Mortgage Matters

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Roland Daniels 0:43
Good morning Las Vegas. Welcome to mortgage matters. I'm your host, Roland Daniels, a certified mortgage advisor with Geneva financial. My NMLS number is 355859, company. NMLS number is 42056, and I'm here this morning, as always, with my fantastic co host, Heidi Griffith, good morning. Heidi,

Heidi Griffith 1:05
good morning. Roland, how are you this morning? I am doing awesome. Happy Sunday. Happy Sunday. I'm Heidi Griffith. I'm also a mortgage advisor and your Director of Client Services. My NMLS number is 2247754, so before we get started, we want to take a moment to say Happy Mother's Day to all the incredible moms tuning in this morning, whether you're a biological mom, a step mom, a grandmother, an auntie, a godmother, or you're just somebody who shows up and gives love like mom today is dedicated to you,

Roland Daniels 1:37
it is. And we see you. We appreciate you, and we thank you, and of course, a special shout out to our own moms. Hi, Mommy, right? We love that. It's more than words can say. Thank you for your strength, your support and for always being on our corner. Yeah. And

Heidi Griffith 1:56
since today's about love legacy, building something for the next generation, we also want to remind our listeners that Fair Housing protections matter. It's one of the foundations of generational wealth and stability, and it's something we all need to keep an eye on and speak up for, especially now

Roland Daniels 2:12
here in Nevada, we are fortunate to have the Silver State Fair Housing Council doing the hard work of helping people defend those rights. If you've experienced discrimination or have questions, you can reach out to them at 702-749-3288. And if you'd like help finding your local or state representative, you can also make your voice be heard. We're happy to guide you to that information as well. That's right,

Heidi Griffith 2:40
that's right. So yeah, speaking out is important right now, isn't it? It is totally and so let's talk about building something for your family and your future. We've got a class coming up tomorrow, don't we? We do? Yeah, tomorrow, Monday, May 12, we're teaming up with the Nevada housing division for a free online home ownership class. This is our home as possible class it is. This is the class that covers all of Nevada housing divisions, down payment assistance programs. They have programs that are for first time homebuyers, but they also have programs that allow you to have purchased a home and owned a home in the past, right? It does? They allow you to own a home outside of Nevada, Nevada

Roland Daniels 3:14
and still utilize Down Payment Assistance right here in Nevada, absolutely.

Heidi Griffith 3:18
And they've got great income limits. You can go up to $165,000 in income and still qualify you sure game. And what about teachers? Teachers $7,500

Roland Daniels 3:28
and then with a lower interest rate, and it's forgivable after five years.

Heidi Griffith 3:31
Yeah, that's K through 12. That's Clark County School District. Actually, all Nevada public schools, including charters, including charters and magnets, yes, as long as it's Clark County School District or a public school, right? That down payment assistance program is $7,500 and it's forgivable after five years. So if you live in your home for five years, it goes away. It does so, so you're more than welcome to to join us. It's online. It's easy to attend, yep. And

Roland Daniels 3:58
this class is designed to help you understand how to access up to 5% towards your down payment or closing costs. And that is not just for first time buyers. And we'll break down the basics of FHA, VA and conventional loans and give you a clear view of what it takes to own a home in today's market.

Heidi Griffith 4:19
Yeah, and I know we've talked about VA and down payment assistance before on air. So with a VA loan, probably the best loan product that's out there, isn't it? 100% so with the VA loan, there is no down payment and no zero down not even $1 not even $1 to zero. But you could actually utilize programs like Nevada housing, Nevada, rural housing, other programs that we offer, and use that towards your closing cost, because you don't have a down payment, that is correct. So it could make it super accessible, especially if you're a veteran. It's just a great way to think our vets, right? Yep, yeah. 100 the Class is only an hour. It's gonna be from four to 5pm again, that's Monday, May 12. It's. Online. So if you're at home, if you're on your break at work, you can just hop on and join us from wherever you are. It's casual, it's real, and there is absolutely no pressure. This is just knowledge that you can learn and get started. So you can call us or text us if you'd like to register. Our number is 702-210-2057, again, that number is 702-210-2057, you can also hop on to our Facebook page. Mortgage matters radio, there will be a link that you can register there

Roland Daniels 5:30
too. Heidi, we have a fantastic guest with us today. We do, right? Yeah, someone who brings a whole different side of real estate to the table. If you've ever thought about leasing or buying space for your business, or wonder what it takes to make smart commercial real estate moves, you're going to want to stick around for this one.

