(* Disclaimer: Okay, okay - Real Estate does tend to throw a few knucklers, but we'll get you through them.)
This page shows you all of the Articles and Links you requested. Assuming you have an account and are signed in, you will see a link to save the Article or Link to "Saved A&L" for later review. Once you do either, the Article or Link will be moved. You will need an account to use these features, and you must be signed in as well.
In Commercial Real Estate, a Modified Industrial Lease involves modifications to the Industrial Gross Lease. The modifications can vary, but the tenant often pays for certain items contributing to a Multi-Tenant building’s Common Area Maintenance…
In commercial real estate, there is often confusion regarding the differences between a Gross and a Net Lease, along with their variations. Before diving in, it’s important to understand that tenants will ultimately pay for just about everything. Net leases break down the details into Base Rent plus Operating Expenses…
A side load dock well allows for dock-high loading access to containers in a truck court with very limited depth and is feasible to add to an existing grade-level building…
Paved or stabilized yards have many uses. They can be used to store inventory - i.e. pipe and other items that can withstand the elements - as shown in the attached photo. They can even be used to display inventory, as in the case of processed stone used for countertops. They can also serve as a place to park trucks and trailers - empty and loaded. With proper security, gating and fencing, they can be a reasonably secure place for these and many other items.
So, why not just buy some land and place these items onto it? The purpose of land stabilization is to prevent heavy materials stored on or moving across that land from sinking into the ground. Roads are a primary form of stabilization. Vehicle tire contact points concentrate the vehicle’s weight and represent an excellent example of the need for and the challenges of stabilization. A broad range of situations drives the need for stabilization. In this article, we’ll discuss:
For the record, we are not discussing stabilizing your back yard here. We are discussing industrial grade stabilization - probably an acre or much more.
General warehousing does not typically require electrical service beyond that needed to operate an office area with HVAC and general warehouse lighting and light-duty electrical plugs. Adding large amounts of electrical service can be quite expensive.
Having access to rail siding (doors on rail cars are generally on the side - hence “rail siding” - see photo), which is actually serviced (meaning a rail provider will use the track…
When it comes to warehouse operations, the term “clear height” plays a pivotal role in determining the efficiency and functionality of the space. But what exactly is clear height, and why is it so crucial for businesses that depend on warehouses for storage and operations?…
The intent of this web site is in part to provide general guidance for you while you search for your reason to, and devise your process for selecting the broker you will work with. The industry is structured such that you are nearly forced to rely on brokerage services…
We’ve seen a significant amount of traffic on our site involving cold storage(cooler and/or freezer)-equipped warehouses - for sale, lease and rent. We’ve pursued enough of these opportunities that we feel we’ve established a bit of a specialty in the area…
There is a lot of news out there. We are trying to pick a few of the ariticles that are more relevant to the industries we serve. Today we have articles about the economy (since things are moving very quickly, this can’t help but be a bit dated but still interesting to see progression), the Port of Houston, and a discussion with the Texas Railroad Commissioner about the Texas and World Oil & Gas markets.
Port Houston to receive millions for Bayport terminal expansion, Houston Business Journal, 11Mar2020
HBJ released an article discussing a Grant presented on 10Mar2020 to Port Houston for $21.8M and Port of Corpus Christi for $17.6M. Port Houston will use the funds to expand the Bayport Container Terminal and Port of Corpus Christi will use the funds to partially refurbish docks. The article goes on to discuss various activities at both ports.
Warning Bells Sound for U.S. Economy As Virus Squeezes Ports, Yahoo Finance, 10Mar2020
As of 10Mar2020, the shipping industry - “accustomed to running at full speed this time of year” - is watching a shipping slowdown “tied to the coronavirus.” China shuttering factories is a big factor in slowing shipments into the country. Low demand for longshore labor is causing alarm, per “Jock O’Connell, a foreign trade consultant in CA.” No one knows for sure, but we think we could still be early in this downturn. Buckle up!
Texas oil regulator: ‘What our eyes are on is not the pain of today. It’s the pain of the future, Dallas Business Journal, 21Mar2020
This is an interview with Ryan Sitton, Texas Railroad Commissioner. The article is centered around what if any extraordinary action Texas should take in light of the bottom dropping out from under oil prices. He discusses possible national collaboration with OPEC, dictated slowing of production, and his opinion that oil demand will be here for the long haul.
If we can help you find a Warehouse, please click get started here, give us a call, or use our chat box in the bottom right corner of your screen.
