The New York City Sales Market is Heating Up

Peter Boritz, President of RDM, reviews the first quarter of the year and offers his thoughts on the industry in the upcoming months.

After a 91% drop in sales volume in 2008 and 2009, the New York City market is making a comeback; with more buildings coming onto the market since 2008. In addition, sale prices are on the rise as buyers begin to outnumber sellers.This turn in the economy has lead to some “testing” of the market. One asset had 20 bidders until an all cash deal was complete for a large Time Square building. At RDM, we have seen a spike in our building measurement services, creating REBNY and BOMA calculations along with updated floor plans to support sales and marketing.

I’m cautiously optimistic about this thaw as we wrap up the first quarter of the year. It will be interesting to see where buildings trade at. It is clear there is a lot of money on the sidelines just waiting to get in the game.

See Peter's full video synopsis of the market on RDM's YouTube Channel.
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Building an Online Presence for your Business

(This article can be found on Commercial Property Executive's Real Take blog where RDM President Peter Boritz blogs about topics in Technology and Real Estate.)

Creating an “Online Presence” for your business means more than simply having a company website. In today’s information-hungry world, your business should have multiple means to get messages to new and prospective clients, as well as industry-related news and articles to show that you are staying on top of the industry.

As the market begins to thaw, now is a great time to review your company’s online strategies and, if necessary, make improvements. Here are five tips to help get you on the way to building an online presence for your business.

Step 1: Define goals and modify your company’s website to support your goals
• Create goals that include ways to differentiate your business from your competitors and focus on capturing leads.
• Keep in mind that your company website should be concise and to the point with a homepage which answers what your company does and why customers trust your business.
• Create a “Contact” page which clearly explains to customers how to get in touch with your business. Remember, your website serves as the hub for your business, be sure to include all of your other web efforts, such as blogs, on your contact page.

Step 2: Create a company blog
• Maintaining a company blog shows new and existing clients you are an expert in the industry and as such you are current on topics and issues which may arise.
• Use your blog to provide opinions about the market, be a voice of the company and stay in contact with new and existing clients. Blogging serves as a great way to get repeat visitors to your website and can create a sense of trust in your business making new clients more likely to utilize your services.
• Check out some of the free blog sites such as Blogger, Wordpress or TypePad to start your blog and be sure to provide a link it to your website and let your clients know about your blogging efforts.

Step 3: Email marketing
• Email marketing techniques are a simple and fast way to build leads from your website visitors. Provide an email signup on your website to allow visitors to join your company email list.
• Create email marketing initiatives such as newsletters, client announcements and upcoming company events which can be sent to those on your list.

Step 4: Use Social Media
• Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are perfect resources for connecting with your clients and other professionals in your industry. With an effective website and blog in place, the addition of a Facebook Fan Page and Twitter campaign will help turn one-time visitors into connected consumers who are able to receive updates, links and other information about your company.
• Utilize social networking to improve your company’s SEO.

Step 5: Online Video
Online videos give you the ability to demonstrate your products or services to prospective and existing customers rather than tell them about it. Some things to keep in mind:
• Keep your video between 30 seconds and 2 minutes long
• Be sure voiceovers are understandable
• If you place music in the video, make sure it isn’t overpowering
• Always remember to keep your message simple and to the point
• Embed your video on your company website and add a “share this” button for others to easily send to their social networks

For more on how to Build Your Business Online Presence, see Peter’s video on CPE TV
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RDM Goes to Washington

On Tuesday, March 16th, Bisnow held its first annual Washington Real Estate Summit at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel. Over 700 real estate professionals made their way to D.C. to discuss the future of the real estate industry. Featuring CEO’s from Cushman & Wakefield, Vornado and CBRE (see the full list here); the panelists were overall optimistic about real estate’s future but agreed that job creation is a key factor. For a full breakdown of the event, check out Bisnow’s 2-part write-up.

RDM President Peter Boritz went to D.C. to address the audience of over 700 on the importance of accurate building measurements and maintaining up-to-date stacking diagrams in this uncertain economy. Boritz demonstrated RDM’s line of web-based space management solutions which ensure stacks and floor plans are always current by linking to accounting systems such as Yardi and MRI. These cost-effective solutions allow property owners and managers the convenience of doing more with less as well as the place them in a better position when the market turns around. The presentation was well-received in an area which is currently evolving.

