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Leasing Office Space: in Agreement With Your Landlord

Do you have a growing business? If so, are you thinking of leasing or buying a larger office space? If you have larger funds to invest in premises, consider buying, else leasing will work best for you.

Here are a few strategies for dealing with landlords, to make the most of your lease deal.

Look beyond permitted uses: Generally, a lease agreement will specify the uses that the space leased out to you, can be put to. Ensure that your agreement allows you to conduct the entire range of present as well as planned activities. If your business is on a growth path, it is a good idea to take a larger space than you need at the moment, so that you can accommodate your future needs as well. In the interim, you could sub-lease the extra space to another business, provided your agreement allows you to.

Opt for a short term lease: Even though your business has a long-term goal, sign a short term lease agreement, if possible. You will find many landlords offering discounted rates for long-term lease contracts, but be cautious while dealing with such matters. With a shorter lease, you have greater flexibility to deal with any changed requirements in the future.

Take into account rent increases: Every long term lease agreement will specify a periodic increase in rent. In case your agreement is for a short term, insist that your landlord gives you adequate advance notice in writing about the intention to increase rent after the current tenure lapses. Usually, rent increases fall within an acceptable range – understand this beforehand.

Beware of maintenance and other charges: Find out the extra charges that you may need to bear — like HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning) and any other building maintenance overheads. Check if there is a cap to all these charges and try to get an idea of the periodicity of increase.

Ask for allowing alterations to the space: Usually, landlords will not allow you to make any alterations to the space they have leased out. However, you can request for a clause that allows you to make any alterations or improvement with the landlord’s consent.

Check the renewal option: If you plan to renew the lease, try and negotiate easier terms to your advantage. After all, not having to find a new tenant will save the landlord time, effort and brokerage fee. In the bargain, the landlord might agree to a rent that is a bit lower than the market price. From your perspective, you need to know when to begin the lease renewal process, and what terms apply in the interim.

Consider all the above points before signing up any lease agreement for your office space. Above all, have your real estate broker or lawyer go through the terms of the lease agreement in advance. Experts can assist you in leasing office space and ensuring that you find the right space at the best deal possible. You could also learn a lot from books like “Leasing Office Space You Can Afford: Everything Companies Need to Know-From Finding Great Space, and Negotiating the Lease,

How Long Do Short Sales Take?

The truth about short sales is that while everyone wants it expedited, the process invariably stretches longer than expected. A short sale may take anywhere from three to six months and the closing of the property may take an additional 30 to 60 days. For buyers, a short sale definitely takes longer than buying a regular non short sale house. This is because the lender must first approve of selling the property at a price lesser than the balance debt amount on the property. Most buyers, however, prefer buying a short sale property because these can be obtained at less than their original market value. Banks often take as long as two months to six months to respond to an offer, whether positive or with a counteroffer.

Factors Determining the Pace of a Short Sale Process

Here are some factors that decide the length of a short sale process:

• Cooperation: Mutual cooperation among all including the seller, lender, buyer and the listing and selling agent is a must for hastening the short sale process.
• Responsiveness: A responsive lender will return calls promptly and conduct their work on time, leading to expediting of the process.
• Preliminary Work: Completion of preliminary work, such as conducting the exterior appraisal of the house and market evaluation by the lender can expedite a short sale. However, if the lender chooses to deprioritize a property or worse delays for unknown reasons chances are you could be waiting for many months for a response.
• Information Gathering: To ensure quick lender approval, homeowners must furnish requisite information and documents, such as bank statements, tax returns, hardship letter, financial statement and pay stubs. Sellers must also sign documents that allow the lender to coordinate with their listing agent or attorney to manage the entire process.
• Negotiation: The lender assigns the offer, along with the financial documents, to a negotiator based on his availability. A negotiator is assigned within 14 to 180 days, depending on the process and the lender. The negotiator then reviews the file, orders a broker’s price opinion and decides the acceptability of the offered price. If the price is considered too low, a counteroffer is made or it is rejected. If an agreement on price is reached, addendum and counters are signed and the buyer arranges for the finance and the deal is closed within 30-60 days.

To add to this load, sellers also have to sign documents to list their property. To get assistance on and to expedite the short sale process, contact the experts at www.floridashortsaleshelp.com. The company’s expert guidance and compassionate ways have successfully closed short sales throughout all of Florida.

Investment Gobbledygook

There are no orphan shares …
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A lot of what passes as serious investment commentary is simply «gobbledygook» i.e. nonsense or drivel. It defies share market realities and is at odds with the philosophy that markets work.

Yet, unfortunately, some of the people and organisations generally regarded as finance experts are the main proponents of this gobbledygook. Let’s consider a couple of examples.