Our Houston Affiliate has the following property for lease in the Houston, TX area. The table and photo need a minor update - Suite 330 has been leased. Otherwise things are current as of 6Nov2020…
This property is listed by Centermark Commercial Real Estate, our exclusive Houston Broker-Affiliate.
The very first and most important thing you must know about leasing or purchasing warehouse or other industrial space is whether or not you can avoid the process altogether! There are many avoidance strategies available…
Locating and acquiring the perfect tract of land to develop can be quite challenging. An experienced developer and its real estate broker can conduct initial due diligence to help avoid costly issues. However, more in-depth inspections and research are necessary before finalizing a purchase…
A dock well, or truck well is commonly used to provide dock-high truck loading for a grade-level warehouse. This photo illustrates one of the major advantages for dock wells - the straightforward ability to have both dock-high loading/unloading and grade level entry to the building…
We expect you’ve arrived here looking for useful information about Industrial & Flex warehouse space. That’s our “thing” and we take it very seriously. We’ve been in operation since 2008…
The Texas (and other State’s) Real Estate Commission (TREC) exists to implement the state laws established around the practice of Real Estate. The state decided at some point - I used to know the date - that consumers need to be protected from fraud and ignorance in the most consequential transactions in which some folks will ever be involved. TREC has come a long way in simplifying what it thinks the consumer needs to know.
They require a lot of things, but some of the most important center around setting up a relationship with a Real Estate professional. They want you to know that until you have an agreed upon relationship with your Broker, you can not assume that they work for you because by statute, they do not. This doesn’t mean that they are allowed to lie to you - just that their duty is to provide their client with the best possible information, and that until you are their client, you need to assume their client is someone else.
They do a much better job of explaining it than I do with their Consumer Protection Notice, which talks about where to file a complaint, what recovery options are available to you as a consumer, and how to get more information. Add to that their Information About Brokerage Services document, which explains in detail the professionals you will be working with, the minimum duties of these professionals to their client, and more detail about the different ways a given Brokerage can represent you in your Real Estate transaction. This information is critical to you and to your understanding about who to trust and what to share. TREC requires all Real Estate professionals in Texas to provide this information to you BEFORE they conduct substantive discussions with you about your Real Estate needs.
There is a good deal of useful information on the TREC Web Site. You can investigate the licensing status of anyone you are considering using as your Real Estate professional, including complaints lodged against them. Most of it is aimed at the Real Estate professional, so you might well consider it pretty dry reading (not that a Real Estate professional doesn’t…).
Every state has rules set out for this situation. I haven’t reviewed the regulations of any other state in detail, but it is my understanding that all states regulate these transactions to some, and probably to a similar degree.
Overview
Many (most?) in the business world have no real need to understand the ins and outs of commercial real estate property types until they experience a need to expand or contract their business. My goal here is to take you briefly through my experience, converting my business experience into an understanding of the Industrial & Flex warehouse market.
Did you know that your relationship with your real estate broker is fairly similar to your relationship with your attorney? To be sure, there are significant differences - but there are also significant similarities. Of course, we all hope not to have (too) much of a relationship with an attorney - at least when it comes around to legal “troubles.” To judge by current trends in the technology industry, many of us feel the same way about real estate brokers. Is it better to be “cagey” about committing to a real estate broker, or is it better to take the plunge and commit to one?
Both attorneys AND real estate brokers (and their agents) are tightly regulated by the states (maybe al statesl, but I certainly it’s the case in Texas where I live and believe it applies broadly). They are both expected to be fiduciaries. Attorneys can take upon themselves broad fiduciary responsibilities as defined between themselves and their clients. A real estate broker is generally limited to fiduciary responsibilities in the area of real estate with an extended obligation to only engage in types of real estate in which they are knowledgable. An example would be an agent who has only handled residential suddenly representing themselves as experts of retail or office properties.
In most areas of your life, you can walk around and conduct business for yourself - buy a hot dog, rent a car, etc., etc. There may be rules those you deal with have to follow and prescribed rules around the transactions, but in most cases you have to look out for yourself - buyer beware and all that. In the real estate industry, buyer (and seller) beware applies as well, but the states I know about have decided that you will in most cases have a real estate professional helping to look out for your interests. Yes, you read that right - in most cases, it is strongly encouraged (not quite required) that a primary party to a real estate transaction employs the services of a real estate professional. If you’re wealthy, there are some ways around it that might save you money, but given the way most real estate regulations are structured, you should really be asking yourself why would I try to do it without a broker in my corner? The transaction fees required for their involvement are generally already built into most real estate transactions.