Heidi Griffith 5:52
That's right. That's right because Joining us today is Gertrude Presley. He's a real estate advisor with nearly a decade of experience in commercial tenant representation, acquisitions and dispositions. He works with everyone from local mom and pop businesses to nationally recognized companies, helping them secure the right space for their growth and get this. He's a three time top 40, under 40 award winner from the Las Vegas realtors, and holds a Certified International Property specialist designation. That's a lot. That's impressive. It is that's so impressive. He's also currently working towards earning his CCIM, that certified commercial investment member designation, which is no small feat. Dertres, good morning. Welcome to mortgage matters. Good morning. Thank you guys for having me on. Thank you so much for being here. We're excited. I'm excited. We talked about it before the show. This is just one of those things that I love. I talk about it to anybody who will listen. Representation is super important in all real estate transactions, and you do something a little bit differently, don't you?

Dertrez Presley 6:51
Yeah, something that's, I guess, odd in the commercial. I don't think it's I think

Heidi Griffith 6:58
it's amazing. So let's dig into it, because commercial real estate, it's just one of those areas that most people don't think about until they're in it, right? Yeah, yeah. And maybe you're starting a business, maybe you're expanding, maybe you're trying to figure out if you should lease, maybe you should buy. And unlike residential real estate, right, this space feels like a whole different language. You guys have different rules that you follow, right, different guidelines that you follow. And, I mean, I think the coolest thing, and the reason why you're sitting that you're other than being just a super nice guy is, is that you actually work primarily with buyers and tenants, right? Yes,

Dertrez Presley 7:33
yes, I'm what you would consider a tenant rep specialist. I've built my entire business just representing tenants. I've never represented a landlord, and so within my industry, that's looked at as as weird, right? Most, most brokers are like, Why would you only want to represent tenants? Why wouldn't you want to represent landlords? And in my business, what I discovered was just that a lot of tenants, especially Mom and Pop tenants, don't have proper representation. And this is not to say that my colleagues who represent landlords are not representing people properly, but they represent, they represent the landlord, right? And so at least in the state of Nevada, you know you can do dual representation, but legally, your first fiduciary responsibility is to the client you signed first, right? So I think there's a disconnect there. But mom and pop businesses are not sexy. So

Roland Daniels 8:27
for clarity for our audience, what is a mom and pop business? So they know

Dertrez Presley 8:32
a mom and pop business would be a business that is acquiring their first space, maybe they have they're acquiring their second space, or their third space right there, there, there less than five locations, and a regional, you know, or trade area. And so because they're a smaller tenant, they might not be or smaller business. They might not be somebody who you're going to be able to get 356, deals out of in the next, you know, three to four years, they may not have the ability to expand at that rate. Whereas a regional, you know, business, somebody who started off as a mom and pop and then grew themselves to having multiple locations within the city trade area, and now they have eight locations here, and they're moving to Arizona, and they're opening up, right? They don't have the same, the same access.

Heidi Griffith 9:24
And so because they have people, most of those types of businesses, right? These bigger businesses, they've got people who do this stuff for them, yeah, and they're familiar, yeah?

