Real Estate Investing : Gross Lease

People lease commercial real estate properties using either a gross lease or modified gross lease or a net lease. Residential properties are usually leased under a gross lease with the exception of the utility expenses. A gross lease is also referred to as a pass-through lease or a full service lease. When a tenant leases a property using a gross lease, he pays a gross rent and the landlord has to pay the operating costs of the building risking rising operating expenses over the duration of the lease. A net lease refers to a lease where the lessee is responsible to pay for the taxes, insurance and maintenance of the property.

Types of Gross Lease: Full Service Gross Lease: In this kind of lease, the landlord is responsible for the payment of taxes, maintenance, insurance and utilities. All these expenses are included in the base rent paid by the tenant. The lessee is responsible for any property insurance, taxes and utility expenses beyond the permitted building standards. The lessee has to agree to pay his share of any increase in the operating expenses of the building.

Modified Gross Lease: In a modified gross lease, which is similar to a full service gross lease, except that certain basic services such as taxes, maintenance, insurance, janitorial services, electrical services etc. are excluded from the lease. This type of lease is commonly used in multi-tenant buildings where there are different tenants with different needs.

Commercial Gross Lease: The lessee pays the landlord a fixed monthly rent and the landlord is responsible to pay for the operating expenses of the building and its maintenance. The lessee pays for the utilities, maintenance, operating expenses, taxes as well as janitorial services. Industrial Gross Lease: The landlord leases an entire industrial building to a tenant. The tenant has to use the building as per the agreement in the lease, manufacturing and distributing and maintaining an office in it. The landlord will be responsible to pay for the maintenance, operating costs, taxes, insurance, utilities etc. that will be paid for by the lessee in the base rent.

The landlord has to take precaution against lessees with deceitful intent and make sure they verify any information provided by the lessee before signing the lease. The lessee, especially in a commercial building, has to make sure to find out if the lease includes only his office space or also parts of common area such as, hallways etc. The lessee has to make sure that he studies the terms of the lease carefully to ensure he is not paying for something that is not connected with his office space as if a new hallway built in another floor!

There are firms that offer products as well as services to help budding entrepreneurs run a business smoothly.

Real Estate Investing : Graduated Lease

New business start-ups need at least a few months to stabilize and it could take a few months before a break-even point occurs. To help such businesses as well as to counter he slack in rentals, commercial, industrial property owners have designed a lease called the graduated lease to entice new tenants. In a graduated lease, the lease amount is low for the initial couple of years and gradually increased proportionally the next three years in a typical five-year contract. This strategy worked so well that people have applied graduated lease to residential property too.

Graduated Lease: How does it Work? Let us say there is a person x who leases a commercial space using a graduated lease for a period of five years. The lease includes the maintenance, taxes, insurance, utilities and janitorial services charges. His office space is 2,000 squares in a 30,000 square building. He pays $20 for each square foot so his yearly base rent will be $40,000 and for fiver years $200,000. In a graduated lease he can pay $2,500 each month for the first year {$30,000}, $3000 each month for the second year {36,000} and $ 3,500 each month for the third year {42,000} and $ 3,833.3 each month for the next two years {$91,999.9}. The low monthly rental for the first three years gives X the chance to utilize the money to develop his business and stabilize financially, hence a graduated lease will work to the advantage of the lessee.

Lessees who lease commercial and industrial properties therefore prefer this kind of lease. Usually, graduated leases are offered at a flat rate for the first two years, and gradually increased as per the lease term typically five years. Lessees can negotiate to get as low an escalation cap as possible for each additional year. The lessee should make sure he understands the terms of the contract properly and that he is not paying rent for space he does not use such as a foyer or lobby to which he has no access as it is on another floor. The landlord has to ascertain that the lessee has no deceitful intent and has no record of fraud or history of delinquent rental payment. The lessee should not cause damage and or repair to the property and abscond without a trace, leaving the landlord in a lurch. It is therefore necessary for both parties to hire an experienced attorney and see to it that they are not being cheated, by carefully verifying the due-diligence and all documents presented.

Graduated leases are helpful for new entrepreneurs who can use the money saved on the first few years of the lease to build and establish their business.

There are firms that offer services and products to help new entrepreneurs run a successful business.

Real Estate Investing Tips On The 4 Ways You Can Profit- Do You Know Your Real Estate Mathematics?

