Todd Clarke – Confessions of a Commercial Real Estate Consultant

Polish Resume

Thanks to my friends at the Polish Real Estate Federation for promoting myself and fellow CCIM instructors, Steve Price, Mark Cypert and Joe Fisher and our resumes:

Bernalillo County Property Tax Protest board rules on LLC/refinancing issue at formal hearings

The Apartment Association of NM in the form of Attorney Gene Vance and property tax consultant Todd Clarke, represented apartment portfolio owner, Richard Fox, in the handling of his property tax protest case.

In the case, the property owner held title in a series of related Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs) for estate purposes. He and his wife had refinanced their properties in 2007 and again in 2013. In both cases the lender(s) required the property owner to move the ownership of the property from the LLCs, to his personal name before moving them back to the LLC.

In 2007, this related party transfer did not trigger a removal of the 3% cap on property value increases.

In 2014, the assessors office, based on a legal opinion obtained from the State of NM on a related property tax issues, removed the 3% cap and increased property values.

The formal boards ruling for this landmark case can be found here:
FinalDecision-Order-FoxPortfolio-10202014

The opening narrative for the case is as follows:

Attorney Gene Vance and I are here today not just representing our client, Richard Fox, but also the apartment industry through the Apartment Association of NM who has taken a keen interest the number of their members who have experienced a sharp increase in the property tax from the removal of the 3% Cap. These removals did not occur because the owner of the property sold their property, added on to their property or even rezoned their property. These removals were done solely because the property owner took advantage of historically low interest rates to refinance their property. In a post economic meltdown economy, many of the lenders required these owners to handle these refinances through related entity limited liability corporations or LLCs.

Before we lay out our case, I wanted to share with you a story. When House Bill 366 was approved and passed in 2001 and implemented in 2002, its intent was to protect the elderly widowed single family home owner in Santa Fe who risked losing her property due to a sudden and swift property tax increase caused by out of state, Hollywood moguls, purchasing properties around her.
Now, a dozen years later, our case focuses on a similar individual, our clients, Richard and Linda Fox, who have built up a small nest egg of rental investments over decades of ownership, tending to their residents and keeping their properties in good condition.

As part of their estate planning, to ensure continued uninterrupted management of their properties, and to plan for their future, they created a series of related party LLC’s. The need for this estate planning tool became more obvious when both Richard and Linda suffered from cancer in the last few years. Unfortunately, Linda did not survive, and she passed away earlier this year. Richard, who is in his 70s, and is like the elderly widow this law was created for, has had his protection removed by this assessor’s administration in a manner that is not consistent with previous administrations or other county assessors and in direct conflict with state law and a number of legal precedents.

Today, our evidence will show that Under the New Mexico Limited Liability Company Act, there was no change of ownership from substituting the owner’s name on the deed for that of the company. There was no beneficial interest transferred to a separate entity. Interpreting the law to cover these transactions is contrary to the policy behind the 3 per cent cap.
While we all are aware of the inequities created by the property tax lightning law and various follow-up Band-Aid approaches to fixing these, it is ironic the aged population this law was intended to protect is now being used as a weapon to raise their property taxes.

Tech Fiesta 2014 – ABQ

Come listen to the latest trends in recruiting millennials with housing to our market.

Guest Speakers: Todd Clarke CCIM and Dale Dekker
http://www.techfiestaabq.com/

State of the apartment market – 2014

Thanks to the and the for hosting this mornings Apartment market outlook.

AANM-ULI-IREM-DAT-ApartmentMarketOutlook-08202014-v4

Course: A to Z of Investment Basics – 4 CE hours

If you are feeling a bit rusty on measures of investment performance, the Investment Basics course will provide a sound foundation in the basic tools to analyze income producing real estate.

This hands on course includes simple to use spreadsheet tools to help you in analyzing investments using the basic measures of investment performance including:
– GRM
– Cap Rate
– Cash on cash
– IRR
and you will walk away with a sound understanding of the major investment benchmarks and tax benefits of owning real estate.

