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What Business Owners Need to Know About Commercial Real Estate Mortgages

Utah Real Estate Investors Association

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"You just can't beat the person who won't give up." - Babe Ruth

For many people, the American dream includes a cozy home with a manicured lawn, and our home loan system is merrily set up to make this dream a reality for quite a few people.

But for entrepreneurs dreaming of owning their own store, shop, or office location, the dream is a lot murkier. There are quite a few differences between residential mortgages and commercial real estate mortgages, and you need to be sure you fully understand what you're getting into before taking the plunge into commercial property financing.

Commercial Differences from Residential Loans
The United States has some of the best home loan options in the world. The most common loan type, which you're probably familiar with, is a 30-year, fixed-rate loan. These residential loans are readily available, have low interest rates, fairly low fees, and carry no prepayment penalties.

Commercial real estate mortgages tend to be the polar opposite.

Commercial mortgages tend to be much shorter time periods. Five to ten years is a typical loan term. The monthly
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5 Cybersecurity Steps all Business Owners Should Take

Utah Real Estate Investors Association

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“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” - Margaret Thatcher

Whether your business is in full-on work-from-home mode, or your business is such that this is a totally foreign concept, the reality is that cybersecurity steps are something you absolutely need to address.

Your office computers, employee laptops and tablets, cloud services (which can be accessed remotely), and even company cell phones all have an insane amount of information on them that hackers would love to get their digital hands on. Along with customer credit card numbers and employee SSN’s and DOB’s, your digital records contain a wealth of valuable information. Even something as seemingly innocuous as customer estimates and invoices can look like hidden treasure to the world’s digital pirates.

Taking basic cybersecurity steps is cheap protection against potentially embarrassing and expensive data breaches.

If you do have employees working remotely, it’s your responsibility to protect customer and employee data. Just like the IRS sets minimum requirements for us to protect YOUR private information, you should als
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Three Key Tips to Property Management: with Karl Weekes

Freedom First REIA, LTD

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Is property management easy? 

If you go into it blindly, you may end up learning some lessons the hard way. It helps to have a set of resources, tools and advice going into property management that others have learned along the way.

Karl Weekes has over 35 years of experience and lessons learned along the way. We won’t be sharing all of his advice today, but here are highlights to consider when investing and maintaining a property. Make sure to join us for the upcoming session on March 21st for more!

1. Attract Quality Tenants. 

One of the most important lessons is to learn how to attract and identify quality tenants. This aspect directly effects the income and expense side of the equation. Bad tenants could ruin you and wipe you out. This is key to maintaining sustainability in managing property.

Deals and all negotiations with tenants must be a win-win outcome to succeed. The art of listening is an important part to this equation.  Creative problem solving is very rewarding - go for it!

The tenant is the lifeline to financial success. In the upcoming session, we’ll talk more about how you can attract the right occupant.

2. Educate & Equip

Never undervalue the importance of education, networking and mentorship. Make sure you are educated on what you are getting into. This is essential.

You need to have the real numbers and put them in a cash flow analyzer before you start investing. Acquire your property the right way, with all of the information up front. Know answers to questions like “What is the vacancy rate?”; this varies by area. Find that out and know your market.

For longevity, make sure you have a team of people, this is not a solo act: a real estate agent, insurance consultant, attorney, skill set advisors, coach and contractors (just to name a few). There are so many different jobs when owning property, you need to know what it entails beforehand, whether you do it yourself or have someone you’ll hire to do it for you.

You thought you bought an Investment ?  Nope you bought a business and it’s not a hobby – treat it as such. This an active investment not a passive one – make sure you have the time and understanding that this is an “on the job training” and it’s a time involved endeavor!

There is so much to know and understand to succeed. and it changes DAILY - becoming a member to a group like FFREIA is a fast track to get there. the networking and educational opportunities are second to none.

3. Plan, Adapt & Adjust

If you are in it for the long haul -  establishing an "operating system" is  mandatory. What is an OS?  again a constant moving system - Process, procedures, forms, establish criteria etc.so that the system works for you and you are not a slave to your properties.

You want an automated process, especially when it comes to quantity.

Have a plan and system but be ready to adjust when the time comes. Learn to adapt and adjust - Managing properties is a moving target on a daily basis. Rules, codes, Market forces etc.. change literally in a daily basis. Change is inevitable. Deal with it!



All of these tips directly impact your income and expense side of the equation or the deal - whether its success for failure - you want to be on the SUCCESS side.

For more on property management, make sure to check out the Investor Academy conference with Karl Weekes. He’ll be diving into more content and will share his years of expertise and lessons learned.Meet like-minded investors and gain knowledge about long-term investment. Visit: ffreia.com for more details and to register.

Hope to see you there!