Last month I was stunned to learn that over 55,000 people read my articles. This is an absolutely staggering figure given that my articles are not posted in any major publication. Today with the power of blogs, electronic news sites, Facebook, and other social media sites, anyone that wants to express an opinion or thought, can write an article and capture an audience.

Every month I write three articles. My articles include local real estate news, tips, some political commentary, and other commercial real estate related articles. These articles take time, but I have been writing them every month for over five years. Today all of these articles are archived on 22 different web sites that we support. Each article is also posted on a number of blog services, sent out to all real estate related news sources as a PR piece, and posted on a number of social media sites.

So why do I those this? Because it creates interest in me. I am now an expert. As a result, I am constantly sought after for a quote, a comment, or some type of interview. It is amazing where my stories end up. Last year a quote was taken by the Philippines major newspaper and The Wall Street Journal quotes me regularly along with The New York Times and Forbes.

All news sources are hungry for a story. Particularly as most news services are cutting back on their news departments and looking to articles like mine, for an angle to a news interest piece. It is even more important when you are in an important field like I am-commercial real estate, where there is a demand for stories, but a lack of news coverage.

As a sales-professional in any field-consider starting to write stories about your field of interest. Stick with it, the results will not be noticed overnight. Start posting your articles on blog services. Then, start looking for sites like mine, where we are willing to post your articles in exchange for posting ours. Start posting on sites like LinkedIn by finding groups that currently exist that you can join, that are hungry for content.

Anyone, regardless of experience can become a leader in his field virtually overnight with this plan. Not sure if you can write? I have great ideas but my English writing is poor. Seek out good readers that can correct your articles or hire a ghostwriter, all are affordable today.

For investors looking for deals through distressed properties you may be surprised at the competition. During the last collapse of the commercial real estate market in 1991 there were virtually no buyers. Vacancies were high, financing did not exist, and prospects for tenants were low. Today everything holds true except, there are many buyers with plenty of money all waiting to jump into the market.

Distressed property lectures, wieners, luncheons, dinners, retreats, classes, workshops abound-everyone is promoting distressed properties. New firms specializing in raising equity or raising capital to make loans are forming in large numbers. Yet, could this be all for nothing?

In order to have a distressed market, banks must take back commercial properties and be willing to discount notes to a value that meets the market wishes for a deal; or you must have owners that are willing to sell at a price that meets the economic realities of today's rental market and still allow a new investor to make money. Both of which have so far, been hard to find.

Banks today are paralyzed regarding the amount of commercial loans that are coming due or are in default. Unlike the residential market where loans are amortized and paid back over 30 years, commercial loans are typically due in 3, 5, and 7 years. The high water market deals done in 2006 and 2007 are now coming due. Banks at this point are sending mixed messages, some are foreclosing others are trying to work with the borrowers. The government is also sending mixed messages; first telling banks to reduce loan portfolio values to meet current market conditions, then telling banks they can leave their loan portfolios on the books at their original values.

Uncertainty typically creates opportunity. In this case uncertainty has created a gridlock where no one really knows what to do. The big difference is that there is a lot of cash waiting to jump into this market. In San Francisco, prices for office buildings have dropped and sold for under $200 a foot for a Class A product. This would appear to be a "steal" in terms of value, but rental rate prices are still soft and could go down further. At the prices of these current sales, $200 may be considered an expensive buy-both in the short term and in the long term.

Job growth will be the key; without it demand for commercial space will remain soft, potentially for years to come. When the market crashed in 1985, it was not until 1997 that values started to improve.

Some buyers believe that there will be another cycle of buyers that will overpay before property value will drop to its true worth. Then they will come into the market. Either way all of this distressed property discussion may turn out to be nothing more than a big hype.

In today's economic climate many businesses are facing declining sales by 20 percent or more from the time they originally signed their lease. With the prospect that sales will stay flat or continue to decline for the rest of this year and the next, businesses everywhere are trying to figure out how they can renegotiate their budgets to pay the rent. Landlords also have worries in this economic climate. Many are seeing tenants fail or come knocking on their doors for rent relief. Starboard TCN Worldwide offers a new service aimed at assisting business manage rental costs and keeping tenants in place with a lease modification service know as 'Blend and Extend'.