Both courses are hands on and its strongly encouraged that you bring your excel or numbers based laptop, tablet, smart device, etc.

Example of the financial analysis tool used in this course:

Additional information about your international award winning instructor can be found at www.toddclarke.com

Property Tax update – 03/24/2014

The following is a quick update on property tax issues from 2013 and a preview of what we can expect in 2014 and 2015.
2013 protests
As you may recall, I did not expect 2013 to be a year that we would see much in the way of reductions. I did encourage some of my clients to file protests, because we had a new assessor and the top commercial appraiser had moved from Sandoval to Bernalillo. Unfortunately for us, that top commercial appraiser moved back to Bernalillo county mid 2013.

The reductions we were able to get in 2013 were a result of squeezing a bit more from the stone, rather than a new approach or philosophy.

Bernalillo and Sandoval county are aggressively reappraising right now – in fact, you can monitor Bernalillo countys progress here -http://www.bernco.gov/Assessor_Canvass . Remember, they are required to obtain the most accurate and correct information, and its been my experience if you are helpful on the front end (i.e. let them into your building, hold the other end of the measuring tape), they are more inclined to help you when it comes to the revaluation. Residential reappraisals are occurring on a map basis (i.e zone atlas page by zone atlas page)

As it relates to commercial properties, the only major increase I expect for 2014 will be for mini storage, assisted living and banks as they have completed their new valuations for these properties types. I’ve been told that the balance of commercial will show up in the 2015 notices of value.

Legislative update:
Our various trade associations like AANM and RANM were very busy this year tracking bills, responding to our legislators, and pushing back on bills that would have a drastic impact.

House Bill 178 (attached) was probably the most problematic of the bunch as it restored the increase of property taxes at time of sale starting in 2015. (a fuller update on this and other bills can be found below my signature line. Thanks to RANM for the update).

The Apartment Association of NM is working on raising funds and partnering with other associations to have a white paper completed this year that can be used to create new legislation to address the property tax lightning mess in the long 2015 session. Email me if you want more info on this process.

Property tax course
If you have an interest in learning how the property tax system works in NM, I will be teaching an 8 hour course a week from today (March 31st) at the Apartment Association – registration is mandatory (so we know how many books to print and bring and because we have limited seating – you can register at – www.canteraconsultants.com/cca2014 . Those of you in the real estate business should know that the course is approved for 8 CE credits. If you have an interest in learning how the property tax system works in NM, I will be teaching an 8 hour course a week from today (March 31st) at the Apartment Association – registration is mandatory (so we know how many books to print and bring and because we have limited seating – you can register at – http://www.canteraconsultants.com/cca2014 . Those of you in the real estate business should know that the course is approved for 8 CE credits. The course is $99 if you want a electronic (PDF) version of the book and $149 for a printed copy of the 300+ page textbook.

Notices of value for 2014
I will be updating our notices of value spreadsheet (2013 notice of value dates can be found here – http://www.toddclarke.net/?p=1656)

NOTE: The Bernalillo County assessor has sent out a notice to all property tax consultants that they need to update their client authorization signature pages. They have had issues in previous years with consultants “slamming” clients and filing without their approval. What does this mean for you? Just send me your notices of value (as they arrive) and I will send you a new contract for 2014.

While I am not expecting increases this year, I do expect previous properties that we have protested may have corrections in info that may lead to increases.
Thanks,
Todd

RANM update
2014 New Mexico Legislature Update []

From David Oakeley, RANM Government Affairs Director

February 21, 2014

The thirty day New Mexico legislative session is over and RANM was successful in getting three bills passed, two of them sponsored by RANM. House Bill 185 (HB185), the Commercial Real Estate Broker Lien Act and Senate Bill 124 (SB124), the Real Estate Foreign Broker Bill, passed in both the Senate and the House. SB110, the Real Estate Appraisers Act, was another high priority bill supported by RANM, also passed.