Dertrez Presley 9:32
So you as you know, as you get to the national level, you have in house real estate teams, but then they'll still work with local brokers, because they're the ones who know that market, yeah, and then that scales its way, you know that scales its way down, until you get to, again, the mom and pops, and you get the people who, for example, I had an agent refer over a young lady who is interested in purchasing her commercial for her first commercial space. And she said, Well, I'm looking to. Buy laundromats. And I said, Okay, why laundromats? And she wasn't entirely sure why laundromats, other than I guess it was. It's on Tiktok, and it's kind of popular. And I said, Well, why don't we sit down and discuss what your actual financial goals are? Because maybe laundromats are for you, but maybe it's not laundry mats. Maybe you prefer the the risk and the reward of a eight unit, you know, apartment building. Maybe that's not for you. Maybe it's a retail unit. Maybe you're okay with a slightly higher risk portfolio for a higher return on your investment. Maybe you want something that's going to be a little bit more stable, right? And so when you can sit down with people and actually get a feel for what they what they want, you just ask them questions. You continue to ask questions and ask questions, and that'll help you to be a better broker, in my opinion, and representative of that of that individual or that business. But yeah, just in my in my experience, I came across seeing how a lot of them went underrepresented, and a lot of them didn't know what was required to lease commercial space. And most mom and pops are leasing, right? They're not buying. You know, you have to be independently wealthy to buy your your first commercial space, yeah, your first building or unit for your business, but most of them are leasing for the first time, right? And a lot of times they don't know what's required, and they have very large, you know, dreams as you need to have in order to start your own business. But then you gotta sit down with somebody who's gonna, who's gonna accurately represent you, and let you know you don't need 5000 square feet for your first, your first space. You'll be out of business in two years, right? Right? And then explain that to them, as opposed to, you know, saying, Well, hey, if your finances look decent, let's, let's, let's sign you up, right? Well,

Heidi Griffith 11:49
that that could be potentially what happens if you go to somebody who's representing the landlord or the building owner, right? That

Dertrez Presley 11:56
or you're working with someone who doesn't understand the commercial world. Sometimes you do get residential agents who decide that you want to dip their foot into the commercial world. I will always say, I'm never going to say to you or stop you from expanding your business, but I will ask you, is it in your best interest or their best interest for you to attempt to do this transaction right if you don't have the expertise. And I

Heidi Griffith 12:23
like that. I like that because, again, representation, it matters, making sure that people are you know, that they understand. Because I know from the residential side, because that's the side I know. And I wouldn't that. I wouldn't go into that lane, because I know nothing about it. But contracts are a lot. I mean, we're signing agreements. We are saying that, you know, we're going to do a and b, you're going to do C and D, and that's what's going to happen. And if we don't understand what we're signing, that's a big deal, right?

Dertrez Presley 12:52
Yeah, as a matter of fact, so I have, I've been putting together a little course for residential agents, basically explaining the differences and similarities between commercial and residential, right? And one of the things we talk about is, is that I talk about is leasing. So on the residential side, it's my understanding that you don't represent your client. You're just a showing agent. There's a referral agreement, right between you and the property manager or the owner. Whereas on the commercial side, we're crafting a negotiating strategy. We're active in negotiating that letter of intent on behalf of our clients. There may or may not be an attorney involved, but then when we get that lease back, we're looking over that lease agreement while, although we are not attorneys, we're looking over that lease agreement to make sure that everything that was negotiated in the LOI is accurately conveyed to that lease agreement, what's in loi, a letter of intent. Thank you. And that lease agreement, I have clients that have taken 900 square feet of space. That lease agreement is 54 pages, right? And so we advise our clients. I advise my clients, hey, you should have an attorney. Look over this, over this lease. I understand it's going to cost some money, but better safe than sorry. But you, as the commercial broker, you need to understand what type of terms you're putting into that letter of intent. You need to understand as much as you can about your client's business based off of the information they've given you, so that you can craft a good and solid loi which offers protections to your clients. That's the big thing. Is protection, yes, and if you don't know what you're doing, then you are likely to be taken advantage of, I don't want to say it's 100% of the time you're beginning to be taken advantage of, right, but you are likely to be taken advantage of, right? Because the other side, the opposite side that landlords broker, they they know

Heidi Griffith 14:38
what they're they know what they're doing, and they know who they're protecting. I mean, they're protecting the landlord, right? Yes. So, yeah, that's great. So what do you think the biggest challenge that these kind of, these mom and pop so that you know that would be, I want to open up a pizza spot. I've never owned a pizza spot before. I want to open a What's the biggest challenges you see in that space?