Profit is the main reason we invest in real estate so it’s important to understand how and where your profits come from. We’ll call this the mathematics of real estate profits. The four basic ways you will profit from real estate are:

1. Appreciation
2. Principal Reduction
3. Tax Deductions
4. Cash Flow

Appreciation - Calculating your return on investment (ROI):

We can calculate the appreciation in the value of the property over time in dollars or as a percentage of the cost. Let’s say you bought a house for $100,000 a couple years ago with a down payment of $10,000 and now it’s worth $120,000. The appreciation is $20,000, or $10,000 per year.

Since $20,000 is our appreciation amount over two years we divide it by two to get an average annual appreciation of 10% based on the original property cost. The ROI is the percentage of profit you have earned based on the down payment you made. We divide the appreciation amount of $20,000 by the down payment amount of $10,000, showing that you return on your investment from appreciation is 200%.

Principal Reduction:

Principal reduction is the amount of your mortgage that has been paid off. A small part of your mortgage payment goes toward paying the principle and the rest goes toward interest, insurance and taxes. The mortgage company keeps the interest but you get a tax deduction and the principle reduction increases your equity in the property. Our loan was $90,000 after a $10,000 down payment and $2,000 has gone towards the principle in the first two years leaving you with a $98,000 debt.

To figure out your equity return simply divide the equity by down payment. Your total equity is $22,000, your down payment is $10,000 so the return on your equity is 220% after 2 years. Pretty good ROI in this example.

Tax Deductions:

Real estate investing has some of the best tax shelters compared to anything else. If your gross income is under $100,000 and you’re in the 33% tax bracket the government gives you back 33 cent for every dollar of tax deductions you can create. So, for every $1,000 in tax deductions you’ll get back $330 in cash or in reduced taxes. Your appreciation and equity will be long term but your tax deductions create cash flow in the current year.

Cash Flow:

Dealing with rental property investments means dealing with cash flow; neutral, negative, or positive. We all hope to have the positive kind but that’s not always possible. Even so, it can still make sense to invest in a property that has neutral or slightly negative cash flow because of the tax deductions and long term equity you can eventually cash in on. A common mistake from investors with good intentions is to get in hot water with unexpected maintenance costs, vacant properties, and non-collected rents. Not having a contingency plan in place for covering negative cash flow can leave one scrambling for co-investors or worse; foreclosure. Some negative cash flow can be offset by tax deductions. Keeping expenses down together with rent increases can eliminate negative cash flow and this should be an obvious long term goal.

Real Estate Investing : Graduated Lease

New business start-ups need at least a few months to stabilize and it could take a few months before a break-even point occurs. To help such businesses as well as to counter he slack in rentals, commercial, industrial property owners have designed a lease called the graduated lease to entice new tenants. In a graduated lease, the lease amount is low for the initial couple of years and gradually increased proportionally the next three years in a typical five-year contract. This strategy worked so well that people have applied graduated lease to residential property too.

Graduated Lease: How does it Work? Let us say there is a person x who leases a commercial space using a graduated lease for a period of five years. The lease includes the maintenance, taxes, insurance, utilities and janitorial services charges. His office space is 2,000 squares in a 30,000 square building. He pays $20 for each square foot so his yearly base rent will be $40,000 and for fiver years $200,000. In a graduated lease he can pay $2,500 each month for the first year {$30,000}, $3000 each month for the second year {36,000} and $ 3,500 each month for the third year {42,000} and $ 3,833.3 each month for the next two years {$91,999.9}. The low monthly rental for the first three years gives X the chance to utilize the money to develop his business and stabilize financially, hence a graduated lease will work to the advantage of the lessee.

Lessees who lease commercial and industrial properties therefore prefer this kind of lease. Usually, graduated leases are offered at a flat rate for the first two years, and gradually increased as per the lease term typically five years. Lessees can negotiate to get as low an escalation cap as possible for each additional year. The lessee should make sure he understands the terms of the contract properly and that he is not paying rent for space he does not use such as a foyer or lobby to which he has no access as it is on another floor. The landlord has to ascertain that the lessee has no deceitful intent and has no record of fraud or history of delinquent rental payment. The lessee should not cause damage and or repair to the property and abscond without a trace, leaving the landlord in a lurch. It is therefore necessary for both parties to hire an experienced attorney and see to it that they are not being cheated, by carefully verifying the due-diligence and all documents presented.

Graduated leases are helpful for new entrepreneurs who can use the money saved on the first few years of the lease to build and establish their business.

There are firms that offer services and products to help new entrepreneurs run a successful business.

