Hotel Valuation, A Quick and Dirty Guide

We are in the midst of the 30 days of content from TRET and on the heels of our post about the W Hotel, here is a quick guide on how to price hotels. The Arrowfish Consulting blog has a great article on hotel valuation. This article is a great reference for anyone looking to get a basic understanding of how to value hotel properties. This article highlights the following methods:

Real Estate Blogs: The Lay of the Land

Normally we at TRET are content to remain in our corner of the real estate blogosphere, offering insightful content on all things real estate. The state of real estate blogging, however, has changed in the 13 years since this blog has begun and it is necessary to take a look at the types of real estate blogs that populate the Internet in 2024. There are a multitude of topics on which real estate blogs can focus, from commercial real estate, to real estate investment to lending and mortgage markets. There is also no shortage of target audiences for a real estate blogger, including real estate brokers, first time homebuyers, real estate technology users and even bankers. The variety of options available has made this subset of blogs significantly larger than when TRET first began.  For reasons of formatting and redundancy, this article will not merely be a list of reviews of other real estate blogs. There are a number of websites that already successfully provide extensive reviews of the real estate blogosphere like: The Close or Feed Spot, among others. Instead, the purpose of this article is to organize, categorize and put a face on the large and growing ecosystem of real estate blogs, in order to make this corner of the Internet a little less daunting.

What Will Each of the Candidates Do For the Real Estate Market If They Are Elected President?

The 2024 presidential election is coming up in four months and on July 21, 2024, President Joe Biden formally announced that he was withdrawing from the presidential race. This left the Democratic party with a decision which was ultimately made July 30^th, when they name Vice President Kamala Harris as their endorsed candidate for president. With both candidates for president unequivocally named, let’s look at what both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris might do to or for the real estate market if elected as president.

Digitization and the Real Estate Professional

There is no denying that the role and purpose of a real estate professional has changed over the past five years. From advances in artificial intelligence, to the popularity of digital real estate, to the presence of large full service real estate companies in the market, like Zillow 2024, this market is very different from that of 2019. Add to this mix the weakening of real estate professional organizations, like the National Association of Realtors via the NAR settlement and it becomes even more apparent that the real estate service market is in a state of change. Given the current state of flux in the market, some have begun to question the role of a real estate professional. It has therefore become imperative that real estate professionals recognize their current competitive advantages in order to thrive.

2023 Recap (No Clever Title This Time)

Yet another year has come and gone for TRET and it’s time for our annual wrap up. Let’s start with this blog. This year started for us with a focus on individual wealth generation through real estate. This noble goal dominated the blog for the first couple of months of the year and was continued in an expert fashion by this year’s guest writer—Sharon Wagner. All of our residential real estate articles have had a wealth generation theme and we will continue to honor this commitment to wealth generation going forward.

There’s No Place Like Home For the Holidays: A Look At The Multifamily Market

Thanksgiving has passed and the holiday season has officially begun, so it is only natural that TRET finishes its real estate asset class series with a look at home—multifamily properties. Also, for those who consider the holidays a time to get away, we’ll also take a look at the state of hospitality properties, as well.

Industrial Real Estate: A Normal Market for a Somewhat Normal Time

Recently coming off the effects of nearly two years of rising interest rates by the Federal Reserve, the real estate market has been in a state of constant change for the past 18 months. As this blog has extensively discussed, real estate is very dependent on interest rates, as they influence property loans, cap rates and ultimately, property prices. Despite the recent period of adjustment, the economy seem to show signs of normalization, with mortgage rates, consumer loan rates and even treasury rates settling at levels much higher than those of the previous two years. By all indicators, it seems like our economy and we seem headed for a soft landing. No market has internalized the current state of the economy more than the Industrial Real Estate market.

Retail Real Estate Is Thriving, But How?

Picture it, the year is 2023. Any and every item that can be bought sold can be accesses via the Internet from the comfort of one’s own home. For over seven years, the number of stores in existence has steadily declined. The economy is experiencing the perfect storm of rampant inflation and recessionary forces. Despite all of this, retail real estate vacancy nationwide is 5.4% and retail is thriving. Let’s take a look at why.

Is the American Office Market Dead?

There was a time in the not too distant past when I considered office properties “the best of all worlds.” They offered the flexibility to create leases that were in between the detailed relationships established by industrial and retail properties and the more straight-forward residential lease. Rental calculations were relatively simple—base rent plus utilities and any tenant improvement allowances. Occasionally, common area improvements or maintenance factored into the equation. The property was typically used from 7 am until 7 pm, so utilities were relatively low and predictable. Wear and tear on the property was much less than any other real estate property class.

The necessity of office space was at one point unquestioned and tenants were readily available. Space considerations were for the most part limited to whether the location was large enough and had enough amenities or services to meet the tenants needs. Leases were easy to enter, easy to renew and easy to understand. For owners, office properties offered many of the benefits of owning a commercial property with fewer of the complexities that come with other property types.

Real Estate Is Power

Lost in all the talk about real estate markets and real estate wealth generation is one key fact—real estate ownership is one of the surest ways to consolidate influence and power. If you don’t think this is true, simply look up the largest land owners in each major US city and follow the trail of their political contributions and donations. Large land owners can exert a tremendous amount of influence on neighborhoods and local laws. One very public example of this is Dan Gilbert, whose mortgage and real estate empire influences the entire Midwest, but also Detroit and Cleveland in particular. Even former president Trump, who has a less than stellar reputation in the New York real estate market, was able to parlay a real estate empire into a presidency.

Discipline and the Down Payment: Using Your Superpower To Get Paid!

Real estate is about asset and cashflow management. Put more simply, it’s about managing what you have. The right purchase exchanges your resources, in the form of cash, into a property, contract, tax lien, note or some other real estate asset. Once you have obtained a property, decisions have to be made regarding its repair, management and sale, if that is your plan. No matter where you are in the process—purchasing, managing, or selling, discipline is key.

One of the most controllable aspects of our lives is our behavior. How we act and respond to the world shapes our present and our future. Our ability to act in a way that brings about our desired outcomes is uniquely ours and belongs to no one else. In that way, discipline is our superpower. 

2021: What A Year

Ok, I’ll admit it…I wasn’t prepared for the impact that returning to work in person would have on my life and on TRET. Now, 2021 is coming to an end and I find myself yet again writing another end-of-the-year post in which I am apologizing for the recent inactivity on this awesome blog. This time, however, it’s a little different.

2021 marked 10 years since I published the first post on this blog. At the time I was real estate agent and teacher who was about to begin law school and was looking for ways to better understand real estate modeling and real estate finance. I hoped to create a community of like-minded people so that we could explore ways to better value real estate properties and mortgages and discuss the market. Ten years and many experiences later this blog has grown and transformed into a general forum on all things real estate and I am amazed at the direction it has taken. 2021 has been an amazing year for TRET, so let’s take a look at the year in review.

The End of Summer

Stephon Martin

August is coming to a close and although Summer isn’t officially over until September 23^rd, the end of August has an unofficial feel of transition. School will soon have begun for all children in the United States and the country will attempt to push forward out of the shadow of COVID-19. Some areas will forge ahead more successfully than others, but an attempt will be made by all. The beginning of September means that the holiday season is just around the corner. With the impending change of the season, how will the real estate market be affected?