Our Clients range from investors to successful small business owners and entrepreneurs to high net worth individuals and entire single or multi-Family Offices. We also work closely with corporations, non-profits and trusts.
We have found that our Clients want to work with a firm that can handle all categories of real estate, so that they know that they will not need to have to find, and take a chance on, a new firm just for a transaction that falls outside of their usual core categories.
We believe in building relationships that last.
We believe in providing value and an unusual level of service.
We set out to earn and build trust, and also loyalty, with each other.
We grow with our Clients and adapt to meet their ever-evolving real estate and business needs.
Tenants need spaces in which to operate their businesses. Tenants not only need a space suitable for where their business is at now but also one that will be suitable for how it will likely grow and change in the next few years. It can be a delicate balance between what you want now and what you will need in the future.
How prepared you are for the process will vary according to how often you have done this before. If it is your first time then you will have a lot of questions about what everything means and how it all works. If it is your 5th or 6th time then you will probably have a decent idea about the type and structure of lease is that is normal for your industry, as well as the market rates in your area.
Yet, once your agent has gotten you in to tour several suitable spaces and you have found one that will work for you and that you are excited about then the negotiations and the paperwork really begin. All of which has to be navigated before you can occupy the space and operate your business out of it.
They needed to expand into an additional office and treatment space in Suisun City (Solano County). We dug into the exact nature and needs of their business, screened the local market for suitable properties (based on location, size and budget) and found them the ideal space. We drafted and delivered a Letter Of Intent (LOI) to the landlord, and locked in the space for them.
Together we then navigated all of the due diligence that the landlord required of them, along with identifying all of the Tenant Improvements that they were wanting (within the negotiated landlord allowance) and the timeframe of the build out and move in. The lease was finalized and executed, and then the TI work began, ready for the Clients to take occupancy and begin their expanded operations.
We inquired about any larger spaces within their current multi-tenant property in Martinez, and found out that there were none coming available that would allow them to expand. At this point we conducted a search within the geographic area (Solano County) that would make business sense for them and their employees, and after multiple tours of available spaces we found one in Fairfield that that they were excited about.
We provided a Letter Of Intent (LOI) to the landlord and negotiated through the landlord’s agent until mutually acceptable terms were arrived at. The Client moved on schedule, discovered that the new facility was indeed superior to their old one in every possible way, and their business growth continued uninterrupted.
The Client’s previously-owned luxury automotive business in Vallejo had grown, and they were seeking a new and larger location to operate out of. We screened the very limited number of available properties with the appropriate zooming and use permits within a substantial distance of the Client’s current location.
After persevering as new properties came on and off the market, we eventually found the ideal one just a few miles away. The property had become available due to the business failure of a new car dealership, and the investment trust that owned it was eager to find a new tenant. We pounced on the opportunity and negotiated a long term lease for the property for our Client. They moved their business into the larger Vallejo space and continued to grow their business.
The Client had sold their successful business in another State and then secured several locations in Northern California for an exciting new franchise [Crumbl Cookies] that was undergoing rapid expansion across the USA. The Client reached out to us to have us find them the best retail location in each of their exclusive markets, that met the strict requirements of the corporate franchisor’s main office.
We conducted multiple screenings, and multiple tours for them and eventually found a premium retail space in a Fairfield location that rarely has vacancies, prior to it being publicly advertised by the landlord and managed to secure this for our Client.
The other location, in Vallejo, while quickly identified, needed a lot more work from us in order to convince the corporate office that it was actually aligned with their strict requirements checklist, even if it did not seem to be a perfect fit at first glance. We rose to the occasion and showed them why it would perform strongly for them, especially in a market that had a limited number of high traffic retail locations. Once secured, built out and opened it has since performed far more strongly than the corporate office had expected and has also become a favorite of local customers.
Buyers are busy people. They want to engage experts who routinely do the tasks that they would otherwise have to do, and figure out from scratch, themselves. They have a list of needs as well as a list of wants for any given transaction. They do not have time to screen every potential opportunity and to match these check lists to each asset and try to figure out the trade offs and compromises.
Buyers want to outsource the heavy lifting to an experienced professional and then to review the short list of potential opportunities and then tour the top candidates. Buyers also want a list of proven top quality service providers to call upon when they find an asset that they want to acquire, and a top quality professional to coordinate with them all.
