Author: Amy Bush

2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship

March Madness is upon us and we have filled out our brackets.   One can learn a lot about someone from how they pick their teams.  I’ll give you some insight into our methodology at Amy Bush Commercial and perhaps you will learn something you didn’t know about us.

Risk Taking:

On one hand, be conservative – the tournament only averages about 6 first-round upsets out of 32 games.  Second-round upsets are even more rare, in the past 15 years only seven schools seeded 12 or lower made it to the Sweet Sixteen.   And historically, about 70 percent of the Elite Eight has been composed of teams seeded 1, 2, or 3.

On the other hand, don’t be too conservative – to win your pool, you’ll still have to pick a few early surprises.   Of course, you will need to get them right.

Keep your Eyes on the Prize:

On one hand, school spirit is for suckers – as much as you love your school, your bracket should be free of softhearted sentiment.

On the other hand, maybe winning your pool isn’t the real prize –  let’s go all in for the Triangle and the ACC.   We are picking 3 of 4 ACC schools in the Final Four (Duke, UNC, and UVa) and wish NCSU the best.

Good luck to everyone and save us some beer and wings!

If you take a look at our Facebook page, you can see many photos from the  Triangle Commercial Association Of Realtors 2017 Frontier Awards.   We are very proud of winning the Busy Broker and President’s Circle Awards.

English is full of tiny nuances in meaning. The words award and reward, for example, might seem to mean exactly the same thing.  Award and reward have very similar meanings. They both refer to something received as a result of one’s actions.

We are very proud of our Awards – the recognition from our peers at our accomplishments is humbling.  But our most cherished Rewards come from the entrepreneurs,  investors, and professionals we work with who are all willing to help each other succeed and thrive.

Thank you for all the appreciation of our hard work, record performance, and quality service we provide.

Wishing everyone a awarding and rewarding 2018.

 

Triangle Commercial Real Estate sub-markets

The recent volatility on the stock market reminded me of a Mark Twain observation:  “We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop there lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove lid again and that is well but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.”

We work hard to use our experience (better than Twain’s cat) to gain wisdom in the Triangle Commercial Real Estate market.  We have our finger on the pulse of the market everyday, but we also follow the hard data.

This data includes information from research reports that track key market indicators such as vacancy, absorption, rental rate, and construction.   I’ll summarize the latest information we follow in a paragraph here:

Overall vacancy in the Triangle office market increased as several large developments finally delivered.  Even with the slight increase in vacancy, absorption numbers were resilient and increasing demand for Class A space continues to create a construction frenzy in the Triangle. Average asking rents in the Raleigh-Durham market, particularly in the Class A sector, are forecast to steadily increase in 2018. With the large amount of Class A space that is currently under construction and the additional properties proposed, increasing price points will push Triangle office rents up well into 2018.

 

Whether you are looking to invest, buy, or lease commercial real estate in the Triangle, contact us at Amy Bush Commercial and we look forward to assisting you.

I didn’t get a chance to post on Groundhog Day so I missed using that in the title of this post, so I’ll pull out my high school poetry and quote Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”.   But for the record, Sir Walter Wally did not see his shadow, which means spring is on the way!

Here are two of our favorite spring destinations in the Triangle – to be fair one: in Raleigh and one in Durham.

North Carolina Museum of Art

After viewing the diverse permanent collection at the North Carolina Museum of Art, which includes 30 sculptures by Rodin, be sure to stroll the grounds of Museum Park and picnic on the beautiful Ellipse lawn.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens

This wonderful 55-acre public botanic garden on the Duke University campus features a butterfly garden as well a special section filled with over 900 species and varieties of regional native plants.

 

Don’t be surprised to see us (and our mascot, both are dog friendly) there one nice day soon (after a visit to one of the many food trucks that dot the Triangle – something we will be blogging about as well).

Amy Bush Commercial mascot

 

Commercial Office Space for Lease – January 2018

I apologize if the title of this blog has a certain theme park ride music playing around in your mind all day long, but as Amy Bush Commercial moves its offices this week,  I am reminded that it is a small world after all.   The photo above shows a sample of the commercial office space for lease we track – quite big, but all the relationships we find in the Triangle (entrepreneurs, investors, professionals, and all-around nice people who are all willing to help each other thrive) makes it quite small.

In January 2014, we joined Keller Williams Commercial Cary to take advantage of working for an International Real Estate company offering excellent sales and training opportunities. We will miss everyone in the KW Cary office.  But we are just a phone call away – it’s a small triangle after all!

We continue to look forward to providing the best service to Investors, Sellers, Buyers, Landlords and Tenants across the Wake County Commercial Real Estate market from our new KW Raleigh office.

Frequently Asked Questions

Many of our customers have been delighted in owning the Commercial Real Estate used by their closely held businesses.  Owner occupancy can provide them the advantages of stable rents for their businesses and appreciation for themselves.  Other benefits to the owner/occupier of Commercial Real Estate include the ability to employ advantageous tax strategies (reduce tax liability, offset taxes from other investment sources, etc.) and, of course, the control of the commercial property’s tenancy.

Owning Commercial Real Estate is a wonderful asset diversification as well.  The addition of commercial real estate to a typical investment “stock-and-bond” portfolio often provides a reduction in portfolio risk without the sacrifice of return.

