As per the reports, the figure of total transaction revenue is supposed to rise to about $216 billion within 2013. This is supposed to be much higher than that of $180 billion of 2012, and also the $115 billion of 2010. One factor leading to this could include the increase in the number of jobs in comparison to the after situation during and after the recession.

It is not only the figures and the expansion that is going through a positive phase, the number of the distressed properties with regards to commercial real estate were seen to have lowered by quite a high amount. This report was released by the Delta Associates in the month of January.

Furthermore, according to Peter Roberts, the chief executive officer of the Americas division of Jones Lang LaSalle, as a result of the spike in hiring in different locations and areas like those of Silicon Valley and also some of the well known metropolitan states like that of Texas, the rents are supposed to increase significantly.

What this Means for Commercial Real Estate

This means consumers and sellers of commercial real estate can begin to feel some relief. An industry that has seen itself on-edge for the past couple years, is starting to come back around to prosperity. Have you been holding out on purchasing or leasing that perfect commercial space just because the market is strung out? Your time to buy is fast approaching, and for some, may already be here!

Scott Reiff is a Commercial Real Estate Agent located in the Prudential Verani, Londonderry office, and serving southern New Hampshire’s commercial needs. Scott is e-Certified, and has been recognized as a recipient of 3 prestigious Prudential awards including: The President’s Circle, the Leading Edge Society, and The Top of the Rock. To contact Scott, or to find information about his listings/coverage area, visit his agent page.

What is Zoning?

Under the State of New Hampshire Statutes (RSA 674:16-23 and 675:2-9 ), each city and town can publish a Zoning Ordinance and establish Zoning Districts. The Statute allows each town to define the number of districts and definition of the uses allowed in each district. As a result, there are hundreds of different districts across the state.

To assist the consumer, most town ordinances contain a Permitted Use Table. Whether buying or leasing commercial space, it is prudent to confirm that your use is allowed under the zoning regulations of the city or town before you commit to the purchase or lease. Of course it is not always as easy as just looking at one table, there are primary uses and accessory uses to consider.

What Does Zoning Mean to Commercial Prospects?

As an example, if you manufacture a product, you probably need to be located in an Industrial District. You can distribute your product from your facility, but more often than not, you cannot sell your product to consumers from this location. This accessory use of “retail sales” is typically allowed only in a commercial district. But don’t despair yet, the regulations allow the owner or business to apply for a variance from the regulations.

You only need to convince the local planning board that this restriction causes a hardship and/or isn’t in the best interest of the community. They will require an engineered site plan of the property and at least one public hearing. The property abutments will receive notice of the meeting and given the opportunity to support or object to the variance request. Often, just one objection will undermine the proposal. The cost for a site plan and public presentation usually will be in the $5,000 to $10,000 range, with no guarantee of success. This cost alone discourages most small business owners.

So, you decide to keep it simple. You check to confirm that your intended use is permitted under the local zoning ordinance, and it is. You are clear to buy the property or sign the lease. Right?

Not so fast! In addition to regulating the types of business activities that are permitted in a zone, the planning board also reserves the right to approve a “Change of Use” on the property. This means that if your proposed use is not identical to the previous occupant’s use, even though both are permitted uses, you will be required to go through the same process as if you wanted a variance to the permitted use.

If you believe that this is unfair, creates unreasonable costs for small business, or unjustly restricts the use of your property, then let your opinion be known. Write a letter to the planning board and your State Representative. But above all, do your research before you sign that document!

As a follow-up to the interview with Prudential Verani President, Margherita Verani, I asked commercial real estate agent, Cliff Harris for his thoughts on communication from an agent’s perspective. This time, the focus was on whether personalized hand-written or e-cards were still relevant in the industry.

Should you send cards to your customers and clients?

“Yes. As we all are aware, the more our name is in front of our customers and/or clients, hopefully the more real estate activity will come our way. It also allows us to keep in touch with clients beyond the purchase or sales process.”

What kind of cards do you, or should you, send?

