| commercial real estate industry, we are currently | | | | Another way is, if you are interested in a particular |
| facing a time of adversity and distress. Plain and | | | | area, speaking with the existing property owners about |
| simple, there has not been a lot of business circulating | | | | their situation is a good way to try to uncover any |
| in the past year or so. There are not many buyers out | | | | potential foreclosures or short sales. You can also |
| there, and the buyers that do exist are looking for | | | | speak to property managers, and some will tell you |
| commercial property foreclosures and short sales. We | | | | about a borrower who may be in trouble with their |
| call them "vultural buyers". So, if someone wants to | | | | lenders, but some property managers are bound by |
| buy, they want to get a "deal", and there's no better | | | | confidentiality relationships and will not divulge any |
| deal than a heavily discounted piece of commercial | | | | information. Finally, speaking with lenders is a great |
| real estate. Especially one that has been foreclosed-on | | | | source of information about possible foreclosures and |
| or one that a lender is willing to short sale. These | | | | short sales. The only problem is that they are called by |
| opportunities are out there waiting for us to capitalize | | | | so many people; they are now starting to ignore calls. |
| on them, but the problem is most buyers just wait and | | | | So, all of the above does not work out for you, what |
| hope something great pops-up on their door step, | | | | do you do? Well, you can subscribe to a website |
| instead of taking initiative and going finding it. The big | | | | called This website tells you about properties that may |
| question is how can one find these opportunities? | | | | be going into foreclosure. It is mainly focused on |
| The majority of buyers are still using the traditional | | | | residential properties, but there are some commercial |
| methods of finding property, such as going to the city | | | | properties available. Also, you can become an expert |
| and searching through the Notice of Default (NOD) | | | | in the market in which you want to purchase your |
| records, visiting the REO websites of the major | | | | commercial property, and go to the city to identify if |
| lenders, talking to property owners, talking to property | | | | any of the commercial properties of interest have filed |
| managers and speaking directly to lenders. These are | | | | a Notice of Default. |
| just a few ways of looking for foreclosures and short | | | | In closing, if you are a very busy individual and do not |
| sales, but they are the most common. To find the | | | | have the time or energy to do the above, you may |
| perfect opportunity, you have to look outside the box, | | | | consider hiring a commercial foreclosure and short sale |
| expand your horizons, and use other alternative | | | | expert agent. Not only will they know about all of the |
| methods of looking for commercial property to buy. In | | | | upcoming possible commercial foreclosures and short |
| these economic times, you have to use all of your | | | | sales, but they will also present them to you before |
| resources to pick-up great "deals." | | | | they hit the market. In addition, foreclosure and short |
| Going to the city and reviewing the Notice of Defaults | | | | sale purchases are much more complicated and riskier |
| is a good way, but the problem is that residential and | | | | than a standard commercial property purchase. It is |
| commercial properties are lumped together, so if you | | | | highly advised that you use an agent who has done |
| don't know the address of the commercial property | | | | them before and has experience dealing with the title, |
| you are interested in, you will have a hard time | | | | escrow Company and the lender. One error or |
| identifying which are commercial properties and which | | | | omission and you could end up with a sour transaction. |
| are residential. This makes searching seem like you're | | | | Believe me, we've been doing short sales and |
| searching for a needle in a haystack. You can also | | | | foreclosures for quite some time now, and it is sad to |
| visit a lender's REO website and you can find a few | | | | see how some agents fail to identify great |
| opportunities, however, you will notice that there will not | | | | opportunities or protect their buyers in the foreclosure |
| be many in your market. This is because lenders don't | | | | or short sale purchase process. |
| update their REO inventory websites often. | | | | |