The bills will be sent to Governor Susanna Martinez for action.

THE 2014 SESSION
The whirlwind thirty day session had a less contentious feel due in part to a much narrower Democrat majority in the House of Representatives and with upcoming elections, neither side appeared anxious to engage in hostile partisan politics.

Some of the bigger issues were the budget, minimum wage, capital outlay and the Navajo Nation gaming compact. The $6.2 billion budget—dubbed a compromise—passed both Houses with apparent input from the Governor’s office. It includes a minimum 3 percent raise for State employees and teachers. The fear was that the budget battle would derail the session and result in the need for a Special Session.

A bill that would have increased the minimum wage in New Mexico narrowly passed in the Senate but failed in the House. It was the other way around for the Navajo Nation gaming compact that would have opened the door for two more Indian Casinos. The bill narrowly passed in the House but was defeated in the Senate.

HB55, the $232.6 million capital outlay bill, which funds projects throughout the state, also passed. $184.8 million of the projects will be funded with severance tax bonds, the remainder from other state funds.

THE RANM BILLS
One of the RANM-introduced bills that awaits the Governor’s signature—HB185—passed the House and was on the Senate calendar when time ran out. The Real Estate Appraiser Act was signed into law last year but amendments were introduced and passed this year to clear up some of the language.

HB 185, the Commercial Real Estate Broker Lien Act sponsored by Representative Antonio “Moe” Maestas, allows Real Estate Brokers to file a lien against commercial (not residential) property for leasing commissions owed by the owner of property if the property owner had a written agreement with the real estate broker to pay leasing commissions. You can download a copy of the bill by going to this link: http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/14%20Regular/bills/house/HB0185.pdf

The other bill on the Governor’s desk is SB124,which amends the Real Estate Foreign Broker Bill, was introduced by Senator Phil Griego. The act was amended to add a definition of Commercial Real Estate and to allow out-of-state brokers to practice real estate in New Mexico with respect to commercial real estate only, provided they enter into a transaction-specific written agreement with a New Mexico real estate broker. For a full copy of this bill go to:
http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/14%20Regular/bills/senate/SB0124.pdf

SB110 is the Real Estate Appraisers Act sponsored by Sen. Sander Rue, proposes to amend the Real Estate Appraisers Act in order to comply with federal law and to provide for appraisal management companies, trainees, an appraisal subcommittee, uniform standards or professional appraisal practice, automated valuation models, broker price opinions and criminal background checks.

OTHER HIGH PRIORITY RANM BILLS OF INTEREST
A “tax lightning bill” opposed by RANM, HB178 introduced by Representative Brian Egolf, never made it out of committee and died. RANM sent out a “Call to Action” on this piece of legislation. RANM members responded, many contacted their representatives, and it helped narrow the vote. It did narrowly pass in the House, 32-30. RANM considered this bill unconstitutional and deemed the caps on property evaluation would have the opposite effect and negatively impact real estate sales.

Another bill that addressed tax lightning, SB260 introduced by Senator Steven Neville, died in committee. This bill attempted to fix the tax lightning problem with the valuation and taxation of residential property. This bill transitions valuation to a percentage of the “current and correct” standard set in the Property Tax Code.

THE RANM LEGISLATIVE PROCESS
A total of 1,082 bills were introduced this thirty day session—549 in the House of Representatives and 533 in the Senate. Of all these bills only 126 of them survived; a success rate of a little over 11.6 percent.

Each bill usually gets one or more committee referrals, and if the bill survives all committee votes (some never even get a committee vote and thus fail to advance), they then face debate on the floor of the chamber in which they were introduced. If it passes it then goes to the other chamber where the process starts again. If the bill survives the second floor vote without amendment, then and only then, will it get consideration by the Governor who has 20 days after the session adjourns to take action which would be either to sign the bill, veto the bill, or not sign it (called a pocket veto).