Dertrez Presley 14:57
The biggest challenge? So I would say there's two. One. Is taking your vision and putting it down on paper, constructing some type of business plan. Business Plan is key. Lots of times I'll sit down with a small business owner or aspiring business owner, and they'll say, I want a commercial space. And I'll say, Okay, what is it that you do? And they'll they'll tell me, you know, I'm a barber. I make pies. I am an esthetician. I say, okay, great. That's fantastic. Do you have a website? Do you have any social media? Do you have a brochure of some type or a business plan that I can see? And they'll say, No. Now there's more, of course, on the social media side, but it's like, okay, well, that's, that's, let's say you don't have any of that. I'll say, Okay, well, then you need to come up with something that I can take a look at, that I can then give you feedback on that I can share with the landlord broker, right? Because you've got to sell your client, right? Yes, yeah. And so I can say, well, as you can see, this is more than just an idea, and that's what the brokers on the land who represent the landlord gonna say, Was this just a idea off the top of their head, or they actually got something I can see, what type of consideration are you going to give me to take a look at? And so then they can say, Okay, well, you know what? These are the services I offer. These are the prices that I charge. That's great, though. An image on there, right? Your company name, that is better than absolutely nothing, right? Now, a lot of times, you know, within the last I'd say, five plus years, you see more people who have a social media presence, and that can be helpful if their social media presence is easy to access, because these brokers don't want to have to do a lot of work to get to Okay, I see that you do nails. Great. I see you have lots of nails, all right? Awesome. I see nothing here about pricing, right? Nothing here about your schedule and to a landlord rep and to an owner, it doesn't look very like, how do I know you're not doing these out of the out of your, you know,

Heidi Griffith 16:47
garage, and you're not getting maybe you're doing it for free. Yeah, because, because, clearly, landlord wants to get paid. He wants to make sure that when you sign a lease with me, that you're going to Yeah, dollars

Dertrez Presley 16:58
in risk. And are you worth the risk of leasing this space to can you afford to pay my rent? Right? And so that's one challenge. Is having them, you know, come up with something. I'll always tell my clients, I'm not going to tell you to go out there and spend $5,000 on the website that you don't need. You can come up with a basic brochure, and that, again, is better than nothing. But the second thing would be finances. Big one. That is the that is the largest one. A lot of times there's a hesitancy in the commercial space with mom and pops to want to show all their finances. And I explain this isn't like residential where showing you have, you know, more money means that the owner of the house is gonna want more money, right? This is, this is about business, and at the end of the day, that landlord cares protects to know that you can afford to pay my rent,

Heidi Griffith 17:49
and if you have a bad month, you've got some money saved and put aside that you can actually cover that month. Yeah.

Dertrez Presley 17:53
So it's show as much as you possibly can, because we can get more in concessions from the landlord when you have more to show

Roland Daniels 18:02
up front, huh? When you're doing negotiations, yeah, yeah. Okay, so

Heidi Griffith 18:06
you say concessions, can I'm gonna stop you right there. Tell me about concessions. Oh, concessions

Dertrez Presley 18:09
would be things like rent abatement. Also, people say the phrase free rent. I can't stand that phrase, right? One month free? Well, yeah, one month free is okay. But when they say free rent in my head, I'm like, if it's rent, it's not free, so you can't have free rent, but that's a personal little pet peeve thing. But it's rent abatement. So it's negotiating rent abatement. It's negotiating TI, which is tenant improvement dollars, if you have to do a build out on the space, asking the landlord for a certain dollar amount, asking for things like early possession or delayed possession the space, asking the landlord to do a certain amount of work to the space, you know, at their cost and not to you. So these are all different types of concessions, and there's multiple ways to negotiate those concession. Concessions, for example, did a deal with the client where we we got six months of rent abatement. Now this was a couple years ago, and what the landlord did was, instead of having all of that six months up front, that first they said no to six months, and then we came back and said, Okay, we still need the six months, but what if we spread that six months out over the term of their lease. And so we were able to still get the six months. And then they were stacked. It was staggered throughout the term of the lease. So they'll get two months of rent abatement in this year, two months of rent abatement in this year, two months in that year, so on and so forth. And so yeah, the finances being able to show your finances. Show them clearly is is important, and you got to understand that you need the money before you can get the space. And

Roland Daniels 19:49
what kind of documentation are they looking for when it comes to showing your assets?