“Well, there are a host of opportunities that come our way to reach out and say something to our customers or clients. Sometimes during the first meeting, I caught some information about a birthday, anniversary, child’s graduation, new job, wedding, etc. These are the opportunities that everyone would expect a card with a personal stamp and signature. Key words here are personal stamp and signature. This indicates that someone personally took the time to pick and sign the card.  People expect cards from family, but they’ll get a pleasant surprise when they get one from their REALTOR®.”

What about major, and even minor, holidays? 

“Christmas cards. This is great, too. If you know for certain that someone celebrates holiday seasons in a different way, then you can send them a particular card to represent their personal beliefs and celebrations. Just because their names are spelled a certain way, doesn’t mean you should assume a Hannukah card, for example, should be sent. Get to know the client, and make sure the right one gets sent out.”

We’ve touched on the two big types of cards. Are there ever times that you send another type of card to a client?

“Yes. If during a conversation, you discover something of interest about a client, and maybe you see something in a newspaper or magazine of relevance to them, take the time to cut it out and drop it into a quick note. Say “I thought you might find this of interest.” No need to send a business card or mention real estate because the fact that you thought of them will keep them thinking of you in future real estate conversations. “Personal touch” cards, like these, make a statement about you as a person, and the way you conduct business. Definitely take the time to drop a card.”

Cliff Harris is a commercial real estate agent located at the Londonderry, Verani Office. If you have any commercial real estate concerns or questions, cliff can be reached via email at cliff.harris@verani.com.

Article submitted by Oury Clark

Finding the right commercial property is a bit tricky considering the many things that could turn out negative. Most of the businesses today simply lease a space in order to operate their enterprise. This move, however, is not really the smartest thing to do in the long run. It is a must that you purchase a commercial property in order to spike the income up and maximize the growth of your company and assets. Before you consider this, there are a lot of things that you need to think of.

Here are some of the tips that you’ll want to consider if you are going to purchase a commercial property.

Know Your Business Well

If you are going to find yourself a commercial property, it is important that you know

As the economy continues to stumble along amid various and often conflicting reports about improving conditions and major indices, investors continue to seek investments that provide attractive, risk adjusted yields.

Why Real Estate?

The stock market continues to cause unrest among many private investors, and money markets provide a return that is not particularly attractive. Where can an individual turn to invest in something tangible and quantifiable?

With continued volatility in the stock market, unattractive yields in the bond market, and uncertainty in the global markets, investors continue to search for “flight to safety” investments that have the potential to provide attractive risk adjusted returns.

One such strategy that should be considered as part of a balanced, diversified investment portfolio is an investment in single tenant net lease (STNL) assets. Well known, respected brands such as McDonalds, Advanced Auto Parts, CVS, Auto Zone, Wendy’s, Lowe’s, Pep Boys, Starbucks, Dollar General, Arby’s, as well as many others are included in this category.

If you are an investor looking for stable, predictable cash flow from a passive real estate investment , this strategy may be attractive to you as a bond replacement strategy, providing the opportunity for higher yields than the stock or bond markets.

In a single-tenant net lease investment, the tenant (as an example, McDonalds, CVS, Auto Zone, Wendy’s etc.), is responsible to pay for all operating expenses, including: real estate taxes, building insurance, and maintenance of the property they occupy. When considering an investment of this type, it is important to carefully analyze what is commonly referred to as the “three legged stool” attributes of a particular asset. One leg is the credit of the tenant, the second leg is the lease term, and the third leg is the underlying real estate itself – location and potential. For an investment in this product type to be considered as a true bond replacement strategy, the property under consideration should have a tenant with an investment grade credit rating. To be considered “investment” grade, a tenant should have a credit rating with one of the nationally recognized rating agencies such as Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s, of at least a BBB- or better. The longer the lease term remaining on the property, the more attractive the potential investment. A property with a lease term of 10, 15, 20 years or more remaining is not unusual with this type of investment. Finally, real estate has always been, and will always be about location. Will the location of the asset still be attractive when the lease term expires, and desirable for a different use and/or tenant upon the expiration of the lease term in the event the current tenant does not extend or renew their lease. For an investment of this type to warrant serious consideration, all three legs of the stool need to stand on their own.