RANM’s staff reviewed every bill and made recommendations to RANM’s Legislative Committee as to which pieces of legislation had a direct or indirect impact on the membership. A total of 104 bills—about 10% of those introduced—were so identified. They were categorized (taxes, water, regulatory, economic development, commercial, mortgage/lending, etc.), assigned the level of interest (high, medium, low), and whether they should be supported, opposed or simply monitored.

OTHER BILLS OF INTEREST TO RANM
The bills previously mentioned were high priority bills. Some other bills of interest included:

SB89, introduced by Sen. Peter Wirth, this bill would have affected the Gila River basin in southwest New Mexico, but never made it out of the Senate Conservation Committee. It would have required the Interstate Stream Commission to divert flood waters.

HB51, introduced by Representative Yvette Herrell and passed in both chambers, amends the Right to Farm Act, a pro-agriculture bill, passed both houses. It amends the Right to Farm Act to provide that no agricultural operation may be deemed a nuisance unless it is operated negligently. The New Mexico Department of Agriculture said about this bill, “Across the United States, nuisance law suits are being filed based on the encroachment of urban presence adjacent to agriculture activities. The consequence of nuisance or negligent lawsuits provides the potential to impair the state’s industry and the state’s economy and provides a negative impact on the ability for the industry to operate.”

HB273, introduced by Representative Ken Martinez and Senator Mary Kay Papen, is an economic development bill that passed both house and senate. It Proposes the Economic Development Grant Act, with a stated purpose to provide matching state grants to local and regional economic development agencies to expand their economic development and job-creation capacities through employment of economic development professionals. This bill appropriates $3 million for matching grants.

HJR8, this joint resolution introduced by Representative Jim Trujillo, authorizes the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to sell surplus property on East De Vargas Street in Santa Fe. The property was formerly used by the State Parks Division for administrative offices.

SM11, introduced by Senator Michael Padilla, (Identical to HM15), requests the United South Broadway Corporation’s Fair Lending Center, a nonprofit community development corporation that provides housing and foreclosure legal defense statewide, to convene a task force to study the foreclosure process and make recommendations to protect neighborhood and community stability, prevent unnecessary or improper foreclosures, and preserve the rights of families.

ULI NM – 2013 Commercial Real Estate Value Survey

The NM Chapter of the Urban Land Institute released its 2013 Commercial Real Estate and Value survey last week at the joint Apartment Association of NM and Urban Land Institute Market forum luncheon.

Previous value and cap rate surveys performed by Cantera Consultants & Advisors Inc. can be found here for 2011 and here for 2010.

ABQJournal-ULI-CAP-Rate-Survey-DTC-08262013 Read the full article from the ABQ Journal here

The complete 11 x 17 version of the survey can be found by clicking here.

ABQ Biz 1st – Boomers, Millennials power apartment biz

At the annual Apartment Association market update last week, Todd Clarke discussed the latest generational drivers of apartment demand. View the complete article by clicking here.

Attend the next CCIM conference in Denver and see the 2 T’s of technology

Tech guru’s Todd Kuhlman and Todd Clarke will be hosting 60 apps in 60 minutes on 10/26/2013.

The video of the session can be found – here as Todd Kuhlman and I provided info on 97 apps in 90 minutes.

Albuquerque Realtor has connection to Japanese CCIM’s

The Albuquerque Business News covered Todd’s recent class and pinning ceremony for the newly minted CCIM’s in Japan:

Todd Clarke named as commissioner to Albuquerque Housing Authority

In today’s Albuquerque Business First, Todd Clarke was named as commissioner for the Albuquerque Housing Authority.

Property Tax Update

Spring is almost here, and that means its time to start looking in the mail for our notice of value property tax forms.

First on a macro level – the legislature is 12 days away from completing its 60 day session, and they are working on a couple of bills that could impact property owners.

