Climate Risk in Real Estate

In our Spring webinar with NREI, RCLCO outlined an approach to contrarian investing in real estate – a framework for identifying where long-term fundamentals and the current attention of capital are misaligned. The challenge, of course, is pricing the risk in this approach and understanding where you are getting paid for avoiding the herd mentality and where you are taking long bets with uncertain payoff. Almost 1,000 people watched the first webinar, and a majority expressed an interest in this approach to investing, but with the primary hesitations arising from the difficulties in underwriting this type of investment and in figuring out how these strategies fit within a broader real asset investment portfolio.

Every five minutes it seems that someone is recommending a new app or new technology systems to make life easier. Most of us download apps and never use them or see their real potential. This one-hour webinar recording is designed to provide an inside look at practical apps for real estate agents to use in their daily practice. We'll go beyond the routine apps and explore what can make you more productive and reap the real benefits of your mobile device.

ENotes and other electronic loan documentation are now routine in residential mortgage lending and have gained more acceptance in commercial real estate lending. The industry is gradually moving toward the digital transformation of the mortgage lifecycle: application, closing, documentation, notarization, recording, and securitization. ESIGN and UETA establish the legality of electronic records and signatures. MERS provides a platform for filing and tracking transfers of "control" of real estate notes from one party to another. However, electronic documents must comply with the UCC and recording statutes (which might require a paper original of the mortgage) and other applicable state laws. If litigation ensues surrounding electronic loan documents, counsel must understand and address enforceability, authentication, and admissibility issues of electronic communications and e-signatures. Listen as our authoritative panel discusses the use of eNotes and electronic loan documentation in commercial and residential mortgage lending. The program will also examine legal and practical issues regarding transferability, UCC perfection, the authentication of electronic signatures, and the admissibility of electronic communications and e-signatures in litigation.

A ground lease can be an attractive method to develop commercial property. However, the tenant/developer's ability to obtain financing is crucial to a development's success using a ground lease. Counsel must consider the potential lender's interests in the negotiation of a ground lease between the landlord and tenant. Counsel's primary task is to balance all the competing interests concerning each key provision, such as subordination, right to cure, and consent. A lender's lien on a financeable ground lease is secured by a leasehold mortgage drafted to address the lender's and borrower/tenant's interests during the term of the lease and in the event of foreclosure. Listen as our authoritative panel of real estate attorneys discusses how to balance the competing interests of the owner, lessee, and lender to create a financeable ground lease.