S.E.C. Real Estate Observer

Buy virtually anything at a “20% to 80% discount”???
Looking for a creative idea for a business client? Try this techno-twist on an old formula:
Through a new and innovative software technology developed called: “Market Maker,” your business can now use its services or products as a median to purchase other services and products they would ordinarily [...]

How many times have we all been involved with someone representing a property we wanted to purchase (or lease) for our client and we thought that the broker on the other side would kill the deal from sheer ignorance?
Are you guilty of saying, “I just wish that he would get out of the way and [...]

The hue and cry of most real counselors is, “The broker doesn’t have any idea what it takes to make a deal with his client = no counseling!” “How do we get past the broker to interview the signer of the deed?”
If the questionable broker overhears the comment(s), his usual response is, “Make an offer [...]

Attention Developers: New “Gap in the Market” found.
Ed Ryland, CCIM, is a commercial real estate broker in Houston, Texas. He holds a BA from William Penn College. Ed is a recognized leader in the real estate community as former President of the Houston Association of Real Estate and former Chairman of Houston Association of Realtors [...]

“In any business transaction, you must hire professionals”.
In real estate and business transactions, we hire professionals and pay them by the hour. Do you ever consider just picking your attorney’s or CPA’s brain on a few items? Then you write the contracts/legal stuff yourself? With your CPA, do you take the appropriate actions based on [...]

Chuck Chatham once said: “You have two ears and one mouth - that should tell you something.”
Here are a couple of counseling stories to illustrate the point.
Flying High
When I first started to counsel, I quickly learned the tape recorder is an immense help. Clients knew I had a record of what was said, and I [...]

Marketing sessions for years have employed a person to function as a protagonist. Unfortunately, in too many instances, this person acts as an antagonist. Historically, this individual, labeled the moderator, adopts a supervisory role in the presentation process. In most cases, for somewhere between five to fifteen minutes, the moderator asks questions of a presenter [...]

Remember in the early 80’s when Congress passed very favorable tax laws for real estate like shorter depreciation schedules for commercial real restate structures? The commercial real estate market took off and everyone wanted to invest and take advantage of the favorable treatment allowed. The commercial real estate market was booming!

Then Congress, in its infinite [...]

Most if not all of us have had to sign a personal guarantee. A bank or other credit lender to further facilitate and securitize a loan usually requests this. It generally means that if the loan is in default the creditor may seek further restitution by filing a legal action against the guarantor personally for [...]

Charles C. Chatham’s initials were of course, C. C. C.
and he was the man who made clients into counselees.
He taught us to gather information we cannot today
to help the client avoid the IRS to excessively pay.
The data was to be used for clients’ benefits first
and foremost, not to take advantage to enrich self,
but many used [...]