House Bill 117 – appears to be DOA, and would have allowed a some disclosure to go into place – http://www.toddclarke.net/?p=1651
House Bill 521 – is working its way through various committees and currently has the support of RANM and the county assessors, but is being opposed by Apartment Association of NM which is attempting to make modifications to the bill – http://openstates.org/nm/bills/2013/HB521/documents/NMD00012252/
In it’s current form, HB 521 would not go into effect until 2014.

I recently taught the property tax course for a Santa Fe brokerage firm and they had invited two of the better county appraisers to attend. They were kind enough to share an interesting bit of info that should make tracking our notices of value easier – in 2014, notices of value should have a side by side comparison this years value vs. last years – an example can be found here – http://www.toddclarke.net/?p=1661

Notice of value dates
On a micro level – we have contacted all 33 assessors across the state as to their likely release dates for notices of value. A complete list can be found here – http://www.toddclarke.net/?p=1656 . Please note that their is an update for Bernalillo County (see below).

Changes at Bernalillo County
Although notices of value were prepared to go out earlier this year, Bernalillo County has a new assessor who has requested an extension until May 1st, 2013. For those of us who own commercial properties, their current valuation is in limbo as the commercial team is looking to hire a new commercial manager to provide direction for this years notices of value, all of which has led to a great deal of uncertainty as to what this means for values this year.

Class
If you need Continuing Education (CE) hours, or you think you would like to handle your own cases, we are offering our 8 hour “Understanding NM’s property tax system course” on 4/2/2013. The course is $99 if you use a PDF version of the textbook, or $149 if you need a printed one – seating is limited and registrations can be taken here – http://www.canteraconsultants.com/registration

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanks,
Todd

Presentations from Oregeon Association of Realtors Commercial Summit

Thanks to the Oregon Association of Realtors for hosting Views from the future of commercial real estate.””

PDFs of the presentations can be found here
Introduction – Todd Clarke CCIM – OAR-Intro-ViewsfromtheFrontier-10222012-v4
Office – Patricia Lynn CCIM NotesfromtheEdge Office-PatriciaLynn6c
Industrial – Sam Foster CCIM ViewsFromTheEdge-Industrial-SamFoster-v04302012-v2dtc
Residential/Multifamily – Todd Clarke CCIM – ViewsFromTheEdge-Residential-ToddClarke-v10252012-v6dtc

Latest and greatest apps – can be found here.

Confessions of a Commercial Real Estate consultant can be found here.
OAR-CCA-ConfessionsofaConsultant-10242012

RANM course – 9/14/2012

This file is for the IRR course at the RANM conference 9/14/2012.

This is the file – filled out for a sample deal – IRR-Model-v12-FilledOutSampleDeal

And this is the file as a blank work sheet DTC-IRR-Model-v12-blank

Full agenda can be found here.

Tech course in Ft. Lauderdale

Thanks to the fine folks at the Greater Ft. Lauderdale Association of Realtors and NAR’s Commercial/RCA for hosting our tech course on 9/11/2012.

A PDF of the courses powerpoint can be found here.

MFA Keynote presentation

NMMFA-HousingSummit-ResidentialUpdate-08222012-v2NMMFA’s keynote presentation for August 22nd, 2012 (4.5 meg PDF) “Matching Global Trends with Local Values”.

Course: Advanced Excel Wizardry – 4 training hours

Whether you are a beginning or advanced Excel user, this course will demonstrate how you can be more efficient, productive and improve your presentations.

Topics covered in the course include:
– Formatting
– Making stunning custom graphs
– Key formulas
– Database normalization
– Using Pivot Tables
– Using Goal seek to find the solution
– Conditional formatting as a tool to make legible and cool looking spreadsheets
– Creating macros to make your spreadsheet work more efficiently

* bringing a laptop with any version of Microsoft Excel is highly recommended

An example of an apartment dashboard tool created in Excel:

Additional information about your international award winning instructor can be found at www.toddclarke.com

Course: Confessions of a Commercial Real Estate Consultant – 8 hours of CE training

The course is hands on discovery course that covers how you can offer additional non-transaction services to your clients and shift some of your income from commissions to assignment or hourly fees.