In a recent article in the «Sydney Morning Herald», a private client adviser of a major stock broker explained why the share market had fallen for the past three days, after a period of strong gains, as follows:

«I think it comes down to a bit of profit-taking. I guess the market is acknowledging we’ve had it pretty good for the last couple of months and it’s time to take a breather.»

In a similar vein, the finance reporters on the evening television news will often attribute a rise in the share market, after a period of weakness, to «bargain hunters» taking advantage of lower prices. Sometimes, more glibly, since they believe they are stating the «bleeding obvious», they will explain a rise in the market as due to «more buyers than sellers».

But all these types of comments overlook one indisputable share market fact. That is, for every buyer, there must be a seller – there are no orphan shares. So if a seller is «profit taking», what is the buyer doing? Or, if the buyers are «bargain hunters», what does that make the sellers?

Share markets do not move because of the weight of buyers or sellers. Rather, they respond to changes in expectations of the factors that drive share prices i.e. expected profits and the discount rate used to convert those profits to today’s dollars.

Lower current share prices compared with two years ago almost certainly reflect lower expected company profits. And, perhaps, a higher discount rate (or expected return) to entice investors to take the necessary risk. It is not because investors have «fled» share markets as is often suggested in the financial media. Because, in aggregate, they simply can’t.

«The Arithmetic of Active Management»

Another prevalent example of investment gobbledygook is the claim that depressed share market conditions are best suited to active, stock picking investors as opposed to passive investors who simply hold share portfolios designed to replicate the market’s overall performance.

Since the share market peak of November 2007, hardly a day goes by without a financial journalist opining or quoting some stock broking source that «it’s a stock pickers’ market». No proof is provided. It is simply asserted.

We recently received an invitation from a major financial institution to a seminar to hear three prominent active fund managers present on why they believed they would outperform the overall share market in these difficult times. The invitation explained:

«At the peak of the bull market most fund managers were able to produce strong absolute returns with ease. Moving forward active management and fund manager skill will play a far greater role.»

The implied claims appear to be:

1. now is a good time for active funds management; and
2. you can pick the most skilled active managers.

A response to Claim 2. will need to be the topic of another article. However, in summary, the best available research suggests it is very difficult (some say, impossible) to distinguish luck from skill.

But rebutting Claim 1. doesn’t require research – simple arithmetic will do. The essential message of Nobel prize winning financial economist, Professor William Sharpe’s classic 1991 paper, «The Arithmetic of Active Funds Management», is that:

* since active and passive investors make up the entire share investor universe; and
* passive investors earn the return of the total share market less their relatively small costs

it follows that active investors, in aggregate, must also earn the same total share market return less their relatively high costs.

This will always be the case. There are not good times and bad times for active investors, compared with passive investors. In our view, given the higher costs of active investment, there are only bad times!

The moral of the story …

Often, in investment markets, propositions that sound plausible, and are being put forward by people or organisations with apparent expertise, prove to be total bunk when subjected to appropriate scrutiny.

As a smart decision maker, serious questions you should ask yourself are:

* do I have the knowledge and wisdom required to distinguish between often self serving investment gobbledygook and the opinions and research of the world’s leading financial economists and behavioural scientists;
* if not, is it the best use of my time to acquire that knowledge and wisdom;
* what are the costs, risks and foregone opportunities of not accessing that knowledge and wisdom; and
* am I prepared to accept those costs, risks and foregone opportunities?

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How Does Your Direct Mail Pull?

Assuming you have a great graphic artist who designs your marketing materials, mailers and collateral (which is a big assumption, I know)…

Where do you go to get them printed and/or mailed? How do you know which messages will be better to use? How often should you send mail out to your list?

Many small business owners I know typically do mailings hap hazzardly, meaning they plan a promotion or sale quickly to get business in the door or plan a workshop to happen in 2 weeks and then they say «I have to get a mailer out to my list».

Does this sound familiar?

I’m suggesting you plan your mailings annually along with your sales, workshops and promotions (even holiday mailings or annual update letters). Then if you can plan the design, messages, who it’s going to, how you’ll get it printed and mailed it will not only go much smoother BUT I’ll bet you get a much higher response too!

You will give yourself time to come up with a strategy rather than throwing together quick mailings which might not:

— flow with your brand
— get a clear message across
— include all pertinent info
— make them take action

Many business owners will also go to Kinko’s or Office Depot (which are great resources for some things or really last minute jobs) for their printing and then fold, stuff, label and stamp their own mailers. NO, NO, NO, depending on the number of mailers you have it could be much less expensive and less time consuming to go through a professional printer, print broker or even online and then to go to a local or online mail house for mailing services.

