Charlotte NC Commercial - Blog #Tenants

Student Housing Solutions

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:16:00 -0500

Student Housing Solutions

When an owner has an apartment property near the campus of a University and they mainly rent apartments for student housing, there are particular problems. The competitive situation dictates that leases be offered for one semester of nine and a half months. A twelve-month lease for students is virtually unheard of. That means there are lots of vacancies as soon as final exams have ended. (This does not apply to a few University communities where there is always an apartment shortage. In those few places, the student must lease for 12 months or have no lodging.)

There are ways that might help turn the months of vacancies into extra rental income.
First, during graduation week, the vacant apartments are rented to parents and guests, by the management company, on 3-day or 5-day leases. The parents like being closer to the activities and a close place to rent is more attractive than an outlying motel or hotel.
Second, summer students taking courses at the university welcome the chance to rent an apartment on a week-to-week basis. This is particularly true of students and employees from other colleges who don’t have the time to search out living arrangements for, say, a six-week summer course.

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The Importance Of A New Tenant Screening Process

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:14:00 -0500

The Importance Of A New Tenant Screening Process

The property manager provides the tenant applicant with the lease application that must be filled out for the interview. A leasing agent may assist during the review process, but the final selection of tenants is ultimately the property manager and owner’s responsibility.

All leasing personnel should be informed that the company does not discriminate on the basis of an applicant’s race, sex, color, creed, or national origin.

The screening process helps determine the prospect’s desirability and verifies financial and nonfinancial qualifications. When all information has been received, the applicant’s file should be given to the property manager and/or owner for final review. Decisions made during this process are based on the following criteria:

Impressions created by the prospect when interviewed;
The prospect’s employment history if the prospect is applying for residential space; company or business history if the prospect is applying for commercial space;
Information gathered from verifying the prospect’s references and from the completion of a credit check;
Compatibility of the tenant to the property type.

When the application is approved, the property manager should prepare the lease and other appropriate documents that require the applicant’s signature. Commercial tenants will probably have an attorney review the lease, which may require a certain amount of negotiation. Upon approval, the lease is signed, and security deposits and rent payments are collected as specified in the lease.

When an applicant is disapproved, he/she should be promptly notified. If the disqualification resulted from a credit check, the law requires that the applicant be informed of this. To protect against possible litigation, rejected applications should be kept on file with complete statements about why applications were rejected.

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“Purpose And Use” Within A Shopping Center

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 13:18:00 -0500

“Purpose And Use” Within A Shopping Center

In Recent years, many stores have widened their lines and no longer specialize in only one form of merchandise. Such operations as supermarkets may sell anything from CDs and DVDs to refrigerators, and drugstores are as apt to carry pots and pans as well as pills. However, in order to insure the success of small as well as large store operations within the shopping center, management specialists must try to create a harmonious balance and limit the amount of “overlapping merchandise” that causes unnecessary competition. Big Box stores sell almost everything but are usually a “stand-alone” store.

One approach is to regulate the retail character of the center through “purpose and use” clauses in leases.

This is one of the most important provisions in a shopping center store lease. Since the lease term will run anywhere from 10 to 30 years, the tenant will try for a provision that will permit him to make the broadest possible use of the premises. The owner or developer, on the other hand, will be thinking of the welfare of the entire center, and he will want to define and limit the business use of each tenant as to the line of merchandise it will sell. He will also want a provision that controls the kind of products sold and even the price range of the merchandise. In setting up so-called “use” clauses, don’t characterize the business merely as a “shoe store” or a “TV store”. Instead, set forth the nature of the business in more detail.

The purpose of regulating competition within a shopping center is to establish a proper balance between too much and too little competition within the center. One of the basic attractions of a well-planned shopping center is the potential increase in the business of each tenant because of the proximity of other tenants whose operations are successful. Each tenant wants to be assured that the other stores will be occupied by tenants whose businesses will complement and benefit his business rather than engage in destructive competition with his business.

An exclusive right clause gives the tenant the exclusive right to engage in a specified business or sell a particular line of merchandise within the center or a particular portion of the center. The trend is against exclusives, either for the type of store or for a specific line of merchandise. The reasons for this trend are not hard to find: a large number of shoppers like to do comparison shopping and modern merchandising methods have led many stores to broaden their lines so that a great deal of overlapping results. In most instances shopping center developers should insist that, if they grant an exclusive, the exclusive be limited to the main line of business of the tenant as specified in the use clause in the lease. With this type of provision, merchandise sold by the tenant as an incidental line of merchandise doesn’t come within the purview of the exclusive and may be sold by other tenants in the shopping center.

