The governor issued the veto less than an hour before the deadline late Sunday night and did not immediately issue a statement. houstonchronicle.com/politic…

Been a slow real estate year, but we finally got one under contract. Cypress Texas, here we come.

Congratulations to the @doc2doc_lending team businesswire.com/news/home/2…

We ask all tenant reps to work landlord rep or do some investment sales underwriting for a bit when joining our firm. This is what we hope they learn: 1. Fixed renewal options are the equivalent of caps on the owner’s value. Memorize this. 2. Free rent up front vs lower overall base rent maximizes the value of the lease even if it all equals the same total rent. This is because you can CAP income after the free rent period if it’s within a few months of the expected closing. If it’s not, a seller credit for those months is still better than the impact of lower overall rent on the center. 3. Buying up the rent to get more TI has a negative impact on the property after you exceed the market rents. 4. Warranties on HVAC plumbing without a one time event or end date negatively impact the value as that gets priced in to underwriting and budgets indefinitely 5. Rights of first refusal to purchase destroy the marketability of the property 6. Renewal options that exceed the base year term in length are a tenants hedge against rent growth and cost the landlord more than they gain from the lease. 7. Excluding things like the management fee from the CAM language leads to slippage and lower value of the property disproportionate to the actual amount of the tenants share of the fee. 8. Excluding uses or overly aggressive exclusives reduces the marketability of the remainder of the building and increases the vacancy add on risk when valuing the property. 9. Vague or generous assignment language often leads to low quality operators and increased default risk. 10. TI landlord work letter, it’s still TI. Most corporate work letters do not adjust for each building and cost the landlord far more than the tenant who has more discretion to adjust based on the specific building. It’s also hard to price and slows lease negotiations way way down. 11. RFP. You aren’t getting your client access to the full market by sending these asking how many days a week janitorial is offered. Office brokers try this and frustrate retail brokers who know you can’t compare sites on a grid. Two centers right next to each-other are often not even comparable. Elbow space? Proximity to a light? Curb cut? Orientation? A 22 page RFP asking landlords to price out your work letter and submit an offer to a tenant who has never done a tour with the landlord? No. 12. The tenant use is more important than the rent. That’s why we ask “what use?” Before answering what the rent is. Don’t be cagey with the tenant info. Who are they? What do they do? How many locations? Saying “can’t disclose” Wastes everyone’s time if there are exclusives that prevent the use or the landlord just doesn’t like it for their center. If the tenant is a true traffic draw or low risk, you might see better quoted terms. Take the time to make your tenant a landlord pitch deck 13. Not every landlord wants the longest lease term possible. A few reasons they may want shorter? To stagger the expirations so that no more than 30% roll in a year, or because the commissions are throwing off the deal and that’s one way to get it back on track, or the landlord has a different long term plan for the property that may be inhibited by a long lease. In general, we’ve seen tenant reps finish their time “on the other side” with more empathy which leads them to be more creative in offering solutions and close more deals.

We want to thank all of our investors who joined us on this latest project, we were able to purchase these 2 properties next to a property we already owned giving us a large presence in the sub market with a sub 4% vacancy rate. There are deals out there guys, be patient.

This is the way

Just closed our most recent acquisition this week. 9 CAP, off market, Chinatown area of Houston, 95% occupied with upside rent growth. Retail is not dead.

Your career is a long journey to an unknown destination without a map. I'm the old guy by the side of the road you stop and ask directions. The only career advice you'll ever need:

“What’s the best advice you ever received?” Never spend the principal, only the interest! This advice came from my mother and it's still my #1 investment rule ✍🏻