The first step in any commercial real estate acquisition is to identify properties that align with your overall investment strategy. This tends to involve exhaustive market research that identifies and evaluates factors that can potentially influence the current and future value of an opportunity. The product of this research will lead to underwriting, a process in which you must carefully assess a property’s attributes.

Underwriting includes considering many key factors, including:

- The price range for the property

- The reason (or reasons) why a property is available for sale

- Current occupancy rates and anticipated occupancy patterns

- Current rental rates and rules for changing rent

- Current expenses and options for reducing future expenses

- Current and anticipated strength of the property’s location

- Anticipated return on investment

Once you have identified a property that suits your investment goals, you will need to formally initiate the acquisition process with the seller. You will need to make an initial bid that demonstrates your legitimate interest in the property and serves as a starting point for future negotiations. This bid will be included in a Letter of Intent (LOI), a non-binding legal agreement that precedes the more formal purchase and sale agreement. Our team can help you draft and review your LOI to ensure it reflects your interests and goals and contains all necessary elements.

If the seller is interested in your offer and engages, you will need to conduct formal due diligence. In many cases, this requires hiring a professional firm to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the property’s title, survey, and zoning. This investigation will identify potential issues that could jeopardize legal ownership or limit the investment potential. 

Due diligence also requires completing an in-person physical examination. You will need to carefully inspect every area of the property and check for neglect, disrepair, or other maintenance issues that may reduce the property’s value or otherwise require additional capital to address. You should also gather and review all operational documentation, including the payment of property taxes, insurance policies, rent histories, and any other contracts that can impact the property’s operations. Finally, you should identify and evaluate all potential legal claims impacting the property, including tax abatements litigation.

Our Coral Gables commercial real property acquisitions attorneys can assist you with the examination and interpretation of due diligence investigations. We have helped facilitate numerous types of commercial real estate transactions and are familiar with how to effectively assess these reports. Our team can address potential issues and advise whether a property is still poised to meet your investment expectations.

If you determine the property to be viable and wish to continue with the acquisition, you will likely need to make additional offers to compete with any other interested buyers. Should you be selected as the buyer, you will need to prepare a purchase and sale agreement that describes the terms of the transaction. This will include the final acquisition price. We can help you create a robust purchase and sale agreement that protects your interests and meets your objectives.

Once a purchase and sale agreement has been accepted by both the buyer and seller, the closing process will begin. Our firm can assist you with each step of the commercial real estate closing process. Funds needed to facilitate the transaction will need to be placed in escrow, while any final due diligence concerns – including title insurance policies – will need to be resolved before ownership is transferred. After all terms of the purchase and sale agreement have been met, the escrow deposit can be released, and you will obtain legal ownership of the commercial property.