Dertrez Presley 19:53
Oh, so let's say you don't have an LLC. It's going to be all personal finances. Okay, let's say you do have a licensed business, sole proprietorship, whatever, whatever it is, then they're going to want to see two years of business tax returns. If you're not in business for two years, they'll take the one but then they're going to want to, they're really going to heavily scrutinize your personal tax returns, and then two to three months of bank statements. I tell my clients, every landlord is different. Some landlords will require you to fill out an application. Some don't care about the application. I had a client once we were doing a vape shop, and before they were referred to me, they were looking at a lot of big box or, sorry, they were looking at a lot of neighborhood commercial centers,

Heidi Griffith 20:37
like shopping mall. I mean, like a strip mall, strip mall, yeah, yeah, for

Dertrez Presley 20:42
their second location. And then they were referred to me, and we talked about it, and like, Okay, well, let's switch up the strategy. Let's look for spaces at big box, right? And a big box would be like an Albertsons or a Smith, something along those lines, someone with an anchor Yeah, an anchor tenant and and so we started looking, and we found a location they were open to the use and whereas the small mom and pops were like, We want to see, you know, a million dollars in savings the anchor tenant, not the well, not the anchor tenant, but the the owners of that, of that retail Plaza, were like, Okay, well, show us the finances for your first location. These look solid. Your personal finances you got, you know, you got some money saved up here, all right, and we were able to ink a deal. They didn't need to have the million dollars that some of the smaller and so every landlord is, every landlord is, is

Roland Daniels 21:31
that because there's their size, there are, they can absorb that risk,

Dertrez Presley 21:36
well, so that's that, that could be part of it, but also just, I think it depends not just on that, but how savvy the landlords are. You have a lot of properties that are owned by small families, right? And again, they themselves would be considered a mom and pop business. I'm working with a client right now who is looking to open up her first ever salon suites. She's been, you know, a hairstylist for over 1012, years, and now she's looking to grow. And so a Salon Suite will allow her to do that. She's gonna basically become a landlord herself. And the space that we're looking at, they're considered Mom and Pop, although they own to roughly 8000 square foot building, right? Okay, right. And so there's a lot of different factors that go into that, but yeah, being able to absorb a little bit more of that risk. But also, you know, they cared more about, what do the finances look like for the first location, as opposed to the personal savings that they had, or the other smaller, you know, right neighborhood, commercial owners were looking more at the personal savings. So that

Heidi Griffith 22:37
makes sense. It's that's really interesting. I didn't even ever think about any of that. So I want to start a business. I want to sell I don't know pizza. I want to open a pizza shop, because I make great pizza. There's a lot more than my brain saying I'm I want to go brick and mortar. I want to open a pizza place. We need pizza ovens. We need, you know, because we know that stuff that we need, or we think we know, would it when's a good time for me to reach out to you to start that process? Or do I wait until I think I have enough money, because who knows what that magic number is in my bank account?

Dertrez Presley 23:11
No, I would say that you you reach out to a commercial broker sooner than later, because they can help you craft your your game plan, right? I met with a young lady about two weeks ago. She's a massage therapist, and she's ready to open up her own space. And so after we did the consultation, she's about a year or so out, right? But now she has more of a solid game plan in order to be able to get to where she wants to go. So it's, Hey, you're going to do this for this amount of time, and then after you've seen, you know, increase in your revenue stream, make sure you're tracking all of that, you're going to start actually, you know, doing a P and L statement, so profit and loss statement, so tracking all of those numbers. Because again, when we get to the point within a year or two, for you to go and lease your own space, as opposed to subleasing from somebody else, you have all of these numbers now, right? But you're not there just yet. And so if you want to open up a pizzeria, I would say, yeah, go meet up with a commercial broker. Just be upfront and transparent with them and say, Hey, not in a place to lease yet, but I would like to know what the process is. Can we sit down have a conversation, absolutely. And, you know, I love that you'll put them on, you know, you add them to your calendar and like, okay, yeah, I'll follow up with them every two months, every three months, just to see how they're doing.