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The CPI Escalation Rental Clause

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 13:58:00 -0500

The CPI Escalation Rental Clause

Putting a CPI (Consumer Price Index) escalation clause in a lease is to make the lease fair to both the tenant and the property owner.
A primary benefit of escalation clauses is they help protect against diminishing purchasing power related to inflation. The CPI measures monthly the average change in the prices consumers pay for certain goods and services such as oil and gas, healthcare, food, and housing.

Commercial leases commonly provide that while rents will follow the CPI upward, they will remain the same when the CPI goes down. Landlords will argue that this is necessary because the CPI rarely declines and the one-way provision is necessary in leases when the owner obtains financing.

CPI clauses operate in one of two ways in the calculation of annual changes. Most common in use is the “yearly method”. At the end of the year, the rent is increased by the amount of the increase in the CPI in the previous year. So, the rent each year is raised to a new level and this is the basis for the next year’s adjustment.
The other method is the “cumulative method.” Using this, the initial rent (at lease commencement) is increased each year by the change in the CPI between the beginning of the lease term and the current year. In other words, each CPI adjustment reflects the cumulative CPI increase since the beginning of the lease term.

When the CPI rises steadily throughout the lease term, both methods yield the same results. However, if the CPI declines in a year and then increases in the following year, and if the lease contains a one-way provision, the cumulative method favors the tenant. This is because using the cumulative change in the CPI means that declines are included as well as increases in the total. By comparison, under the yearly method, the tenant loses the benefit of a year in which the CPI has declined.

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The Success Of A Prospective Tenant

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 18:59:09 -0400

In this issue

The Success Of A Prospective Tenant

Owners must think about vacancies when checking a prospective tenant. Will the tenant’s business survive? When you have a prospective tenant for a commercial center, you must consider whether that prospect would be a good tenant. There are two key standards to apply; (1) the prospective tenant’s financial stability; and (2) the prospective tenant’s potential for success.....(more)

Lenders, Property Managers – A Service Joint Venture

Whether times are good or bad, lenders always have foreclosed properties in inventory. During a recession the inventory may be high. One of the problems that banks and insurance companies have is disposing of this real estate owned (REO). They are faced with the decision of whether they wish to dispose of the property immediately or hold it for a period of time to hope for an increase in value. They would like to see the value of the REO increase to equal the loan amount. These lenders are not professional real estate investors but money managers. Therefore, they are reluctant to invest any additional money in the properties. This problem is compounded because a troubled property needs more attention than does a healthy one. It would not have been in foreclosure if it didn’t need help. The solution might be a service joint venture. This type of contract with a real estate firm allows the lender to minimize management fees until the property is generating cash flow again.....(more)

Rental Market For Senior Lifestyle

Not all retired people want to own their own home. Many prefer to be tenants. Many feel that the proceeds from the sale of their old home can be used to supplement their pension and social security, rather than reinvested in another home. The money can be used for travel, visits to children and grandchildren or for medical expenses. For living quarters, these seniors prefer to be rent payers, not owners. A modest-sized apartment suits their needs and, as tenants, they are relieved of any worries about maintenance and repairs......(more)

Variations of Commercial Leases

A lease is an integral part of many real estate investments. It should outline all the obligations of the tenant and of the landlord. This sounds simple, but many questions arise. If, for example, property taxes increase, does the tenant pay all of the increase or only part of it? If the property must be modernized, who pays for the improvement? Can the tenant be moved out during the renovation? If the costs of servicing the property rise, should the tenant pay none, all, or part of the increased costs? How should inflation be handled—with automatic rental increases? With increases tied to some index, perhaps the Consumer Price Index?....(more)

Investment Planning

A prospective investor may have a problem getting started with a real estate investment because of the great variety of properties that are out there. They may be fearful that someone will “sell” them something - something that is wrong for them. An answer to these problems can be an interview with an interested professional real estate broker who can act as a real estate investment counselor. Each prospective investor can be interviewed in depth to find out specific needs in an income property. At the same time their needs are being evaluated, the broker will also communicate what benefits are available in various properties and how to identify them. (more)