Additional topics include:
– Where does a consultant add value?
– How to negotiate services and pricing
– Discovering hidden value in clients properties
– Common services offered by consultants
– Overview of market feasibility, site/location feasibility, financial feasibility and political/legal feasibility in the development process
– Discussion on running stakeholder meetings and/or focus group sessions
– Information resource for assignments
– How to avoid conflicts of interest
– Skill sets and experience levels required
– S.W.O.T. analysis of your potential to migrate some of your business away from commission based to pre-paid hourly engagements

Additional information about your international award winning instructor can be found at www.toddclarke.com

Aerotropolis interview now available on video

CCIM has just released the video interview with Greg Lindsay, author of Aerotropolis: The way we will live next from the CCIM Live 2011 conference held in Phoenix last month.

Earlier this year I wrote my review of this fabulous book which can be read here.

Greg’s powerpoint webinar from August 2011 is available at the CCIM website.

Homelessness in ABQ update

The Albuquerque Journal has an update on the homeless survey that was performed earlier this year.

As you may remember, I participated in the survey earlier this year, and was dumbstruck by the stories the individuals I met shared.

Although the focus on the article is about one individual who has made it into housing, then fallen out, and is working to get back in, the part of the story that left me the saddest was the number of people who have died since we surveyed them.

Those of us who own housing, who work in the housing industry must to more to help initiatives like the City of Albuquerque’s Albuquerque Heading Home as well as non-profits like Metropolitan Homelessness Project and Joy Junction to eliminate homelessness.

(BTW, I should mention that Mayor Berry received the Humanitarian award for his dedication on this issue. Having been on his team, I can tell you his desire to eliminate homelessness involved a lot more than the camera time many people might have seen and the survey of the homeless quickly turned into an emergency plan that the Mayor and City Councilors funded to get people out of the sub freezing temperatures and in shelter).

Valuation survey for NM Commercial Real estate released.

Cantera Consultants & Advisors has just released its 2011 value survey for NM Commercial Real Estate. The survey reflects the collective wisdom of industry professionals in NM.

Although Cantera uses the survey primarily for the benefit of it’s during property tax protest hearings, the survey has become staple in the commercial real estate market and is widely used and quoted by many of the brokerage, appraisal firms and county assessors in NM.

The most interesting trend reported in this year’s survey is the indication that most of the commercial property types have turned the corner on decreasing values as CAP rates have started to decrease (slightly).

Tomorrow’s edition of the Business Outlook in the Albuquerque Journal will highlight information from the report.

Last year’s survey results can be found here.

The 2011 value survey can be found CCA-Survey-10012011-v10.

A special thank you

to my CCIM CCR Study session students who obtained their designation in 2010 & 2011 – they gave me this photo – very kind and appreciated!

In this photo: Tom Jones, Sean McMullen, Rose Cabezut, Jerry Cass, Tuan Van Hyunh, Todd Clarke, Lia Armstrong, John Shepler, Tom Franchini, Rob Powell and Michael Contreras, all CCIMs!

CCIM 102 Tokyo – Kampai!

Fabulous class this week in Tokyo – taught CCIM 102 to a room for of CPM’s – some of the brightest people on this planet made for a fabulously interactive class.

CCIM Live update – Aerotropolis webinar now online!

Last week I had the pleasure of introducing and interviewing Greg Lindsay, author of Aerotropolis. CCIM has just posted his webinar live.

Apartments become more expensive

Thanks to Melissa Montoya for covering the latest in apartment trends on KOAT TV 7.

Apartment Property Tax Lightning

Thanks to Channel 7, KOAT TV, for running this story on apartment property tax lightning.