Starboard TCN's commercial real estate professionals set our service apart by taking the time to validate the need for a reduction. Many owners have their leases rates tied to the financing of their buildings so they have little room to work within to assist their tenants through this downturn. However, the prospect for both the tenant and the landlord is worse if the tenant's business fails and they have to vacate the building. We work to provide the necessary information to a landlord to go to their lenders or investors to support such a move.

Who is qualified for a 'Blend and Extend' lease modification? Typically you are a candidate if your firm has seen sales or revenue cut by 20 percent or more. Our real estate professionals will evaluate your business in a variety of ways. Looking at the tenant's ability to pay rent and if the business is financially strong enough to continue business through this down cycle, we will then create a matrix to present to the landlord.

Through our negotiations with the landlord we aim to lower your current rental rate for the period remaining in your lease term to an affordable rent level based on your finances. In exchange we will offer the landlord an extension of your existing term to make up the loss in rent as a result of this reduction. To fill an office or retail vacancy landlords typically have to wait three months or more before a tenant is secured and rent is collected, 'Blend and Extend' eliminates this potential period without rent income for the landlord.

If tenant improvements are required that vacancy could last considerably longer. Landlords also contribute in most cases to tenant improvements have to pay brokers, attorneys, architects and other service providers fees to secure the tenant etc. By extending the lease we calculate possible loss of revenue as part of our matrix that we present to the landlord on the tenant's behalf. This gives everyone the ability to learn that it is in the best interests of both the landlord and the tenant to consider seriously a lease modification.

If you are interested in this service please contact us at 415-765-6900. We would be more than happy to send one of our qualified agents to see if your firm would qualify.

California voters recently rejected state budget measures intended to shore up our declining budget, which has stirred up talk about the need to revisit overturning Proposition 13, particularly with commercial properties. But removing commercial real estate from Proposition 13 protection may have many unintended negative consequences for business owners.

Supporters of overturning Proposition 13 have used Bank of America to illustrate the potential revenue loss to the state of California. They suggest that Bank of America owns many branches that were purchased years ago at rates way below current market value, therefore they are taxed at a rate far below their potential reassessed values. This example is being used to show that there is somehow an inequity that needs to be corrected.

The Bank of America example, however, is misleading. Most Bank of America sites are actually under long-term leases not owned by Bank of America. These properties, like other commercial properties, are constantly being bought and sold leading to property tax adjustments.

Also, for the majority of commercial properties this model is simply not true. Unlike residential real estate, commercial properties tend to trade hands far more often thereby automatically readjusting values for tax purposes. Commercial properties require constant upgrades and tenant improvements to meet the requirements of new tenants. Every time a commercial property owner files for a building permit the cost of these improvements triggers a reassessment, effectively offsetting the effects of the Proposition 13 tax shelter.

In addition, commercial property taxes are not typically paid by the building owner but by the building tenants. Retail NNN leases have the retailer paying these taxes. In office buildings, the tenants pay any increases over a base year for property taxes. With our economy in such a poor state the last thing that retailers and businesses need is the pass-through of more taxes.

I believe that Governor Schwarzenegger said it best, "the voters have spoken and they are not interested in any tax increases". What government should focus on is spending more time living within its means rather than burden our already weak economy with more business taxes.

"No", arguably the most important word in the world. The use of the word "No" has had the most important impact for all us personally as well for everyone as a whole. "No" has lead to wars, has lead to personal failure, and has lead to lost opportunity. It has held us back and it continues to prevent us to succeed. "No" is easier to say then yes and therefore in the "ying and yang" of life it appears that it keeps us off balance.

Some people automatically say "No". My mother for instance says "No" to any opportunity first. "Mom do you want to go out today?" "No". "Mom do you want to consider this way to do it?" "No". But in my mom's case as well as many, using "No" as their first answer means they are really looking for a yes. They want to be convinced that yes is the right answer and are waiting for someone or something to convince them to say yes.