Based in New York City, RDM provides building measurement and on-demand space management solutions for the real estate industry and has completed over 750 million square feet of projects in over 1,500 buildings coast to coast. Currently, RDM serves over 5 million square feet of office space in the D.C. area and proudly helped sponsor the Bisnow event.
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6 Reasons to Check Your Lease’s Operating Expense Bill

(This guest article was contributed by Marc Betesh, Esq., MCR from KBA's Lease Tips)

Landlords are devoting more time and professional resources to increase revenue. As evidence of this, landlord-oriented articles are appearing in various publications suggesting how to uncover hidden income from tenants through greater attention to tenant pass-throughs. See this recent article entitled "Revenue Recovery" in Commercial Investment Estate Magazine in which the author states, "the new year presents the perfect opportunity for landlords to review lease terms and billing procedures."

Now more than ever, tenants should be reviewing their leases and bills to make sure they do not contain overcharges or errors. Here are 6 reasons why tenants should increase their vigilance with respect to operating expenses and other pass-through charges:

1. Operating expense and tax pass-throughs are expensive.
Real estate can be one of a company’s most significant expenses, and commercial leases are one of its key components. Up to 70% of the cost of a lease can represent the tenant’s obligation to share in building operating costs, taxes and utilities.

2. Mistakes happen.
Because leases are complex, it is common for tenants to be incorrectly billed. Errors can range from simple miscalculations to wholesale misinterpretations of lease language. Many mistakes are unintentional; some are not. Regardless of the cause, errors can result in significant overcharges over time. For examples of the types of errors that occur, see our list of Sample Issues.

3. You don’t get the special treatment you deserve.
While most commercial leases share a common basic structure, leases are individually negotiated and almost always contain unique terms that must be applied to each tenant’s bill separately. Many landlords do not bill each tenant according to their individually negotiated lease terms, but instead follow the building’s standard lease.

4. Your landlord’s CPA’s certification doesn’t mean your bills are correct.
Even though your landlord’s CPA firm may have certified your landlord’s financial records, they almost never certify each tenant’s bill. Furthermore, landlords’ CPA firms typically certify that the operating expenses are properly treated from an owner’s point of view for financial reporting purposes, not from the point of view of a lease pass-through clause. (For a more detailed discussion of lease audit deadlines, see our LeaseTip™ “A CPA Certification is Not Enough.”)

5. The burden’s on you to find errors.
At the beginning of each year, landlords reconcile their buildings’ actual expenses with the amounts contributed by their tenants during the prior year. They then issue adjusting statements that settle each tenant’s liability and establish the new estimates for the current year. Even though landlords must follow their leases when issuing these statements, the burden is on the tenant to identify errors and bring them to their landlords’ attention. If they don’t the bills are considered conclusive and binding.

6. Time works against you.
Leases give tenants very short windows (usually 30-120 days) to object to billing errors. If the tenant does not object in time or does not follow the correct procedures, the statements are deemed correct and errors are no longer fixable. (For a more detailed discussion of lease audit deadlines, see our LeaseTip™ “Negotiating Lease Audit Rights.”)

About Marc E. Betesh
Marc Betesh, President and founder of KBA Lease Services, is considered to be one of the country’s leading experts on lease language construction, lease expenses and effective lease negotiation strategies. Mr. Betesh has been consistently ranked among the “top-ranked faculty” at Corenet Global Learning and is a frequent lecturer on lease topics at New York University’s Real Estate Institute, American Bar Association, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York State Society of CPA’s, ICSC, and the Institute of Internal Auditors. Mr. Betesh is a member of the New York and New Jersey Bars, is a Board Member of the NYC Chapter of CoreNet, and is a member of AECRE, ICSC, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York State and American Bar Associations. He has his JD from Georgetown University and a BA from Temple University.

About KBA Lease Services
For 25 years, KBA Lease Services has been recognized as the signature firm in lease auditing. KBA focuses on recovering rent overcharges and reducing short and long-term occupancy costs for hundreds of companies nationwide in virtually every industry.
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