Roland Daniels 24:30
Now, do you help them with a business plan, or do you have resources that you can refer them in getting their business off the ground? Because maybe they don't have the experience of coming up with their own business plan, or they need help or assistance?

Dertrez Presley 24:45
Yeah, so this may sound what's the word like? I don't know, but I typically refer people to SBA. Okay, they have a lot of different programs to help people actually plan out what their business is. We have. Local office here, and we do. And so that's the Small Business Administration, yes, yes. And so that's where I refer people when they're like, like, they're just starting, like, we'll sit down to our consultation. I'll tell them, hey, you're going to need this, you're going to need this, you're going to need this. This is the process of what it looks like in order to, you know, acquire space. This is how I operate. This is, you know, what the expectation would be if we're going to work together. And, you know, always transparency. This is how I get paid. Just want to be upfront with everything. And then here are some resources. Reach out to SBA, start working on that, and we'll

Heidi Griffith 25:36
follow up, and we'll circle back and see where you're at and get you into a space when you're ready. Yep. So before we because we're running out of time, but before we go, what's hot right now in the commercial space, what's

Dertrez Presley 25:46
what's hot, what's hot, what's not so it's interesting. Vegas, we know is growing. We keep developing. We're not slowing down. I would say that our top property types right now, retail, our retail market is booming. Our industrial is booming. Our vacancy has increased slightly over the last the last year. But you know, we've been as you guys. Anybody driving around the city can see we've been building like crazy, right? But I would say one that most people haven't probably thought about would be mixed use properties. What does that look like? So mixed use properties are a blend of residential units or hotel units, and then at the bottom you have retail units. And so there are quite a few mixed use projects going on around town or slated to break ground around town. If you've driven on Decatur and Russell, you have the autonomous hotel. It's going to be super cool, right? Yeah, it's supposed to be, it's supposed to feature AI technology within the hotel. And they're thinking that may, they may make some of those units actual condos. So there's that one. You have waterfall by strata in Henderson. I think that one's supposed to be between four and 800 residential units, and then somewhere around 36 37,000 square feet of retail space. Yeah, you have watermark, which is near Main Street. I believe downtown Henderson, you have, well, downtown, that would be Midtown, right? They have a mixed use project with, forget the name, the English residency. Yeah, it is the English. The English, thank you. Hilo Park, which is where the old Fiesta and Rancho was, that's going to be about 400 units of residential and then a mix of office and retail. Most people know about the uncommons over on Durango. Yep, right. So all of these mixed use properties that are incorporating being able to live in the same area that work, play, work and play. And I would say that that's, that's, that's pretty hot.

Heidi Griffith 27:57
I'm, I'm glad to see it come here. I think that it's just one of those things that we've needed for a long time. I know that we've really tried to work on downtown Las Vegas and kind of create that vibe there, but I think anywhere in the valley that utilizing those spaces is a great turn for the city dirt just we are running out of time. But before we go, can you give us your information. So if anybody has any questions or would like to reach out to you, they know how to get a hold of

Dertrez Presley 28:25
you. Yeah, absolutely. So I can be reached by phone. My number 702-963-6424, I can be reached by email, and that would be my first name, durtras, D, E, R, T, R, E, Z, at Brown and Company advisors.com, awesome. Phone number again, 702-963-6424, and then I'm on social media. But I'm not gonna lie. I really check my social media. So if you reach out to me on social media, it might be a month before I see it.

Heidi Griffith 28:58
Yeah, give you a call if you have any commercial questions, right? Yeah, call them,

Dertrez Presley 29:02
email. Those are the best ways to contact me. But yeah, if you send me a message on Facebook or Instagram, it could be a month before I see it.

Heidi Griffith 29:10
I totally understand that. So thank you again for joining us today and sharing your experience and insight. If you're listening and you want to get started or just have questions about commercial real estate, remember, you don't have to go it alone. And

Roland Daniels 29:22
before we go, Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful, strong and loving women who make the world go around. We'll see you next Sunday at 7:30am right here on K, U, N, V, 91.5, and remember, stay true to yourself and your mind. Hi. You.