Scotsman Guide - December 2011 Commercial Edition

• hotels maintain relatively steady employment throughout economic cycles, further safeguarding the all-important EB- 5 job numbers.

• Macro trends appear to favor hotels. Although values plunged alongside other types of commercial real estate, hotel occupancy and room rates are up.

• real estate is only one component of the hotel business. Values don’t depend on underlying property markets alone, but on operations. Mark-to-market valuations can be done daily, if desired.

• hotel-construction rates have been low in the past several years, and brands have allowed owners to postpone making required upgrades and improvements. At the same time, a number of properties have been selling for below replacement cost. Stabilized occupancy levels and growing obsolescence of older properties point to increasing values.

« FOREIGN continued from page 24

Shortfalls

For all of its promise, EB- 5 has fallen short of its potential in the past two decades. As many as 10,000 immigrants can be fast-tracked for green cards annually, but only a fraction have taken the U.S. up on its offer.

In part, this is because many can-
didates are put off by uncertainties in
the program itself. Shifting program
requirements over the years have been
coupled with delays. For instance, it can
take five to seven years to complete a
process advertised as a two-year con-
ditional permanent-residency program.
Some investors have languished in con-
ditional status for 10 years.

Web search for agents in your area, but try using additional search terms with the property types listed above. After you pass the first few national ads, you’ll start to see pages for local agents and brokers who deal exclusively in the property types for which you are searching.

« MARKE T continued from page 34

Taking your business online The business of brokering has gone national, if not global. Every day, you hear about a broker in one state closing a multimillion-dollar deal in another. Borrowers who previously got their money from their local commercial bank or portfolio lender now must go elsewhere for funds.

Most borrowers don’t have relationships with bankers more than a few miles from home and often need the help of a broker with a regional or national reach to place their loans. Many borrowers find those brokers online.

If you’re not already online, it pays to set up a domain name and hosting account with a Web provider. For just a few dollars a month, you can have a website that not only shows off your successful transactions, products and services, but that also establishes you as a local expert and lets people find you online through search-engine requests.

To get online, you’ll need three things:

1. domain name: This is your online
address and what people type into
the browser to find you.

Low interest rates* ranging from 4.25% to 6.55% ARM (adjustable rate mortgages) (fixed rates* are also available) Qualified property types include – Office, retail and industrial (including condominium) – Mixed use, franchises, restaurants and day care centers – Self storage, laundromat and dry cleaners, spas and barber shops – Health club, funeral home, movie theater and banquet halls – Automotive related: dealers, repair, oil change, brake centers – Grocery stores, convenience stores and markets No lender origination fees or points for qualified borrowers/properties Brokers protected Loan amounts from $300,000 to $4,000,000 (Purchase) Refi to $6,000,000 (SBA 504) Owner occupied and investment real estate considered Conventional and SBA options available up to 90% LTV Nationwide lending program: urban, suburban or cities of 50,000+ No balloon payments and terms range from 20 to 30 years No lock-outs from prepayment Quick closings & flexible underwriting Construction and rehab available owner occupied purchase and refinance 660 minimum FICO purchase and 720 for any Construction Centennial Bank Lending Programs SBA 504 AND CONVENTIONAL FHA/HUD MULTI FAMILY/ASSISTED LIVING LOANS UP TO 83.3% LTV TERMS TO 35-40 YEARS FIXED RATES* LOW 4’s