Property tax presentation for NM IREM Chapter

can be found here:

IREM-PropertyTaxUpdate-05052011-v2

thanks again to the IREM chapter for allowing me to provide them an update and overview of NM’s property tax system.

It is property tax season

Notices of value are in the mail, or will soon be in the mail. If you need assitance this year with your property taxes – we offer a number of services for you, your firm and your client including:

We have an “app” for that
If you are trying to determining if your value is “fair”, consider downloading our 99 cent app from the iTunes store – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taxessor/id419811562?mt=8

Version 1 of the app takes the Bernalillo county resolved cases from 2010 and applies it to your property to help you determine what your value could have been. Because 2010 is a revaluation year, hopefully these values will go down. Version 2 of the app, which is awaiting approval of will automatically lookup your info from the county website and compare it to the potential value.

If you need some light reading, how about our 320 page textbook?
Now in its 5th edition, the text walks you through the property tax process including calculating your bill, determining if you should protest, and provides case studies of formal hearings and claim of refunds. Available in PDF format for $39 or printed for $49 at http://www.canteraconsultants.com/books

Property Tax Class – is on May 19th, 2011
This NMREC approved course is good for 8 CE credit hours and includes the above mentioned app and textbook and provides hands on training on how to handle your protest and covers our everything you need to “understand NM’s Property Tax System” – course registration for the 5/19/2011 course can be made at – http://www.canteraconsultants.com/registration

Representation
Finally, if that all sounds like a lot of work, you can hire our firm to represent you. We will analyze your property for free, and we charge you a small percentage of the savings only in the first year we obtain a reduction. Over the last 22 years, we’ve won 97% of our cases, representing over a billion dollars of commercial real estate with an average reduction of 23%. We charge 1/3 of what we save the client (i.e if we reduce their property tax bill by $10,000 then we charge $3,333) and we pay a 25% referral fee (on what we collect) to licensed agents, property managers or Realtors. If they choose to waive the referral fee, we can reduce our fee to 25% of the savings, and let the client know why they received a special discount.

If you have a property tax problem, look to us to be your solution.

my first iPhone app help client’s calculate their property taxes

Very excited – as of 5 minutes ago, our iPhone app to help client’s calculate their property taxes for commercial properties in Bernalillo County went “live” in the iTunes store! It is only 99 cents, and if you provide us feedback to improve version 2 and leave feedback, I’ll gladly send you a buck!

If you own a commercial property in Bernalillo County and you would like to compare your property’s value against the resolved cases from 2010, click here – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taxessor/id419811562?mt=8 to try it out.

The App is only $.99 and if you leave us a review and email me feedback at tclarke@nmapartment.com so we can improve version 2, I’ll gladly refund you a buck.

Thanks to Mark and Jamii at SWCP for making this happen.

Support for the app can be found here – http://www.taxessor.com .

Homeless survey in Albuquerque – Day 1

MayorBarry-Surveys-Homeless-01312011 — (c) KRQE

This morning starting at 4am, hundreds of volunteers, including Mayor Barry and his wife, scoured the city looking to survey the homeless and put a face with the statistics of being without a home.

As part of the 100khomes project, Albuquerque has created ABQheadinghome or Twitter

KRQE ran a full story this morning which can be found here.

I surveyed one individual who has been living in a makeshift tent in an arroyo on the west mesa. He has been homeless 7 months, and was recently attacked by three individuals who wanted his possessions. The attack was so brutal he was hospitalized and ended up receiving titanium plates in his head.

There has to be a better way to take care of all people who live here…this group seems determined to find it.

Update: Day 2– below freezing temperatures, blanked of snow on the westside, I was fortunate to be put on good friend (and City Councilor) Trudy Jones team – we introduced “Mike” who spent the night tented in highway culdesac.

The people on our Day 2 team were simply amazing – they knew the people we interviewed on a first name basis and made the process very comfortable for everyone.

