What type of companies do you work with? We typically work with commercial real estate investment, development, capital markets, brokerage, and corporate teams. Some of our clients are small, one-person
This broker brought big-city polish to an undeserved geographical market and carved out a winning niche for himself.
Saber Equity is leveraging expertise in hospitality to build a niche converting hotels into apartments. Here’s how.
CF Capital shares how they are building an effective multifamily organization by focusing on the right people decisions at the right times.
We speak with Bullpen freelancer and BofA affordable housing VP Edd Hamzanlui on what it takes to succeed in the affordable housing investment landscape.
Bullpen freelancer Asheesh Patel’s journey from full-time professional to student to freelancer points to the unexpected benefits of freelancing for motivated professionals.
Does a Whole Foods command a higher cap rate than Kroger? Here are a few tips for analyzing grocery-anchored retail properties.
A real estate marketer can mean a lot of things, but at Bullpen, we use the term “marketer” to describe design professionals. Companies that hire marketers typically need help creating
You’ve made it to the interview stage! At this point, our Talent team has already vetted your candidate for their background and soft skills. Now, it is your turn to
Corporations like WalMart and McDonalds are some of the largest real estate tenants and owners in the country. With the insatiable desire to grow, corporations with physical stores hire corporate
As commercial real estate firms continue to grow and scale, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of the money that flows through each property in the portfolio. For this
Commercial real estate is a business built on comparables. That is to say that the prices investors or tenants are willing to pay for a property are typically based on
Leases are the lifeblood of a commercial property. The income that they produce is used to pay for a property’s operating expenses/debt service and anything left over is distributed to
Nearly all commercial real estate investment transactions are financed with some combination of debt and equity. Debt is usually obtained from a bank or real estate lender while equity is
Developing a commercial real estate project from the ground up and/or performing a major renovation is an exercise in planning, logistics, and execution. Each new project has dozens of moving
In this article, I’m going to use the term analyst to represent underwriters, financial modeling professionals, and commercial real estate analysts. At a high level, the job responsibilities of an
As the name suggests, the job of an “Asset Manager” is to manage the performance of your commercial real estate asset. On a day to day basis, common tasks include:
So, the question is, why are workers leaving in droves and what can employers do about it?
While the future can be notoriously difficult to predict in a fast-changing industry like electric automobiles, we think that potentially lucrative real estate markets share five characteristics …
When Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of 1986, it was then-President Reagan’s top domestic priority and it was a landmark piece of legislation. The purpose of the law was to simplify the tax code, reducing the number of tax brackets and lowering the top tax rate from 50% to 28%. But, that wasn’t the only major change. The law also created the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC Program).
We often come across the term institutional, but what is the actual definition? I was surprised to find there is no standard definition of institutional in commercial real estate. Yet, the distinction between institutional and non-institutional is very real and recognizable, including in the way the investment is modeled and reported.
The basic premise of a commercial real estate investment is this: a property is purchased, the space within it is leased to rent paying tenants, rental income is used to
On July 11th, 2021 UK entrepreneur, Virgin Galactic founder, and billionaire, Sir Richard Branson successfully completed the first private space flight. It lasted roughly an hour, reached an altitude of
What you need is a team. However, the ebbs and flows of the real estate investment business make hiring full-time employees risky.
Commercial real estate investment strategies can be broken down into four categories: Core, Core Plus, Value-Add, and Opportunistic. These terms are used by commercial real estate investors as shorthand for the risk profile, quality, location and strategy of an individual property.
The operating expense ratio, or “OER”, is a simple formula that’s easy to calculate and reveals how efficiently a property runs on a day-to-day basis.
A project’s cost is a function of the number of hours that it takes to complete it so providing an accurate estimate is critically important. Get it right and you’ll deliver within the client’s budget. Get it wrong and you risk upsetting them.
A broker’s price opinion (BPO or sometimes referred to as a broker’s opinion of value, BOV) is an analysis performed by a commercial real estate broker that provides an estimate of value or price for real estate.
