in an timely manner out of her office space, and moved out July 2. The landlord sends her the July statement and she explodes when she sees her rent being charged as a holdover fee for July and another charge for Julys rent. Mary assumed 2 days wouldn't be a issue since the movers came late, but she didn't realize her landlord didn't view this as a simple just 2 days over. Best thing to do in cases like this in commercial office leases are if not going to renew;

  • Contact your property manager and let them know well in advance your not renewing, as well as send them an email stating this along with the pictures showing your space is vacant when it's empty by your expiration date.
  • Make sure you don't slip past your expiration date by even 2 days, it will cost you holdover fees and another rent payment.
  • Don't damage the space while moving out, this will cost you the security deposit as well as holdover fees if the landlord thinks you did this neglectly. 
So if you apply these key factors against your commercial office lease move, you won't have any issues and will even walk away with a payment "your security deposit".




Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Self Storage Facilities


 Hi Prospects & Friends!

Self storage facilities are properties, that have within them separate divided units of different sizes that are able to store our things. Most of us have garages or out buildings to handle this task, but their are other options to use and self storage facilities are one of them. When deciding if it's worth to rent a self storage facility, always compare the prices for:

  • Climate Controlled
  • Non Climate Controlled

when analyzing this variable. Reason for this is a lot of the storage facilities will charge a cheaper price for a climate controlled unit varying it's location in the facility. So always pay attention when deciding what to rent, because why would you pay same or even higher price for a non climate controlled unit against a climate controlled one? Another thing to take in consideration is, majority of self storage facilities operate their rental units on a month to month basis versus a regular yearly or more lease, as well as the rates may fluctuate monthly or semi annual or quarterly, or etc. Knowing this information is key before you accept the lease. Self storage facilities can be a wise decision for leasing reasons, if you're crammed for space elsewhere or want to downsize, but not ready yet to lease or buy something bigger.