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Choosing The Right Investment Property

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 14:43:29 -0400

In this issue

Choosing The Right Investment Property

No single property can fit all of the investment goals and rules an investor has set. Even if the investor tried to build a property to specifications, he would find some things “not quite right”. The investor is, therefore, wise to anticipate problems and have some basic strategies for dealing with them. Here are some suggestions to help the investor devise other approaches to meet special needs.....(more)

Lease Negotiations With A Corporate Team

A few years ago, senior corporate managers were able to make major real estate decisions by themselves. Now, a negotiating team will negotiate leases. This team may consist of legal counsel, finance department representatives, outside specialists such as real estate brokers or tenant representatives, design and engineering consultants, and others. In today’s market, corporate tenants with high credit ratings, who are willing to make long-term lease commitments negotiate from a strong position. Therefore, corporations that formerly treated real estate transactions in a casual way have now developed detailed real estate negotiating strategies. The corporate tenant sees these negotiations as a way to cut costs within the company (whether upsizing or downsizing). Landlords, developers, and brokers must be aware of this new style of negotiation. While the real estate executive plays a key role in developing the strategy, the other parties must be ready to respond quickly to requests for information and be prepared to discuss issues that rarely if ever arose in the past.......(more)

Drafting The Shopping Center Lease

When leases for shopping centers are being drafted, they can be more difficult than most other commercial leases. In a shopping center, the owner wants the leases to be as uniform as possible, but knows that each lease must have variations to meet the individual tenant’s particular problems in business and in certain size or shaped spaces. Here are some suggestions of items that should be covered in your shopping center leases. There could be many more depending on each property......(more)

Who Buys Commercial Property

When we represent a seller of a commercial property, we try to determine, as soon as possible in the marketing process, what type of buyer is most likely to be interested in this particular property. We then focus the main appeal on those elements that are most important to that type of buyer.......(more)

Your Real Estate Investment

Knowing what you can do in some investment situations can be the difference between an annual profit or loss in your currently owned commercial property or the one you intend to acquire. How you acquire it can be important......(more)

Your Commercial Real Estate Broker

How can I be of service to you? When you are buying or selling a commercial property, of course. At other times, we can handle property management for any properties you might own. Let me help in determining the value of your investment, anytime you need to know. Call my office when you need services of an expert in this community’s real estate. I have the records of all properties for sale at all times. Today’s interest rates, availability of loans, and any other financial information that can affect your property is as close as your phone. Keep our newsletter as a file of useful real estate information and to remind you to call me whenever you need “Professional Service”. (more)

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Industrial Property Investments

Wed, 01 May 2024 15:33:50 -0400

In this issue

Industrial Property Investments

If you haven’t considered industrial properties as an investment vehicle, it may be time to take a look. Warehouse and distribution (W&D) properties are of interest because their standard layout suits a wide range of users, in contrast to specialized manufacturing facilities. Industrial properties look good for the following reasons:....(more)

Relocating An Existing Tenant

A landlord’s standard lease usually contains a clause requiring a tenant to move to another space in a commercial building or shopping center. A new tenant that is negotiating for space in the building might be surprised to see the clause before signing the lease, wondering about the reasons for it. The owner or manager will seldom require any tenant to move to another space because it can be expensive for both the owner and the tenant. The clause must be in the lease, however, as the owner has to be able to manage space efficiently......(more)

Important Changes In The Workplace

Working from home is now becoming a trend. The growing popularity is remaking how we work, the tools we use for that work, how we communicate at work, and even the hours we work. A major benefit to the employer is being able to downsize on square footage of space for the company. A major benefit to the worker is that they can buy a home or condominium outside of the business area in a suburb or at an ocean resort with the great locations that they desire and not have to think about what the daily commute will be.......(more)

The Future Of Commercial Investments

Which way is the right way in real estate investments in 2024? What is the future in these investments? An answer to these questions can be an interview with an interested professional real estate broker who can act as a real estate investment counselor. Each prospective investor can be interviewed in depth to find out specific needs in an income property. At the same time their needs are being evaluated, the broker will also communicate what benefits are available in various properties and how to identify them......(more)

Building Standards For Any Tenant Improvements

Your Commercial Real Estate Broker

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Relocating An Existing Tenant

