S.E.C. Real Estate Observer

When I asked other S.E.C.s how much they prepared for a meeting, the response I got most often was “Preparation…Hell, I’m too busy ‘to prepare’,” hence, Preparation…H. As I look back at my thirty years in the Society, I’m in the same boat. We are all running hard and fast between business, family, and life in general, but how much time do you actually spend preparing for a meeting? How do you prepare?

1. Evaluate the Overall Market. [a.] Frequently, a problem with a hotel is not isolated to that hotel itself. The overall market has been impacted [...]

The client is desperate to transact the listed property to get off of the loan payments and get enough cash to solve some other issue. The listed price is $600K, but the current market will only bring $500K and the client is still in yesteryear on values. The loan is $350K. An S.E.C. broker knows that there are many ways to get people to their objectives over the resistance of advisors, lenders, third party influence, etc. One solution is to disguise the fall in value and avoid the seller’s lack of reality.

My Dad, a depression baby, used to tell me, “Boy, if you are not moving forward, you are backing up.” At no time in my life has this been truer than the last two years. The capital markets are in a shambles, residential real estate values have gone down by up to 50% in parts of the country and commercial real estate is about to realize huge resets.

The TV ad for Priceline “pick your own price,” using humorist William Shatner of “Boston Legal,” encourages the consumer guy to “no, no, don’t settle, keep negotiating,” until the guy gets the $250.00 hotel room for $99.00 = “Now you’re negotiating!” …Probably the same advice is appropriate for today’s real estate market. What was a GREAT deal two years ago is not even close to a FAIR deal today. The few left with cash and credit are sitting on the sidelines and don’t know what to do, or they want both your daughters and your mistress or they won’t play.

The recently well attended S.E.C. meeting in Carefree, Arizona, was the epitome of a selfless collaboration of problem solving professionals. The treasure trove of experience, knowledge and creativity highlighted a most productive marketing session.

If you own a piece of land and would like to receive the highest value, but you are currently unable to sell it for that value, consider adding some cash to your land and exchanging it for some existing or to be created notes.

When you open a newspaper or any type of magazine, what do you see or read about? The key words today are Global Markets, Credits Crisis, Recession, Depression, Bail Out, The Big Three, Car Czar, Oversight, Failure, Housing Crisis, Obama’s Plan, and Fraud. Based on what we read, a normal person would dig a hole, crawl in, and wait for the sunshine of a new beginning…the decision of indecision.

Now that cash is king again because there is only 20% of what earlier was available to do real estate transactions compared to 2006 as sources for a lot of the prior available cash have been cut off by the “crisis” (i.e., less equity = no equity loans, no buyers = no cash out = lowering prices = no speculation = major reduction in interest in real estate as “upside” isn’t assumed anymore). So, some owners have increased MOTIVATION to get a SOLUTION [...]

Now that a year has passed since brokers realized the 12 years of free-flowing cash and lenders has disappeared from the R.E. market, some have learned to be good client counselors in order to be able to put closed transactions on the table. The first multi-leg transaction I ever put together (right after taking weeklong “The Reno Class” = Modern Real Estate Exchanging, which was a requirement in those days for an invite to S.E.C.), caused me to name the technique “STONE SOUP”. [...]