Real Estate Investing : Graduated Lease

New business start-ups need at least a few months to stabilize and it could take a few months before a break-even point occurs. To help such businesses as well as to counter he slack in rentals, commercial, industrial property owners have designed a lease called the graduated lease to entice new tenants. In a graduated lease, the lease amount is low for the initial couple of years and gradually increased proportionally the next three years in a typical five-year contract. This strategy worked so well that people have applied graduated lease to residential property too.

Graduated Lease: How does it Work? Let us say there is a person x who leases a commercial space using a graduated lease for a period of five years. The lease includes the maintenance, taxes, insurance, utilities and janitorial services charges. His office space is 2,000 squares in a 30,000 square building. He pays $20 for each square foot so his yearly base rent will be $40,000 and for fiver years $200,000. In a graduated lease he can pay $2,500 each month for the first year {$30,000}, $3000 each month for the second year {36,000} and $ 3,500 each month for the third year {42,000} and $ 3,833.3 each month for the next two years {$91,999.9}. The low monthly rental for the first three years gives X the chance to utilize the money to develop his business and stabilize financially, hence a graduated lease will work to the advantage of the lessee.

Lessees who lease commercial and industrial properties therefore prefer this kind of lease. Usually, graduated leases are offered at a flat rate for the first two years, and gradually increased as per the lease term typically five years. Lessees can negotiate to get as low an escalation cap as possible for each additional year. The lessee should make sure he understands the terms of the contract properly and that he is not paying rent for space he does not use such as a foyer or lobby to which he has no access as it is on another floor. The landlord has to ascertain that the lessee has no deceitful intent and has no record of fraud or history of delinquent rental payment. The lessee should not cause damage and or repair to the property and abscond without a trace, leaving the landlord in a lurch. It is therefore necessary for both parties to hire an experienced attorney and see to it that they are not being cheated, by carefully verifying the due-diligence and all documents presented.

Graduated leases are helpful for new entrepreneurs who can use the money saved on the first few years of the lease to build and establish their business.

There are firms that offer services and products to help new entrepreneurs run a successful business.

Real Estate Investing: Private Financing & Acquisition Techniques

A good investor knows that an estate property selected with care can be quite rewarding. It can render above 100% ROI per year, along with a good leverage. That is why real estate investing has become the most preferred form of investment by ambitious investors.

However, real estate investment calls for certain qualities, such as a good credit record, a sound financial position, an appreciable income, bundles of dollars for down payment, and the lenders by your side.

All are not bestowed with such financial qualities. But, there are techniques to enable smart people with less cash to step into the world of real estate. Some of them are discussed below:

Technique # 1: Trust.

It is important for the estate seller to trust the buyer with regards to the equity payment as per the terms. One of the most practiced ways is to give the seller a substantial amount of cash as down payment.

Technique # 2: Less Terms, More Price.

The seller asks for more money in exchange of flexing the terms. A Florida estate seller agreed to extend the payment schedule by 1o years in return of a higher sales price of $3,000.

Technique # 3: Direct Questioning To the Seller.

Often, buyers hesitate to ask the sellers why they need the money. They keep on assuming needs and knitting diplomatic questions to extract the information. The best way is to directly ask the seller. You can always assure him of your help provided you know what he intends to do with the cash.

Technique # 4: Paying By Skill, Not Cash.

Buyers such as lawyers, insurance agents, merchants, painters, and so on are skilled enough to provide important services to the seller. They can trade their skill in the dearth of funds for down payment.

Technique # 5: Life Insurance Policy at the Rescue.

Life insurance policy is an asset that can be used for other investments. Policy holders whose policies are gathering dust can sell them to withdraw funds.

Technique # 6: Trading Items as Down Payment.

It is not a hard and fast rule to pay the down payments in cash. If services can be traded, so can be valuable items, such as musical instruments, furniture, paintings, and even pets! Rare species of animals prove to be a perfect down payment. Some investors have even traded their precious emeralds, rubies, and other gems!

The trick is to satisfy the seller?s needs and win his trust. There are many financial advisors to help you in investments. They would tell you more techniques too. Remember, you need not be a millionaire to own an estate property.

Beginning Real Estate Investing? Your First Decision Is a No Brainer - Should I Buy Or Rent?