Guest post by Sam Crone of Servicedofficespaces.net

There are plenty of circumstances where business organizations need to act fast. However, often one of the most problematic situations to deal with in any kind of haste is that of finding new or additional office space. Thankfully, serviced office spaces can be very beneficial in such circumstances.

Companies can sometimes find themselves stuck between the end and start of two leases when they move from one office to another. This situation is known as ‘swing space’ and can often be very problematic for any company that is unfortunate enough to encounter it. Luckily, serviced offices can offer the perfect solution as the flexibility of dealing with a license rather than a lease mitigates the problems of committing to a long term agreement when moving between offices.

Many companies in a wide range of industries often find themselves needing to quickly set up satellite offices. This may be to service their clients better with an on-site/near-site office or to have a temporary area where they can set up and operate a special task away from their head office. Whatever the reason, serviced office spaces can be the ideal option in such circumstances, as the fact they are fully furnished and come equipped with IT and telecoms equipment means that workers can get on with the tasks at hand the moment they arrive.

To find out more about the swift benefits of serviced office spaces, visit www.servicedofficespaces.net.

Continued from Part 1

Trends for Call Centers

There are several trends that impact the location and operations of call centers.

1. Transition from Call Centers to “Information Centers.” Expanding the modes of communication from voice to e-mail, and to the Internet and e-commerce impacts the transition of call centers to information centers.
2. Globalization of Business. Driven by cost, labor access, culture and language, a growing trend is the placement of call centers throughout Canada, South America, Europe, India and Australia. For example, Canada has targeted call centers as one of their key areas of economic development – particularly in the more remote areas. With advanced telecommunications technology, low operating cost and the availability of high quality, multi-lingual labor, Canada is experiencing a 24% annual growth rate in call center staffing and currently has an estimated 6,500 call centers.
3. New Work Environments: Working Remotely. To leverage the positive attributes of working remotely, the operation of a call center will take a significant shift, and will rely even more heavily on technology to manage call volume and to deliver training while keeping the organization focused under a uniform culture.

Developing a Call Center Location Strategy

Your strategy may vary depending on the overall size of the operation and the geographic distribution that they serve. A call center location strategy focuses around the following elements:

By commercial real estate agent Denise Bernard

Over the past decade, the number of call centers has increased dramatically – driven by technology and the increased desire of customers to transact their business or obtain immediate access to information over the telephone.

Call centers are increasingly important in businesses’ customer care strategies. As a result, finding an ideal location for your call center may be challenging. Developing an effective strategy for locating a call center can ultimately improve call center operations, reduce the time needed for location selection, and facilitate the start-up of your new operation.

Six Factors to Consider for Call Center Site Locations:

1. Operating Costs. Labor costs (salary, benefits, recruiting and training) typically comprise 75% of a call center’s operating budget. When evaluating a community as a potential location, the cost of labor can be determined through multiple sources including: published data; interviews with employees using a third party; and surveying the market with proxy ads in the local paper or on the Internet.
2. Qualified Labor. As the dynamics of a labor market change, the ability to compete for labor in a given location may become an issue. There are a number of indicators of the potential strength of a local labor market: area demographics; local sources of labor; competition; and skill enhancement.

Well it is spring 2011 and we in the Commercial Real Estate sector (mainly retail) are wondering what the future will bring, hoping it will be an improvement on the last few years.

As we all know after the Financial Crisis that engulfed the US in 2008, the Commercial Real Estate market was particularly hard hit. Tenants were going bankrupt and storefronts were going dark. With no new tenants to fill the space lenders and investors took a wait and see attitude (sometimes referred to as delay and pray). Everyone was risk adverse to say the least, and many hunkered down waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Some speculated that cap rates on investment quality leases (CVS, Walgreens, McDonalds, etc) could hit double digits. So everyone sat back and waited. Well thankfully that did not happen. Cap rates began creeping up but with a limited supply of good properties on the market they moved back down close to where they were before the crash for Class A product in Class A markets. The main problem now is there is no supply of these properties because very few were built over the last few years.

That brings us to Spring, 2011. Many of the empty storefronts have filled up in the stronger markets and New Hampshire is in better shape than many states even MA, ME, and VT when it comes to unemployment and foreclosures.  So what do we see as we move forward?