Update: Day 3– the Mayor has announced that this survey has turned into a rescue misssion and the city is workign with APS to open up high school gyms for shelter from the unsually cold winter. Councilor Jones is raising money to feed the homeless, and United Way (and others) have raised over $50,000 in less than 48 hours.

It is one of the few times I’ve been speechless by the giving of others and honored to be a small part of the process.

CCIM announces new technology and social networking course

Technology and Social Networking Tools for Today’s Real Estate Professional
This 1-day course, taught by Todd Clarke, CCIM, teaches how to implement the latest technology and social networking tools into a real estate professional’s day-to-day business and add value to clients. Participants will review the latest hardware available, including smart phones, iPads and netbooks, and find software and data storage solutions. In addition, develop a business strategy for using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, through hands-on exercises.

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

Make an informed decision on hardware and software solutions for your business

Determine which social networking sites are best suited to expand your business and inform your clients

Communicate to existing and potential clients through blogs, tweets and other social media

Learn how to add value to your clients’ needs and NOT become a spammer

Course location and pricing
Chicago, IL ~ April 5, 2011 ~ 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Levine Learning Center
430 N. Michigan Ave Suite 800 ~ Chicago, IL 60611

Members $295 Non-members $395
Instructor: Todd Clarke, CCIM

Click here to register

Apartment update/forecast – ULI Dec. 2010

The New Mexico ULI chapter December meeting was a commercial real estate update that included Steve Maestas from NAI Maestas/Ward, John Ransom from Grubb & Ellis NM, Jim Folkman from the Home Builders of Central NM, and myself, Todd Clarke from NM Apartment Advisors Inc.

Our presentation can be viewed here.

CCIM Success Profiles – one of my mentors, John Henderson III CCIM

As you may know, the NM CCIM chapter #10 is collecting a series of stories about some of their most successful members – a task called “profiles in success”.

Many of us have had people in our lives who we are grateful for – persons who show up at the right time and point us in a new direction, or people that provide invaluable insight that changes our course for the better.

I am a 4th generation Commercial Realtor, and both of my parents were in the business and provided that role for me.

In addition to that, I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up in a business and community of individuals that lean towards sharing, supporting, who focus on growing the pie instead of figuring out how to make their own piece larger.

In turns out that isn’t by accident, but was by design. Over 30 years ago, a handful of commercial brokers assembled at one of the earliest meetings of the Leasing Information Network (now known as LIN). Like our country’s founding fathers, these brokers set down their ideals of how people in our business would interact. Cooperation was the key word of the day, with the idea that fees and information would be pulled out of individual silos and shared by all.

One of those leaders, John Henderson III CCIM, was an early mentor for me. I remember when I was a teenager John tactfully informed me that my personality could be improved by attending a Dale Carnegie course (he was right). When I started commercial real estate in 1989, John encouraged me to take a CCIM intro course as soon as possible, and like him, once I had the knowledge, I couldn’t stop. John went on to write a letter of support that helped me secure a CCIM 101 scholarship, and for me, the rest is history as CCIM has done more for my business than any other aspect of my life.

With that thought in mind, it is my pleasure to share this video about John’s start in the business – some 40 years ago, John Henderson was a successfully residential Realtor, whose own life would be changed by a mentor to him.

More on John’s beginning in commercial real estate can be found here at his video – http://www.nmcomreal.com/ccimintro2 .

If after hearing these stories, you believe you might benefit from taking a CCIM course – the local chapter has an intro course this on February 7th and 8th – for $245, a 43% discount over the national rate. You can register for the course at www.nmcomreal.com/ccim .
Thanks,
Todd

NM Commercial Real Estate Value Survey

Cantera Consultants & Advisors has just released the results from our latest valuation survey. This survey was performed over the summer of 2010 with real estate owners, investors, lenders, brokers and appraisers.

The attached document demonstrates the changes in CAP rates and values from 2005 to 2010.

Click here for the survey results and a related newspaper article CCA-Survey-07092010-v8plusJournalArticle