Your first real estate decision is a no brainer! Truth is, you’ll live for free by buying instead of renting. Just the facts please. OK, here’s the facts and figures:

If you buy a home and live in it for 5 years you will have lived for free. Your mortgage payments, related closing costs, insurance and property taxes will be returned to you through tax savings and profits after you sell the property. Here’s how it works: (to make it easy we’ll use a $100,000 property even though this figure might seem very low for a home where you live, there are still many places where this is a realistic figure)

Price $100,000
Down Payment - 5,000

Mortgage $95,000
Interest Rate x 10%

1st Year Interest $9.500
Property Tax +1,000

1st Year Expenses $10,500
Income Tax Bracket x 33%

1st Year Tax Savings $3,465
Appreciation @6% + $6,000

Tax Savings and Appreciation $9,465

Your Interest for the first year was $9,500 and your property tax bill was $1,000, which together total $10,500, but your investment return from tax savings and appreciation was $9,465. If instead you were paying $600 a month for rent you would lose $7,200 a year or $36,000 in 5 years because renters don’t get any tax deductions nor can they take advantage on any of the property appreciation. These benefits go to the owner.

You as owner would have paid $760 a month for a total of $45,000 in mortgage payments during those 5 years. Add to that another $5,000 for property tax and your total would be $50,600 or $10,120 a year. These numbers are higher than the renter paid… but wait!

As the owner you would have saved an additional $3,465 a year in tax savings from tax deductible interest and property taxes. Also, your appreciation on the property is a conservative $6,000 (@6%) many cities have higher appreciation rates.

So you spent $10,120 a year and got back $9,465 in cash and equity. Realistically you only spent $655 a year or $3,275 to live in a place for 5 years.

But don’t forget, part of your mortgage payment went toward paying off about $4,000 of your principle of that 5 year period, which is more than the $3,275 you spent out of your pocket.

Would you rather be the owner of that home or the renter?

Real Estate Investing Tips On The 4 Ways You Can Profit- Do You Know Your Real Estate Mathematics?

Profit is the main reason we invest in real estate so it’s important to understand how and where your profits come from. We’ll call this the mathematics of real estate profits. The four basic ways you will profit from real estate are:

1. Appreciation
2. Principal Reduction
3. Tax Deductions
4. Cash Flow

Appreciation - Calculating your return on investment (ROI):

We can calculate the appreciation in the value of the property over time in dollars or as a percentage of the cost. Let’s say you bought a house for $100,000 a couple years ago with a down payment of $10,000 and now it’s worth $120,000. The appreciation is $20,000, or $10,000 per year.

Since $20,000 is our appreciation amount over two years we divide it by two to get an average annual appreciation of 10% based on the original property cost. The ROI is the percentage of profit you have earned based on the down payment you made. We divide the appreciation amount of $20,000 by the down payment amount of $10,000, showing that you return on your investment from appreciation is 200%.

Principal Reduction:

Principal reduction is the amount of your mortgage that has been paid off. A small part of your mortgage payment goes toward paying the principle and the rest goes toward interest, insurance and taxes. The mortgage company keeps the interest but you get a tax deduction and the principle reduction increases your equity in the property. Our loan was $90,000 after a $10,000 down payment and $2,000 has gone towards the principle in the first two years leaving you with a $98,000 debt.

To figure out your equity return simply divide the equity by down payment. Your total equity is $22,000, your down payment is $10,000 so the return on your equity is 220% after 2 years. Pretty good ROI in this example.

Tax Deductions:

Real estate investing has some of the best tax shelters compared to anything else. If your gross income is under $100,000 and you’re in the 33% tax bracket the government gives you back 33 cent for every dollar of tax deductions you can create. So, for every $1,000 in tax deductions you’ll get back $330 in cash or in reduced taxes. Your appreciation and equity will be long term but your tax deductions create cash flow in the current year.

Cash Flow:

Dealing with rental property investments means dealing with cash flow; neutral, negative, or positive. We all hope to have the positive kind but that’s not always possible. Even so, it can still make sense to invest in a property that has neutral or slightly negative cash flow because of the tax deductions and long term equity you can eventually cash in on. A common mistake from investors with good intentions is to get in hot water with unexpected maintenance costs, vacant properties, and non-collected rents. Not having a contingency plan in place for covering negative cash flow can leave one scrambling for co-investors or worse; foreclosure. Some negative cash flow can be offset by tax deductions. Keeping expenses down together with rent increases can eliminate negative cash flow and this should be an obvious long term goal.