"No" is also not always a negative. It can be a positive. Take football for instance. You play offense to score, you play defense to prevent a score. Yes you want to score when you play offense and "No" you don't want the other team to score when you play defense. "No" in this case is a positive decision.

"No" can appear to be the right decision sometimes and you can convince yourself that "No" is a positive move. Yet, the decision to say "No" could have very bad consequences. Take the San Francisco Giants decision to say "No" to trading Gaylord Perry for a young up and coming rookie named Steve Carlton instead of their ultimate decision to saying yes to trading Perry for "Sudden Sam" McDowell. Perry and Carlton ending up in the Hall of Fame. "Sudden Sam" proved not to be so "Sudden" and didn't last more than a year with the Giants.

Working in sales, we know that if we make 100 cold calls, that in order to get two yeses, we have to hear "No" 98 times. But successful salespeople look at "No" differently, they look at "No" as "yes is around the corner". They look at "No" as a challenge to get a yes. They know that if they continue to work on people that say "No", eventually they will say yes.

One of the most important decisions I learned from my salesman Dad occurred when I made the sales call with him as a teenager. My Dad was all about servicing a client but his idea of servicing a client crossed way beyond just serving his product it was assisting his clients in whatever they needed whether it related to his product or not.

My dad was a manufacturer's representative and handled a number of different food related products selling to vending machine operators. One early morning, we visited a customer and my father pitched the idea to have this customer switch his current coffee brand to my dad's. My dad obviously had made this pitch a number of times before without success but this time the customer said yes and would order. Soon after, the phone rang and this customer had a major problem with a series of vending machines that were down in an important client. His mechanic was not able to fix the vending machines and the client was extremely upset. My dad immediately volunteered to help, which he did quite regularly. It took the entire day but my dad by himself helped get the machines up and running again. When he returned to his customer's office expecting to take the order they had discussed earlier that morning, the customer said, "Thanks for helping us today. However, while you were gone, the current coffee vendor came in and we gave him our order. So "No" we will not be switching coffee brands at this time."

That "No" was devastating to me. I could not understand why my Dad did not go into that customer's office and punch the guy. I asked my Dad if he were mad, he looked so calm. "Dad why did you take that?" I asked. His respond was something that I have never forgotten, "Son, we will get them the next time, he will eventually say yes." As it turned out, the customer eventually did say yes and my dad had their business for a number of years later.

Salespeople cannot exist with a negative "No". They can only exist with a "No" that will lead to a positive yes. See how you use no in your life. It has such powerful consequences on how you deal with it.

As salespeople we have a high ego drive, we are also assertive, creative and multi task well. We usually have a strong idea orientation and can think on our feet well. Typically, our knowledge base is limited in scope. We tend to know something about a lot of things. However, we are not analytic types so we tend not to know most things very thoroughly (although we may think so).

Salespeople work daily with clients that seek and truly need our ability to bounce ideas off of as well as develop quick plans of action. Our clients can be analytic types or types like us, but what happens when you run into that client that you truly know knows more than you do?

Over my twenty five years in sales and management and in my years prior to that playing in politics, I have been fortunate to have known several US Presidents, Governors and Mayors and other elected officials. I have also dealt with many heads of large corporation firms. But with meeting all of these people (most were probably a lot smarter than I am) only three people that I have ever met I felt truly intimidated by and truly unable to communicate at their level.

One attorney client of mine knew more about my business and knew more about buildings than I did but during our tours, it was clear that any topic that would arise would lead to a conversation where I would feel overmatched to discuss or debate. This client has turned out to be a close friend and we have discussed this very topic. This person is clearly able to communicate effectively with a wide variety of people, he does not come across full of himself, he simply is thoroughly knowledgeable on a number of topics.