The Elite Club has them covered.
Rather than seek out larger new facilities to lease, they wanted to purchase a rural residential property to purchase and then to build their own custom workshop. We did, with the Client’s agreement, search for larger facilities to lease just for the purposes of comparison. Once we had a decent baseline of what was available in the area, we then commenced the search for a Vacaville property to purchase.
The range of suitability and quality of available properties within the search area was quite diverse, and some of them had to be seen in person for the Client to properly evaluate them. Once the ideal property had been identified then it was a matter of negotiating a price that the Sellers would accept and getting our Client into the property as their new home and future business workshop location.
We got the property into contract, fully inspected and with all deferred maintenance identified and factored into the final purchase price. The Client closed on the property, moved in and not only updated the main house but also installed the intended custom workshop on a suitable portion of the property.
The Client’s medical consultation business was undergoing an unexpected, but welcome, growth spurt, and within just a few months of renewing their existing office lease for another 5 years. The Client had also just seen a Vacaville medical office come onto the market when it was repossessed by the bank that held the mortgage – an unfortunate casualty of the pandemic lockdown. The location and size of the property was ideal for the Client’s business, yet this was not on the schedule, and the Client had none of their ducks in a row in order to act upon the sudden opportunity.
We immediately introduced the Client to a regional bank that routinely handles the SBA 504 loans that the Client was hoping to use for acquiring the property. Once the lender was up to speed and provided a pre-approval letter, we drafted a purchase offer and got the property into contract for them. An REO property such as this one requires a deep investigation as the buyer cannot rely on any seller disclosures, as the seller is merely the lender that was holding the mortgage at the time that the foreclosure happened and they know nothing else about the physical state and history of the property.
We also coordinated with several General Contractors in order to price out the repair work that the property needed after several years of vacancy and to adapt the property to the needs of the Client’s business. The Client also had to generate financial forecasts for the underwriters from scratch, which was a new activity for them, as they had never needed to obtain a loan in the past. This all took a little time, along with obtaining the appraisal and the Phase 1 Environmental Report, especially as when the original bank dropped the ball we had to move the lending and underwriting process over to a new bank and continue the process within the deadlines of the contract, and all without blowing up the deal.
The Buyer was a wanting to relocate his young family back to the area that he grew up in. As part of doing this he wanted to purchase a multi-family property which included at least one large unit that he could move into with his family, all while leaving the other units rented out.
We screened the area for him and helped him to focus in on a property that met these criteria, just outside of the city limits. We helped him through the full investigation and inspection of the property and getting up to speed on the aspects of a rural property that differed from his previous properties which were all on city utilities.
We uncovered some significant deferred maintenance which then allowed us to negotiate an appropriate reduced price in order to reflect the actual market value of the property in this established condition. The Buyer was not put off by this condition, saw great potential in the fundamentals of the property ("great bones") and was excited that he could tackle these items himself over time and to build equity faster this way.
We worked closely with the lender and the loan officer that the Buyer had already selected. We also helped them to successfully navigate the challenge where a potential investor had a surprise change in life circumstance towards the end of the transaction, and we had to ensure that the transaction could still be completed without causing a problem.
The Buyer successfully acquired the Sonoma property and moved his family into one unit while keeping the long term tenants in the other units.
The Buyer was a clinician with a thriving medical business in Vacaville who wanted to now expand to the City of Napa. So to do this we connected him to one of the top SBA 504 lenders that we work with and he rapidly got pre-approved with Proof Of Funds for his down payment.
Next we researched the City of Napa's General Plan for the workable zoning areas, and then got to work screening the available properties for ones that met his Needs list and Wants list as accurately as possible. We found a property, zoned for medical office, in an ideal location, that he and his team liked very much and we got him into contract.
Once we helped him to complete the inspections and investigation of the property we then helped him to complete the acquisition. He now has a new location that is already thriving as part of his expanded business.
Our Buyers were wanting to transition to a slower pace of life as they were steadily liquidating a portfolio of businesses in hospitality and retail.
They wanted to find a Lodi winery with an established events business where they could have one of their adult children take on the key day-to-day management role.