Mon, 02 May 2022 01:50:16 -0400

In this issue

Relocating An Existing Tenant

Investing In Industrial Properties

Changes In The Workplace

Building Standards For Tenant Improvements

A building owner wants to be sure that improvements made by or for a tenant be of equal quality to the building itself. That’s because tenant improvements, upon completion, become a permanent part of the building. The goal is to establish building standards that will permit a suite of office space to be fully developed to a tenant’s specifications with no extras involved, while also ensuring that the improvements are of satisfactory quality, commensurate with the improvements in other tenants’ space and with the building itself. A copy of the building standards should be included with the lease and will identify the specific materials that are to be used for such components as doors, partitions, and fixtures. And the standards will also specify the type of carpeting, floor covering, or wall finishes that the landlord will provide or allow....(more)

Profits Found In Conserving Energy

When an owner has an apartment property near the campus of a University, there are particular problems. The competitive situation dictates that leases be offered for one semester of nine and a half months. A twelve-month lease for students is virtually unheard of. That means there are lots of vacancies as soon as final exams have ended. (This does not apply to a few University communities where there is always an apartment shortage. In those few places, the student must lease for 12 months or have no lodging.).....(more)

A Step-Down Rental

(more)

Your Real Estate Investment

(more)

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Is A Sale Leaseback A Good Investment

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 22:24:39 -0500

In this issue

The Security Of A Commercial Property

The problem of security is a major concern of owners or managers of office buildings or other commercial properties. There are many things to check both inside and outside of a property. Particular attention must be given to the perimeter of the property, as this is where an intruder will make the first contact.....(more)

Value In Good Management

Investors purchase residential and commercial income producing real estate to make money. There are two obvious ways of making money from a property. First, the owner takes a share of the annual operating profit generated by the investment, and Second, profits from increasing the market value of the investment beyond what it would be because of inflation alone. Apartment properties lend themselves to the second way of making profits better than many other types of investments. Increasing the market value of rental units does require know-how, absolute understanding of the market values of this type of property and excellent management.......(more)

Sale/Leaseback – A Good Investment

When an investor is looking for a management free investment, nothing can beat a sale/leaseback. This is the ideal investment for an absentee owner because the tenant pays all the operating expenses and the investor-owner usually has a completely management-free and trouble-free investment. Typically, the tenant–who is the former owner–will take care of the property. Therefore, a sale-leaseback can be an excellent investment. Watch out though! Make sure that the tenant is dependable and able to pay the rent regularly and promptly....(more)

Things To Check With A Ground Lease

Landowners may choose the ground lease as a way to benefit an easy and risk-free investment vehicle and as a way to secure the long-term appreciation of the property. Sometimes a ground lease can put the lessor at risk. That is because the deal centers on the concept of sharing economic returns. The lessor becomes a partner of the lessee because the total rent is usually determined by the lessee’s net operating income or net cash flow. If the lessee does well, the lessor does too. However, if the lessee’s business is a loser, so is the lessor....(more)

The High Risk Problem Property

In any market, good or bad, there are always problem properties. Most are only troubled or problem properties because of the current ownership. Some may be neglected only because the present owner has failed to do fairly simple things that can solve the problems. Buying property and solving problems is a profit-making business.....(more)

Controlling Delinquent Rents

A critical indicator of a management company’s success is their effectiveness in controlling overdue rents. A well-run property should not have chronically delinquent tenants. However, when delinquency does occur, immediate action must be taken. A list of all delinquent rents must be prepared showing all tenants who have not paid, or for those who have partially paid rents and other monies due. In addition, a delinquency report recording the manner and date of all collection attempts should be prepared.....(more)

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How To Understand The Different Commercial Lease Types

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 11:20:17 -0400

This month's newsletter has just been released! Check out the latest tips for tenants and users of commercial real estate space. In this issue

How To Understand The Different Commercial Lease Types

Lenders and Property Managers A Service Joint Venture

With the revolution in communications, building owners must keep up with the changing needs of the corporate tenant. Often the larger, well-organized businesses do not need the space that was necessary just a few years ago. Teleworking with computers, faxes and e-mail have substituted for leased office space. Office personal are working from home or a small office near their home and coming into the office once in a while for a meeting. Managers are more willing to grant favorable lease terms to operators of shared space.......(more)

Prospective Tenants For Commercial Centers

Providing Rentals For Seniors

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