The New Markets Tax Credits program, or NMTC, is a component of the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000. The goal of the program is to stimulate investment in low-income areas. Commercial real estate developers use the NMTC program to secure advantageous debt and equity terms for developments.
Use the following 8 tips to level up your multifamily real estate modeling!
A Ground Lease, sometimes called a Land Lease, is a long term lease whereby a property owner agrees to lease their land to an investor/developer.
Freelancer etiquette matters, and by avoiding a few common pitfalls, you’ll be well on your way to building a successful, freelance career. First, a familiar movie narrative …
Here are seven creative ways to find new brokerage clients in any market. Add these to your tried and true arsenal and you’ll be building a powerful book of business in no time.
Most commercial leases are dense and complex. A lease abstract makes the information more digestible by outlining pertinent financial, business, and legal provisions.
A real estate offering memorandum (also referred to as equity offering package or investment memo) is used by sponsors, developers, and other real estate professionals who raise money to invest
At Bullpen, we ask our analyst candidates a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions to determine their competency. We’ve curated some of our favorite …
If you’ve been following Bullpen’s blog for a while, you’ve probably started to notice that we’re transitioning our excel-based real estate financial models to Google Sheets.
Top real estate acquisition teams review hundreds, if not thousands, of deals per year. A deep-dive analysis on every deal isn’t possible. Instead, deal teams run a “back of the
CAM charges describe the expenses a commercial property owner bills back to tenants in return for maintaining shared spaces. CAM is one of the most important concepts to grasp in
Real estate development is like walking through a minefield with a 5-year-old map. It’s fraught with risks and unknown variables. Underwriting models do a great job of showing your assumptions,
Financial modeling is the most foundational skill in commercial real estate. However, the underwriting process usually involves an underwriting tool that is filled with headaches …
Many new brokerage businesses are built on the fallacy that “hustle” is the key to success. Influencers in the brokerage community preach hard work, grinding, cold calling, early morning routines
REO (Real Estate Owned) real estate refers to bank and angency owned properties transferred to the bank/agency due to a foreclosure or breach of lending contract.
Justin Kivel, Founder of Break Into CRE, has done what many entrepreneurs dream of doing, evolving an idea into a successful business (from 0 to 1 in the words of
There are many questions as to what the post-COVID “new normal” will look like for multifamily operations. I would submit that the “new normal” has already begun in the sense
Many believe that multifamily is the easiest of all asset classes to underwrite. While this may be true, multifamily properties have their own set of unique challenges. Follow these 6
When acquiring improved commercial real estate, you have many things to worry about. The first step in a successful acquisition is to be and stay organized. The following ‘Improved Real
The following blog is a compilation of teaching notes and best practices for the creation of an institutional quality real estate investor presentation from my “Real Estate Capstone” course at
A good development project starts with the land. Watch as consultant Marina Gitas shows Greg Dickerson how she analyzes a potential development using both a back-of-envelope model and a detailed
In 2010, there were 600 standalone co-working locations – today, there are nearly 50,000. We can expect that period of exponential growth to come to a grinding halt. As I
Site visits are a key component of due diligence and can often be overlooked. A wise buyer will dig deep on environmental hazards, ingress/egress and easements, parking, and more. These principles apply across real estate asset classes and should be considered for any acquisition.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of free investment models online to help maneuver the seemingly complex world of commercial real estate valuation. Many of these models, however, are overly
LGIS Group offers the first patented investment-grade insurance coverage against foreclosure and deficiency loss for short term commercial real estate loans. Commercial real estate professionals are often asked how to
There a benefits and drawbacks to creating a remote team, actively building a bridge between communication gaps gives you the benefit of a powerful team in house and remotely.