As a salesperson when you run into people like this what is the best approach to consider and still service this client? Don't get in discussions, ask questions instead. Let your client talk, you listen and learn. There is nothing more that a person with real intelligence likes to do more than educate another. Instead of being the consultant be the driver! Learn to move the deal forward using the direction from your client not creating those directions yourself. You will never be overmatched and your client will appreciate the ability to direct and lead a deal while others are making it happen for them.

In good times with lower vacancies and higher rents, the importance of providing the highest standards of property management is not always emphasized. In fact, in a recent poll of commercial landlords the majority felt that property management firms were overall not very good. Some of the things that were pointed out were: the revolving door of property managers that came and went through their projects; lack of flexibility in accounting reports; poor follow through; lack of competing bidding on repairs and projects; and, mistakes made in operating expense pass-through calculations.

Several landlords note unless you were a large REIT that the larger commercial property management firms treated them with less service overall.

This coming year will offer many challenges to building owners such as higher vacancies, less revenues and tighter credit standards. To compete for a smaller amount of tenants, buildings will have to "shine" to win these tenants. That means from the lobby on up buildings will have to remain modern, clean and attractive while landlords have fewer funds to upgrade. Buildings will have to offer personal attention to their tenants to insure that they work with their tenants to survive these difficult times. They will also have to insure that they pass on all costs that they are legally able to pass on to insure maximum revenue.

To meet these challenges property management companies will have to change the way they do business. They will have to invest in better people; more supplicated software and provide more personal rapport with clients.

In order to meet this challenge, Starboard TCN Worldwide and Westlake Realty have formed a new company StarWest Property Management Services. StarWest combines two independent firms to provide personal leasing and management services with top-notch software applications. Westlake Realty has been providing property management services since 1972. In 2007 Westlake won the Northern California Property Management of the Year award. Westlake manages over 500 million dollars worth of real state throughout the Western United States. It offers a personalized financial application system that allows a landlord absolute review of everything that goes on with their property in a paperless world fully tailored to how the owner wants to view this information. It offers GPS technology to insure that support is provided and delivered as quickly as possible. It has long standing management staff that stays with a building.

If you are interested in learning more about StarWest please visit StarWestRealty.com or call us at 415-765-6900 for a free review of how we can handle your property management needs.

Frozen? Time to Thaw Out

As a salesperson do you feel frozen in these uncertain times? Are you finding it harder and harder to make your sales calls, concentrate on your marketing because you feel in despair? Are you having trouble simply getting starting in the morning? Welcome to the crowd. Yes it is tough out there regardless whether you are selling widgets or real estate.

Here are the hard facts. If you continue to be frozen your situation will become far worst and your future could be severely impacted. If your sales cycle takes time to develop and you have no business to count on now, you will be suffering through the next few months. But if you apply yourself and work your business for the future you will at least have a “light at the end of the tunnel”. If you spend all your time playing defensive, looking at cutbacks, figuring out how to stretch your credit lines and not spend time on developing new business you will fail.

This is not an economy that will be working anytime soon so you need to re-invent yourself quickly or face a potential real disaster. The old saying “only the strongest will survive” is truer today that ever before.

So what do you need to do? Re-engage!!!!!!!  First you have to spend every day planning your day with real goals to develop new business. Cold calls--you will commit to cold calls from 9-10 each day. Marketing--you will commit each day to developing and following on a marketing plan. Networking--you will commit each day to attend or create a networking event. This is not something you set forth to do and let anything interrupt.

You need to make sure that you do not take something to do and stretch it into your full day project and think you have accomplished something this day.

You need to figure out where in your market place there are opportunities today. Some one’s hurt means someone else’s success. Figure out where in your marketplace you can concentrate your efforts for success. Talk to your competitors, talk to your associates try to figure out how as a group you can make money together. Someone may have a good idea but can’t figure out how to finance it. Someone else has money and is looking to take advantage of opportunities but does not know where to put it. Find both sides of these players and figure out how you can put them together and make a buck yourself in the process.