And to return to another common theme at Amy Bush Commercial,  if one outgrows ones space or desires to move ones location,  the IRS code “Section 1031”  provides the opportunity to do a tax-free exchange of a property for a like-kind property.   We have blogged on the 1031 exchanges, but it is worth repeating that the tax law is generous in defining like-kind in the case of commercial real estate.

Finally, in our experience with local banks, acquiring a loan on an owner-occupied commercial real property is straightforward.  Lenders ❤ owner-occupied.

We like to recommended that business owners strongly consider owning the Commercial Real Estate associated with their business and rent from themselves!

A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.

The cold weather here has gotten me dreaming about spring and with spring, baseball.  We all know many of the famous quotes from New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra.   Here are a couple of my favorites along with some of my thoughts on what they say about the Triangle Commercial Real Estate market.

No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded

The Triangle is a hot Commercial Real Estate market.  The supply is very thin relative to demand.  As a result, many spaces get sold or leased quickly.  However, the demand is real here, driven by outstanding job opportunities, strong housing market, world-class universities, and all the other things that put us on everyone’s top places to live and work lists.  So as long as our economic growth remains robust, don’t expect demand to weaken.  It may be crowded, but there’s another Yogiism to remember:

You can observe a lot by just watching

We are in touch with the Triangle Commercial Real Estate market every day.  We identify what is selling, what is leasing, where the action exists and where it does not.  There is no substitute for getting out there and talking to local landlords, tenants, investors, developers, and other clients.   We know that market and would be pleased assist you with your commercial real estate needs.

I have more Yogiisms, but perhaps I’ll save them for opening day.

We at Amy Bush Commercial wish you and yours a very happy and prosperous 2018.

We just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for allowing us at Amy Bush Commercial to help with your Commercial Real Estate needs.

We were lighting candles the other night – we read that many folks have many reasons why we kindle lights at this time of year,  but one teaching is that even just one of our small lights can chase away a great deal of darkness as we bring light into our homes, our communities, and the world.

May the joy of Christmas be with you this holiday season and throughout the New Year.

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

It appears very likely that there will be a new tax bill passed by Congress this year.  While the stated goal was to simplify the loophole infested tax code, the actual bill can be best described as a major re-write with many of the loopholes just shifted around.   The affect on individual taxpayers is still an open question, but the (generally) positive investor sentiment is directly a result of the tax bill’s corporate rate cut.

The Commercial Real Estate industry did much better on most tax issues than analysts has originally thought, because many lawmakers had initially talked about scrapping the 1031 exchange and carried interest, completely eliminating the state and local tax deduction, and eliminating the business debt corporate deduction.  However, those provisions affecting commercial real estate did not make if out of committee.

The House bill would cap the top tax rate for pass-through businesses at 25%, down from the current 39.6%. The Senate legislation would allow most pass-throughs to deduct about 23% of their business income from their taxes, subject to various limitations, effectively reducing the tax rate for the highest earners by 10%.

Also, like-kind exchanges for real estate transactions (1031 exchanges) are preserved, and the deduction of carried interest is almost entirely unchanged.

The final bill appear to retain or increase important incentives in the tax code for commercial property ownership and business investment.

There will be some challenges, namely on what qualifies for the pass-through deduction.  The Treasury and the IRS (and probably cause some court cases) will be need to finalize the details and real estate investors are going to want to see how the new pass-through rules work out before they can know 100% how it will affect their business.

We are excited about the new tax bill and how it affects Commercial Real Estate, but tax policy swings back and forth.  Changes to the tax code are often ephemeral and we will continue to lobby for our customers.

City of Raleigh Logo

Looking back at a few of our recent blogs, there is a common theme that we’ll call “all of the above”.

The recent municipal election cycle provided a sounding board for candidates to offer choices with each candidate offering his or her own set of priorities,  but what is special about Raleigh (and other cities and towns in the Triangle region) is that due to our outstanding position with Educational, Business, Government, and Non-Profit leadership, we have all of the above.

Below were the major issues we heard and how Raleigh has responded.

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Affordable Housing

Raleigh just began construction on the largest affordable housing development in Wake County history.  The Washington Terrace project, on Hill Street near St. Augustine’s University, includes 162 affordable apartments and townhomes, 72 apartments for low-income seniors, a community center and a child care center, all to be completed by early 2019.

Encouraging Economic Development

Raleigh benefits from being a business-friendly city.  Everyday it seems that Raleigh and the Triangle region make a list of the best places to start a business, get a job, rent an apartment, or make a major investment.

Improving Quality of Life

Raleigh is building Dix Park and refurbishing Moore Square Park.  Raleigh has grown from 270,000 people in 2000 to almost 450,000 people today. That 50% growth rate is a reflection of Raleigh’s economic vitality and quality of life.

Expanding Transportation

Raleigh passed a transportation bond to provide more transportation solutions – including walkable and bike-friendly communities, improved traffic calming designs, and more public transportation options.

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We were going to write about Raleigh’s new logo (top of blog on the left) which is planned to replace the classic logo (top of blog on the right), but we didn’t have anything nice to say.