You don’t have to do it all yourself.

Besides, what is your hourly rate? How much is your time worth? You would most likely be better off outsourcing these types of things rather than spending your valuable time when you could be working with a client or attaining a new client instead.

While I’m on the subject, how many people do you have on your mailing list or current database? Are you including EVERYONE YOU KNOW? If not, WHY THE HECK NOT? Everyone you know will either be a prospect for your business OR a referral source without question. They all need to know what you’ve been up to or what you’re doing now in case they need your services/products or know someone who does.

I could go on and on with suggestions on who to use for printing, mailing, and all the services that go along with doing this but we’d be here forever. So, here are —

5 tips on how to manage your direct mail efficiently:

1. Plan for large mailings.

Your lists must be large, since even good response rates may fall between 2 percent and 4 percent. If you don’t have a very large list — meet more people!

2. Choose the best format.

There are three basic types of direct mail: postcards, letters and packages. Successful direct-mail letters are complex packages and if you want to virtually guarantee your mail gets opened, you can put it in a box or some bulk mailing package.

3. Assemble your campaign.

Direct-mail marketing is rarely a do-it-yourself job. The steps include: designing and printing the creative pieces, choosing the lists, and delivering them both to a mailing house for labeling and distribution. Most mailing houses will be cost effective for a minimum of 500 or more pieces for your addressing and postage handling and some can even do printing as well.

4. Test and measure results.

Direct-mail success is measured one campaign at a time. It’s essential to test various components of the campaign- -the lists, your offers and creative approaches—in order to continually improve your response rates. The key is to test just one component at a time and make incremental adjustments until your campaign produces optimal results.

5. Contact a Marketing Expert.

They can help you put a PLAN together. You don’t need to research it all or figure it all out yourself, they love to do that part. A marketing expert can help you with the campaign itself, what the message or design will be, who to send it to, when and how. They can also find the best printing, mailing and delivering resources available based on your time frame, your budget and your quantity.

I hope for your sakes you’re doing direct mailings pretty regularly in your business for part of your follow up and ongoing marketing to your list. Email is great but it certainly doesn’t reach everyone all the time so it’s not that reliable for your ONLY source of follow up marketing.

How To Cultivate Lists To Help You Pick Up Properties

If you have entered the real estate market with an aim to buy and sell properties on a fast track, then you may need to cultivate lists that can easily help you to pick up the right properties at the right price and time. Cultivating such a list is not very difficult, if you put your mind and some effort into it. Here are some tips on how to cultivate lists to help you pick up properties.

Browse Through Different Media: You should look up advertisements in various newspapers that mention sellers that are in the market with an aim to sell their properties. You can also browse through advertisements that are printed in various real estate magazines by various builders that could be offering their ready-made homes or condos for sale or even homes that are in the pre-construction stage. You can feed all this in your PC or laptop by using any spreadsheet application. You can also sort the data according to the home size, prices or any other way that you desire.

Join Your Local Real Estate Association: You can also join your local real estate association or any other forum, where people with similar interests meet on a regular basis and exchange valuable data on the real estate market. This will also help you to compile a list of sellers that want to sell their properties.

Identify Your Sellers: Your would-be sellers can be classified into separate categories. They might be investors like you, who just want to flip the property after booking their profit or they might be real estate agents or brokers trying to sell properties that belong to their clients or they might just be actual sellers. Your response to their queries should be different in each of these cases and you should develop tact and negotiation skills, in order to deal with such diverse sellers. You might also find rehabbers, who buy, renovate and sell properties. In this method, you could pick up a recently renovated home that could be as good as new.

Keep Your Eyes And Ears Open: You can also cruise around in your neighborhood and look up any moving vans that could be picking up household stuff. You could also keep in touch with the moving company employees or even the local postman that can provide you with invaluable knowledge on any of the owners, who could be moving out of the neighborhood.

Contact The Sellers: Call up the sellers from that list and note down the finer details of their properties, such as their asking price, any mortgages that might be on the property and the time frame, within which they want the deal to be completed. Next, check the property prices that are prevalent in that neighborhood, so as to come to a conclusion as to the actual rate in that neighborhood. All this data should be available at your fingertips, so that if need be, you can quickly make a decision, in case you have a ready buyer for that property.

Compile A Buyers List: Along with your sellers list, you will also need to compile and then cultivate a buyers’ list that can lift the property off your hands, as soon as you purchase it.

In order to compile and cultivate lists that help you, not only to pick up great properties, but also help you to flip them on a faster basis, you will need to merge data from various sources into a single list. Therefore, by cultivating lists, you can make faster decisions and this can help you to pick up prime properties.