Opportunity zones are a hot topic in commercial real estate. Why? Investors receive big tax benefits when investing in these government-designated areas. However, no good thing comes without risk. Read
What is Bullpen? Bullpen connects expert commercial real estate freelancers with top companies who value time and efficiency. Like a staffing agency? Not really. Bullpen leverages its web platform to
This piece is an excerpt from a recent interview with Lawrence Vo, a Bullpen freelance analyst and data center expert. In the interview, we discussed Lawrence’s background as well as
The planning process is the most important part of a New York real estate development project. One key component of this process is a market analysis (or location study). A
Content is king. Commercial real estate gurus are embracing the new age of content marketing, creating impressive online followings. These content creating influencers use podcasts, vlogs, and interviews to get
Your commercial real estate analyst might be good, but nobody is immune to human error. Long hours and monotonous PowerPoints will cause even the most diligent real estate analyst to
The planning process is the most important part of a commercial real estate development project. One key components of this process is a market analysis (or location study). At Bullpen,
The situation … You run a small real estate investment/development organization. You have a ton of work … modeling new deals, pursuing relationships with brokers, and running your current deals.
Why pay for a degree in real estate when you can learn how to model commercial real estate from the best on Youtube? We’ve compiled a list of the top
What is it? Equity multiple is the second most popular profitability metric for real estate investors and developers. How is it calculated? Equity multiple describes the number of times an
What is it? Yield (also known as Cash on Cash Return) is a popular commercial real estate return metric. It measures the cash paid to investors on invested capital in
What is it? IRR, or Internal Rate of Return, is the most commonly used profitability metric in commercial real estate. Why is it so popular? Unlike other return metrics, IRR
When underwriting your property, an analyst can “engineer” an investment IRR by adjusting the debt or business strategy in the pro forma.
Approaching experienced professionals as a novice in any industry can be nerve racking. Before meeting an experienced broker, master your knowledge, position, and questions. Use the following strategies when talking
Analysts work on a vast array of tasks, but what are the top 3 commercial real estate analyst tasks? Using data collected from hundreds of Bullpen projects, we’ve compiled a
As a Bullpen freelance analysts, you’ll regularly meet with potential clients on the phone. During the phone interview, clients want to learn about you and your background. Most importantly, they’ll
In 1978, the government implemented the federal historic tax credit program in an attempt to curb the demolition of historic buildings. The goal of the credit is to incentivize real
Due Diligence refers to the time after signing a purchase contract that a buyer has to inspect a property. During this time the buyer is able to make a decision
Alternative (or non-traditional) assets are important for portfolio diversification because they allow investors to distribute risk across several investments, rather than build their portfolio (and potential risk) around a single
The United States accounts for $1.6 trillion of the global tech industry, which makes it the number one contributor in the world. It’s expanding at about twice the rate of overall
An equity waterfall, also known as a distribution waterfall, maps cash flow between sponsors (general partners) and limited partners of a private equity fund. A fund’s limited partnership agreement describes the terms of
One of the biggest challenges that small to medium-size investors and developers face when building a commercial real estate syndicate is finding qualified investors. We’ve compiled business tips that the
You pay your commercial real estate analyst a salary, but how much time do you get in return? Assuming 52 weeks per year and an average work week of 40
Commercial real estate developers in the U.S. are eager to invest in opportunity zones (OZs), federally-designated areas where real estate investors can get a significant capital gains tax deferral. Sales in
The commercial real estate market is more competitive than ever. How do you write a compelling commercial real estate offer on a potential purchase? Ask good questions! A seller will
1. Account for adequate vacancy and downtime during renovation period A rolling renovation of multifamily units creates a sustained period of vacancy in the property. It’s important to consider the
Commercial real estate analysts are the fingers of the industry. A good real estate analyst can be a game changer for a growing investment firm, developer, or debt/equity broker. At Bullpen,
A commercial lease governs the relationship between a landlord and a commercial tenant. There are seven main types of commercial leases, each of which comes with a different set of
1. Reduce and control fixed costs: Real Estate investors and developers remember the Great Recession and recall the pain of layoffs. Fixed costs are defined as costs that are constant
INTERNAL RATE OF RETURN (“IRR”) IRR is a return metric that considers the time value of money and the impact of re-invested distributions. It is also referred to as “economic