Treat this marketplace like a football game. Instead of being down by 14 points with two minutes left in the 4th quarter, think of yourself in the early minutes of the first quarter. For a number of you, you currently have no significant business at hand. The results of that will hurt and there is nothing you can do about that. It is like you are down by 14 points in the first quarter but if you “thaw out” and re-engage you have a shot to still win the game and move on the next one.

As a commercial real estate broker this is my third down cycle that I have experienced. In each of the others the pattern to recovery was the same. People would lose their jobs, could not find new jobs and decided to start their own businesses to survive. The point of entry for many is to go into retail opportunities.

In November of 2007, San Francisco passed an 11-store chain rule. If a retailer has more than 11 stores anywhere in order for that retailer to be able to be allowed to go into a neighborhood they would have to go through a public review process. This is lengthy process with no assurance that the retailer will receive approval. As a result potentially successful neighborhood locations could be available for these start up retailers except for other restrictions that the city has in place that actually creates serious barriers to get through.

If a proposed retailer finds a location they cannot simply rent the place and move in. First there has to be a determination as to whether their use is considered a change of use. If it falls as a change of use then that retailer is subject to a similar lengthy review process with no guarantees of approval. In addition the retailer has to hope that the landlord will wait up to six to nine months to get approval without rent which makes the prospect of succeeding in securing a retail space even more difficult and costly.

I have a 1,200 square foot retail space for lease for a local landlord. They are anxious to lease the premises and are willing to negotiate a fair deal to get it leased. We have had numerous small business owners that have expressed serious interest to put in food type retail in this location. When they go to the building permit department we typically do not hear from them again because they immediately become discouraged at the process. We next attempted to secure an architect and an attorney that specializes in zoning issues for these potential tenants. The cost to hire them run between $6-9,000 with no assurance of success paid up front. Any retailer that starts this process is looking at 6-9 months to secure necessary approvals and building permits. Next, they have to account of construction time after receiving permits, which could take another two months. A retailer today could be a year away from opening their doors. This kills any opportunity for a small business to get started and puts further pressure on people who are only seeking a way to survive in these difficult times. This does not include the loss opportunity landlords have to secure rent. This long term will mean lower property values which means less property tax paid to the city.

San Francisco needs to create a streamlined approach to securing approvals for retailers now. The city can create a fast track system that will provide real assistance to get retailers up and running quickly. There is no reason why a small 1,200-foot retailer cannot find out whether he can occupy a space in less than 30 days. The city needs to create more jobs and real opportunity for its citizens not roadblock them. All you have to do is drive down most retail streets in our city and you can see the effect of vacant stores on the remaining businesses that are trying to make it. Lets get the city to help get these spaces filled.

When I entered the commercial real estate business back in 1984, I entered the market just as it was collapsing. My very first offer that I made for a client was at $52.00 at a time when the office vacancy rates were in the low single digits. In one year the market crashed and not only rates tumbled but large blocks of space created for large institutional users were left vacant; and, floor plates that did not work for the smaller independent firms were left to make a deal during this market cycle.

Today I will receive this typical call. "There is so much office space out there we must be seeing a major drop in office prices." Yet the reality is if you are looking for less than 5,000 square feet the opposite is true. Yes rates are dropping slightly but the vacancy rate in this sector is still in the low single digits. Where vacancies are increasing the most are in full floor plates that housed financial institutional users. In order to divide these floors to meet a smaller market it is extremely expensive and also expensive to remove when the market turns positive again and these users come back to the market.

What was created was the "magic line". Landlords and sub-leasers that were stuck with larger floor plates would rent less space to tenants with the understanding that if they crossed the magic line they would then be charged for the additional space. Often this allows smaller firms time to enjoy space on higher floors to take advantage of better views and better overall identity for their firms. It also offers flexibility to allow growth without paying for office space until you need it. It also works great for allowing a firm that needs to downsize to stay in their existing space by working with the landlord and creating a magic line to save a tenant instead of losing a tenant all together.

For more ideas regarding how you can use the "magic line" or deal with your office space in a down market call us at 415-765-6900 we would be more than happy to help.