This would be a long list if I were to list them all - I’ll list a few from various sources including the Texas Administrative Code, the rules of the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC), and other sources for your consideration. A licensee must:
This list could go on and on, and is highly specific to cases that have been encountered in any given state. If the above list isn’t enough, let me add a kicker that might push you over the edge. If you can prove the broker you hired isn’t what your real estate commission says he/she must be or doesn’t do the things your real estate commissions says he/she must do, that real estate commission has the teeth to enforce the rules they set out by force of law. In TEXAS, TREC maintains a fund collected from licensees to make certain that they can make settlements should they decide there were violations that warrant settlements.
In layman’s terms, find a qualified broker with good communication skills and work with them exclusively. They will put in the time and effort using their resources to find, or sell/lease the property you want. Let them do the work while you manage your business and personal life.
There are probably no real downsides to using the right “qualified” broker to represent you. However, we can touch upon why you want to be careful in your selection. The following is an attempt at a list - which I expect to improve and enhance over time:
When I was pursuing my license originally here in Texas, I was amazed to see the detail with which TREC describes their expectations for ethical behavior, and for the behaviors they expect in general. Not to brag (well, maybe), but it was not all that difficult for me since the bulk of it was how I strive to do business in any case. Evidently there must be people out there who need a lot of help, guidance, and at least a little enforcement - because the states decided that this industry, along with a few others, requires fairly tight regulation. Please seriously consider willingly letting a broker take you under his/her wing and help you through what tends to be a fairly complex business transaction - sooner rather than later!
See our short disclaimer.
Are you looking for Warehouse, Office or other space in Houston or elsewhere? Do you need to renew your lease?
Contact Warehouse Finder using our Get Started link above, call us at the phone number on this page in the upper right, or chat with us using our chat widget on the page in the lower right.
A good while ago - if interested, you can likely tell how long by the dates of some of the posts - I began this journey of creating a web site for commercial real estate seekers. I hoped to fill the site with as much useful information as I could manage. Four or five other web sites under my belt later and I’m back to reassess and push forward. Finally taking the time to finish off the links to nation-wide Real Estate Commissions (however they are named) seems like a great thing to talk about at least briefly - not to mention an excellent way to tell our users about some of the techniques for finding this type of information on our site.
The first thing to know - and if you are reading this you already know 1 way to find this article - it’s the FINDthisSPACE web site Articles and Links structure. Posts on our site are one of two things (so far) - 1) a BLOG Post like this one, and 2) a Link to useful information elsewhere on the web. In both cases, you can view the summary of all Posts, or Articles and Links on our Articles and Links page here. On this page, you’ll find all of them listed in chronological order with “sticky” articles we feel we need to prioritize at the top. If you just want to browse, this is probably where you want to be.
For those of you who want to find information faster, we’ve provided a few ways to narrow things down. We’ve provided:
At this point, all the Real Estate Commission Links/Synopses are Tagged with Consumer Advocacy and State Regulations (I may use more tags as we go along on these). If you see one of these Tags under a synopsis on the BLOG page, you can click on that Tag and it will narrow (filter) the BLOG page by Tag - which I’m calling “tagify.” These links are also available on the BLOG Post/Article page (accessed under News and Info - the Articles & Links (A&L) link) after the article. These links work the same. Note that these Place Tags aren’t links yet - I’m working on that.
As implied above, Place Tags are still under development. They have a good deal of potential. Right now, the best way to get to the state you want without browsing the entire set of posts is to use the “By Metro” under News and Info. Click on your state, and then on any of the Metro areas within that state to get the one you want. Anything Place-tagged with a state will appear with that filter.
The last is the Commercial Real Estate type flag. This, too, is under continued development, but as of now it works as you might expect. There’s not a lot of content currently that requires this filter, but I expect that to change over time.
If you end up finding these tags (filters) useful, you may also want to register with our site. Each of these tag types have their own saving mechanism, as do BLOG Posts themselves.
Thanks for having a look and check back often!
Need More Details?
Want more information about something on this page? Need industrial, office or warehouse space? Use our Free Property Search form to provide your information to let our Broker Affiliate Network know about your needs including help assessing an existing lease. You may also call us at (800) 814 - 4214 to begin the discussion.
Please contact us at our Info Email address or use our Contact Us form if you have questions or concerns.
As Seen On
Need more details?
We are here to assist. Contact us by phone, email or via our social media channels.
