How to Make Multifamily Property Listings & Reviews Work for You

Commercial leases often require tenants in a multi-tenant development (such as a shopping center or office building) to pay CAM charges in addition to monthly rent. These lease provisions often are misunderstood or taken for granted by landlords and tenants and, as a result, are frequently violated, knowingly or otherwise. Sophisticated tenants require CAM charges to be "actually paid or incurred" or "expended" by the landlord to be reimbursable, and they are careful to prohibit landlords from passing their overhead on as disguised CAM charges. To guard against this practice, tenants should negotiate (and then review) their leases carefully, require landlords to deliver "reasonably detailed statements" of CAM charges as often as the lease requires, and should scrutinize those statements to ensure that all charges are allowed by the lease. CAM charges often include property management fees. In addition, most leases permit the landlord to estimate CAM charges and force tenants to pay their share of those estimates monthly. Generally, they require the landlord to reconcile or justify the actual CAM charges to its tenant after the end of each year. Commercial landlords that also manage the project themselves often charge tenants, in addition to CAM expenses incurred, an arbitrary, "industry standard" percentage of the rent as "a property management fee," even though the lease does not expressly provide for that, and no third-party management fees are paid or incurred by the landlord. When the CAM charges are based on actual costs, a tenant might want to negotiate a cap on how much they will be required to pay for their share of common area maintenance. Putting a cap on CAM charges helps protect the tenant from their lease expenses increasing outside of their budget or sudden surprises at the beginning of the year. In turn, this adds some risk to the landlord to cover additional expenses themselves. With fixed CAM charges, property owners set a flat fee for common area maintenance and usually add small annual increases to that fee to cover the cost of inflation. Tenants may still want to review the property expenses to ensure their CAM charges aren't significantly higher than they should be. Fixed CAM charges can either apply to property taxes, insurance, and actual maintenance costs or only to maintenance costs while leaving the property taxes and insurance adjustable. Listen as our authoritative panel discusses the best practices in negotiating CAM provisions, what types of provisions to include, and when to choose between a capped or fixed cost CAM provision.

The CTA establishes beneficial ownership disclosure and reporting requirements for any newly formed and existing corporation, LLC or partnership which files formation documents in any state. Real estate counsel must understand the disclosure and other requirements of the CTA, including what constitutes a "beneficial owner" and the entities to which it applies. Any entity that has filed formation documents in any state is considered a "reporting company" for purposes of the CTA, subject to certain exemptions. Newly formed entities must submit a disclosure of its beneficial owners to FinCEN at the time of formation, and existing entities must file the disclosure within two years. A reporting company must also provide updated information to FinCEN within one year upon a change in beneficial ownership. Failure to comply with the new CTA reporting requirements will result in serious penalties. Failure to meet the reporting standards may result in civil penalties of up to $500 per day, and any individual who willfully provides false or fraudulent information may face criminal fines up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment for up to two years. The CTA adds a new layer of reporting and compliance requirements for lenders in real estate finance transactions. Lenders will need to reassess their AML protocols to better match the requirements of the CTA. Listen as our authoritative panel discusses the CTA, the new federal reporting requirements it imposes on borrowers, and the added due diligence issues it presents for lenders.

Buckle up for this dynamic duo! Eric Simon (The Broke Agent) and Matt Lionetti (Overask Podcast, Sales Representative at The Agency) join BoomTown to throw down some serious social media advice. Learn from the experts how to build a stronger brand on social media, grow your following, boost your engagement, and drive more conversations. The How-Tos You'll Learn: How to generate more leads through social media How to stop getting in your own way How to build a stronger brand presence How to grow your following How to thrive on Instagram and TikTok

Real estate is one of the most tried and true asset classes one can invest in existence. Crowdfunding on the internet, in contrast, is a new technology that didn’t exist just a few years ago. Yet, it is already facilitating significant investment activity each year. And with at least 85 real estate crowdfunding platforms already in existence, the activity is poised to keep growing.