Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Henderson Arranges $4.6M for Snohomish Self Storage

NBS Financial Services' Jeff Henderson has arranged $4.6 million in financing for Snohomish Self Storage in Snohomish, Washington, about 30 miles northeast of Seattle.

Snohomish Self Storage has 707 storage units and 281 RV/parking spaces. It was built in 1999 and sits on about 8.5 acres.

The borrower originally tried to gain financing through two local banks, but was unsuccessful. After contacting Henderson, he utilized NBS Financial’s Strategic Alliance Mortgage (SAM) network to find lenders interested in financing the property. NBS Financial is a member of SAM, whose goal is to combine local expertise, while leveraging a national platform with 20 other select mortgage banking firms across the country, to provide a broad reach of capital from local, national and international sources.

Arranging financing for self storage is considerably different than for other commercial property.

“Many lenders look at self storage as more of a business than real estate, which may be a deterrent to lending,” Henderson said. “Having so many RV and parking spaces was also a challenge. We had to dig deep to find the right match for the borrower.”

Monday, June 21, 2010

June Market Watch: State of the Commercial Real Estate Market

A recent quarterly survey by Real Estate Roundtable suggests the commercial real estate market is beginning to stabilize. The group surveyed more than one hundred senior real estate executives for its quarterly report. 82 percent believe market conditions today are better than they were a year ago and seventeen percent characterized conditions as “much better.”

Roundtable CEO Jeffrey DeBoer said, “Clearly, the sense of gloom that prevailed a year ago has eased, property values no longer seem to be in a free-fall and market participants are feeling more confident.” The survey also noted that financing can be challenging for some properties, as defaults are still rising. Transaction volume is down 80 to 90 percent and values are down nearly 50 percent in some markets. “What’s needed now is robust job creation, more equity and restoration of secondary market financing so that banks can clear their balance sheets of toxic assets and begin lending again to credit-worthy borrowers," DeBoer said.

In mid-May, Marielle Jan de Buer (CMBS) and Thierry Perrein (REITs) hosted roundtable discussions in New York and Boston about the current state of commercial real estate lending. Below are some highlights:
• The tone in the debt markets has changed dramatically in the past two quarters; liquidity is flowing back into the market.
• There has been an increased appetite for commercial real estate loans in general.
• Sponsors are refinancing (instead of extending) and recapitalizing while acquisitions are heating up.
• Competition among lenders is increasing-spreads are coming in.
• Life insurance companies and banks are fi lling the void left by CMBS.
• Life insurance companies have targeted $32 billion of origination in 2010 (up from $18 billion in 2009).
• The overall resurgence in the capital markets coupled with the lack of available product has led to greatly improved pricing and leverage.

As the economy and the commercial real estate markets continue to improve, NBS Financial Services is consistently quoting and closing loans for well located, cash-flowing real estate at the 65-75 percent loan to value levels. Our lenders have money to lend and see the Pacific Northwest as one of the strongest markets in the country to invest in. Rates are still near historic lows. Call us today to secure financing for your apartment, office, retail, or industrial property.

Issues Affecting Commercial Mortgage Rates:
• Lukewarm treasury auctions throughout the month as European economic crisis looms.
• The recent move in Treasury rates caused swap spreads to widen as rates fell across the yield curve.
• Loan sales market is booming, $2.6 billion of loans on the market for sale through the end of June.
• Increase in loan demand last 60 days (balance sheet and CMBS execution).

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

What is Strategic Alliance Mortgage (SAM)?

NBS Financial Services is a member of Strategic Alliance Mortgage (SAM), a unique network comprised of 23 individually owned commercial real estate investment banking/mortgage banking firms located throughout the United States.

The goal of SAM is to combine local entrepreneurial expertise with a nationwide network to deliver the very best capital markets execution and alternatives to its clients.

Formed in 1998, SAM has grown to become a viable new business model for the commercial mortgage banking industry. SAM members are at the cutting edge of technology, utilizing a web-based system to communicate, share ideas and catalogue capital market participants, information and trends. SAM is unique in that it puts a local owner/expert in the middle of each transaction armed with national capital markets expertise that is second to none.

SAM STATISTICS
Production: $67 billion since 2003
Servicing: $31 billion
Producers: 146 commercial originators