Commercial Real Estate Finance

Posts Tagged ‘price’

After an owner of 7,000 apartment units recently put his hands up in exasperation when I brought up the subject of online apartment ratings, I decided to do some research on the topic. I looked up one of his apartment complexes and the first google result was apartmentratings.com. Of the 167 reviews posted since 2001, most were negative and boiled down to a few categories: incompetent management, unfriendly leasing agents, too many bugs, the walls were to thin, and it took too long for snow removal. Despite a new website with live chat capability, rental rates and availability information, virtual tours, and floor plans, the online image was not very good because of the negative ratings. Read the rest of this entry »

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An interesting article in the New York Times last week highlighted the heated debate that is taking place amongst lenders, realtors, mortgage brokers, and appraisers in the residential real estate market.  The debate stems from the new Home Valuation Code of Conduct, which has been in effect since May 1st as a method of reducing the inherent conflict of interest amongst lenders, brokers, appraisers, and owners.

Personally, I think the Code of Conduct creates more problems than it solves.  But after reading the article I began to wonder if there was any imminent threat of similar regulation creeping into the commercial real estate market as well.  After all, sloppy lending and bogus valuations have caused every bit of trouble in the commercial space as they have in residential.  If we don’t regulate the valuation process which, believe me, is the last thing I want to see, how do we arrive at better property valuations that best serve all the parties involved in a transaction?  How can we value a property in stagnant markets where no transactions are taking place for comparison? Read the rest of this entry »

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