Real Estate Investing : Graduated Lease

New business start-ups need at least a few months to stabilize and it could take a few months before a break-even point occurs. To help such businesses as well as to counter he slack in rentals, commercial, industrial property owners have designed a lease called the graduated lease to entice new tenants. In a graduated lease, the lease amount is low for the initial couple of years and gradually increased proportionally the next three years in a typical five-year contract. This strategy worked so well that people have applied graduated lease to residential property too.

Graduated Lease: How does it Work? Let us say there is a person x who leases a commercial space using a graduated lease for a period of five years. The lease includes the maintenance, taxes, insurance, utilities and janitorial services charges. His office space is 2,000 squares in a 30,000 square building. He pays $20 for each square foot so his yearly base rent will be $40,000 and for fiver years $200,000. In a graduated lease he can pay $2,500 each month for the first year {$30,000}, $3000 each month for the second year {36,000} and $ 3,500 each month for the third year {42,000} and $ 3,833.3 each month for the next two years {$91,999.9}. The low monthly rental for the first three years gives X the chance to utilize the money to develop his business and stabilize financially, hence a graduated lease will work to the advantage of the lessee.

Lessees who lease commercial and industrial properties therefore prefer this kind of lease. Usually, graduated leases are offered at a flat rate for the first two years, and gradually increased as per the lease term typically five years. Lessees can negotiate to get as low an escalation cap as possible for each additional year. The lessee should make sure he understands the terms of the contract properly and that he is not paying rent for space he does not use such as a foyer or lobby to which he has no access as it is on another floor. The landlord has to ascertain that the lessee has no deceitful intent and has no record of fraud or history of delinquent rental payment. The lessee should not cause damage and or repair to the property and abscond without a trace, leaving the landlord in a lurch. It is therefore necessary for both parties to hire an experienced attorney and see to it that they are not being cheated, by carefully verifying the due-diligence and all documents presented.

Graduated leases are helpful for new entrepreneurs who can use the money saved on the first few years of the lease to build and establish their business.

There are firms that offer services and products to help new entrepreneurs run a successful business.

Real Estate Investing Tips On The 4 Ways You Can Profit- Do You Know Your Real Estate Mathematics?

Profit is the main reason we invest in real estate so it’s important to understand how and where your profits come from. We’ll call this the mathematics of real estate profits. The four basic ways you will profit from real estate are:

1. Appreciation
2. Principal Reduction
3. Tax Deductions
4. Cash Flow

Appreciation - Calculating your return on investment (ROI):

We can calculate the appreciation in the value of the property over time in dollars or as a percentage of the cost. Let’s say you bought a house for $100,000 a couple years ago with a down payment of $10,000 and now it’s worth $120,000. The appreciation is $20,000, or $10,000 per year.

Since $20,000 is our appreciation amount over two years we divide it by two to get an average annual appreciation of 10% based on the original property cost. The ROI is the percentage of profit you have earned based on the down payment you made. We divide the appreciation amount of $20,000 by the down payment amount of $10,000, showing that you return on your investment from appreciation is 200%.

Principal Reduction:

Principal reduction is the amount of your mortgage that has been paid off. A small part of your mortgage payment goes toward paying the principle and the rest goes toward interest, insurance and taxes. The mortgage company keeps the interest but you get a tax deduction and the principle reduction increases your equity in the property. Our loan was $90,000 after a $10,000 down payment and $2,000 has gone towards the principle in the first two years leaving you with a $98,000 debt.

To figure out your equity return simply divide the equity by down payment. Your total equity is $22,000, your down payment is $10,000 so the return on your equity is 220% after 2 years. Pretty good ROI in this example.

Tax Deductions:

Real estate investing has some of the best tax shelters compared to anything else. If your gross income is under $100,000 and you’re in the 33% tax bracket the government gives you back 33 cent for every dollar of tax deductions you can create. So, for every $1,000 in tax deductions you’ll get back $330 in cash or in reduced taxes. Your appreciation and equity will be long term but your tax deductions create cash flow in the current year.

Cash Flow:

Dealing with rental property investments means dealing with cash flow; neutral, negative, or positive. We all hope to have the positive kind but that’s not always possible. Even so, it can still make sense to invest in a property that has neutral or slightly negative cash flow because of the tax deductions and long term equity you can eventually cash in on. A common mistake from investors with good intentions is to get in hot water with unexpected maintenance costs, vacant properties, and non-collected rents. Not having a contingency plan in place for covering negative cash flow can leave one scrambling for co-investors or worse; foreclosure. Some negative cash flow can be offset by tax deductions. Keeping expenses down together with rent increases can eliminate negative cash flow and this should be an obvious long term goal.

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