Property and commercial real estate advice

Date: November 5, 2008

Hi. Terry Trevino here. I've many many years of experience in the property business and am hoping to share that expertise with the local community. My consulting work has been varied and thorough. Either through an ownership interest or as a property manager or as a leasing director or as a development manager or the developer, I've have done it all. Feel free to drop me a note to chat about the market, get advice and allow me to help.

My opinion on the San Francisco commercial real estate market....  My view is most asset classes are in tight supply here in the City. There is, however,  an abundance of large floor-plate A to B+ type commercial office space. And you are sure to find several owners relunctant to negotiate. From their point of view, those loan payments are pretty big, with the big prices that these assets were changing hands at. But small niche type spaces in better than average locations are hard to come by and be prepared to and expect to negotiate, lease rate, length of term, tenant improvements and pass through expenses.

This is exactly when you need a local expert to cover your $$$!

I currently represent a varied inventory of lease space and would be happy to see if there is a fit for your group/team.

Cheers,

Terry T

Working While on The Road

If you are like me, most of the work you do is dependent on the internet and finding an internet connection on the road is not easy.  There are many different ways to connect to the internet while traveling.  Unfortunately, not all of them are free, but then again, what is?

    Cafes: If you are driving around a lot, a cafe with a WiFi connection is your best bet.  Most coffee shops will offer free internet to their customers as long as they purchase something.  If you intend to stay for a while, I would recommend buying something every hour or so to keep the coffee gods happy.

    Hotels: Obviously if you are staying at a hotel, they will most likely have an internet connection.  If they don't offer internet, you should probably not be staying there.  Most of the internet connections will be in your hotel room, but there are also typically "business centers" that offer printers as well as fax machines and computers.

    Airports: Most of the airports out there are connecting to the world wide web.  Some of them offer it for free (like the one I am using right now in Denver for free) and others charge at small kiosks that are spread around the terminal.  Either way, there are definitely options for connecting to the internet while that flight is delayed.

These three locations are only the tip of the iceberg, but when it comes to traveling, are the three most useful places to access the internet.  Keep it mind next time you travel and plan ahead for locations wherever your travels may take you.

Social Media Sites Small Businesses Need To Be On

Social Media has been around for a couple of years now and it has proven that it can connect people online.  We have all heard of Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc, and probably know at least 2 people who have profiles on one of these sites.  What a lot of people haven't realized is how much one of these sites can help your business.  Profiling your business on any of these sites can greatly improve the exposure and branding for your company.  If you haven't already

Read more

San Francisco: One of the Top City's To Invest In

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) recently polled over 700 real estate professionals to find out where are the best places to invest in real estate in the next year.  San Francisco landed at the #2 best place, only beaten by Seattle!  They note that "The City by the Bay learned from the tech crash of 2001 not to overbuild. There is a reasonable supply of office and apartment space, which should limit vacancies. San Francisco's port is also expected to help the city during the downturn as Americans continue to rely on Asian imports."  This is great news because it shows that San Francisco is poised to recover from this economic downturn well ahead of many other cities. 

As Seen on Forbes

Early Stage Essentials for Start ups

Early Stage Essentials: Start Up Access

All early stage companies that find success quickly identify their place in the market and build a solid foundation for growth.  Young companies have a series of issues to tackle right out the gate which determine how stable the company will be and its potential for growth like identifying the right office space and leasing arrangements, finding service providers to build out adequate infrastructure and other essential items that are not part of product development or initial go to market strategies.  

Read more

The Report is in, Small Business Owners Are Very Optimistic!

The National Federation of Independant Businesses (NFIB) puts out a monthly report called "The Small Business Economic Trends Report", which outlines many aspects of the current state of the small business.  One of the very relevant and positive things to come out of this report is the fact that fiscal optimism within small businesses is going up, which has been declining since 2004, but according to their provided graph, is on the rise again.  What does this mean?  Well for one, the more optimistic these small businesses are, the more hiring and spending they will do which will in turn help the economy make a turn for the better.  The great US of A relies on these small businesses and entrepreneurs to keep the country running.  Stay optimistic, stay on track and get this economy back on it's feet!

NFIB Report

New Radius Search!

Our brand new, completely re-designed search process debuted this week and I couldn't be more excited about it.  Not only is it much better visually, but we have added some features that will get you your search results in a quicker and more efficient fashion.  The most drastic change to the search process is the Radius Search feature.  This allows you to perform a search that is a specific distance from your current or desired location allowing you to drastically cut out many listings that would not be a good fit for your company.  Get over to our home page and test out the quickest commercial search process ever, in the history of the universe!  Seriously....

Keep the Commute in Mind When Looking for New Space

When searching for a new home for your business, there are obviously many factors that come into play when deciding on a space.  One factor that I would like to point out, that many companies sometimes don't look at as very important, is your employees commute.  Depending on if you compensate your employees for their commute or not, a new commute could end up costing them more or taking up more of their time.  This is typically more relevant for the larger companies, but even as a small business, your employees could be spread out and commuting is definitely a very important part of a move.  If you are searching for space, make sure you look into what the new commute would be like for your employees.  Keeping morale high is very important in a small business.

Good Time to Invest, If You Have the Cash of Course

Every week there are countless articles about how the Commercial Real Estate sector is the next giant to fall.  Landlords and investors are going to take a big hit and possibly be losing some of their buildings.  Many "experts" are comparing the next couple of years in CRE to the early 90's when this industry tanked.  Now, I am sure it will be a brutal time and the industry's prices will "fix" themselves, but it also makes me realize that if you are wealthy enough where you can make some plays during this downturn, investing in

Read more

Make Some Money While Your Space is Vacant!

Great article from the Wall Street Journal about how storefronts across the country are using their unfortunate vacant status to make some money from advertising.  Malls with empty storefronts are using their location, great foot traffic and large windows to make some money with advertisments that act like billboards.  Two companies are at the forefront of this advertising, WindowGain and InWindow Outdoor. 

"Both companies still are

Read more