There was one outstanding property on the market that met all of their needs, although the Buyers were concerned that they would face a step learning curve in an industry that they had no prior experience in.
We helped the Buyers to structure an offer that involved Seller financing so that the Seller was fundamentally aligned with the Buyers' success and that there would be a complete transfer of knowledge over time.
The acquisition was completed and the new owners breathed new vigor and life into both the property and the business.
Landlords may buy a property with tenants already in place, but at some point they will find that they need to find one or more new tenants. Landlords are generally focused on running their properties and managing their tenants, but they usually have little experience at marketing their available spaces in order to find new tenants. They also do not maintain subscriptions with multiple of the commercial real estate platforms. Especially when the average length of their tenant leases may be 5 or 10 years.
Landlords generally do not have the available bandwidth to handle all of the space inquiries from direct tenants or from their agents, let alone to provide packages of information and conduct follow up communications as well as tours and negotiations.
Over the years that the Client had owned it and personally managed the property, the vacancy level had steadily increased with the normal turn over of tenants, and the Client had been unable to replace them due to an unfortunate sequence of major health challenges that the Client had experienced that meant that they were unable to reliably attract and screen potential new tenants.
Once they had finally recovered, and with the property operating in a breakeven state, the Client wanted to re-stabilize the property and get back to a full stable of tenants. They initially attempted to find new tenants themselves, but had not experienced the level of success that they had been seeking.
We took on the Client’s project and launched a high visibility marketing campaign (both real world and digital) to let all local businesses know about the availability of space in such an iconic Class A building in Suisun City. Over the following months we provided the Client with a steady stream of business and non-profit applicants that they then screened in their preferred fashion and balanced the mix of new tenants in a building that was steadily coming alive again.
The Client had a medical office building that they operated their medical practice out of, in Vacaville. They wanted to either sell it or continue to lease it out long term to the buyer of their business, now that they had made the decision to finally sell the business and retire.
Once a qualified buyer had been identified for the business, they showed a clear preference for securing a long term lease for the premises and to ensure that the existing and loyal customer/patient base did not have to worry about the business moving to a less convenient location. We provided both parties with a comprehensive analysis of the local market pricing for leases of this nature and helped to negotiate the terms of a ten year lease (with multiple options to renew) between the Seller and the corporate Buyers.
The Owner-Operators of a space had bought their own commercial property in Fairfield years earlier and were now getting ready to retire. The space no longer met the needs of their business, and they wanted to down-size to a more appropriate sized and configured space as they started to prepare for retirement (and a change of pace) in a few years time.
The first step in doing this was to find a new tenant for their space, and then to sell the property with the tenant in place.
We listed the space and marketed it widely across a number of platforms. After a number of potential tenants were investigated we found the most appropriate one for the Landlord and entered into negotiations on their behalf.
Once the tenant and landlord came to a suitable lease arrangement they were scheduled to take occupancy and the expand their business into the space.
Some Sellers are used to acquiring properties, and have built a sizeable portfolio over time. Others have acquired just a single property that no longer meets their needs. Yet buying is distinctly different from selling. It takes a distinctly different mentality and approach.
Yet all of these types of Sellers have to have their property marketed in order to attract a ready, willing and able Buyer. The strategy for doing this varies according to the property's type, size, market price and location. There are many listing platforms that serve different segments of the market, and many other web and social media platforms that also have to be effectively leveraged. There is also a story that has to be told.
Once the inquiries start coming in then another phase of work begins: screening, communicating with and qualifying all of the potential buyers, and their agents - as they assess the property and identify whether or not it might be the right one for them.
The negotiating of offers and getting into contract is not the final step, as the property investigations and other contingencies periods still have to be successfully navigated all of the way through to the Close Of Escrow.
The Client found themselves with a large Napa vineyard estate and active wine brand business after the passing of their spouse, whose passion had been the wine industry business and lifestyle. After taking a while to ensure that all affairs were in order, and the property and business were both ready to be sold, the Client engaged us to sell and settle this portion of the trust’s estate. We also worked with the Client’s attorney’s to ensure that the estate was valued in a fair way at the current market value for estate taxation and other purposes.
At the Client’s request we first tested the market via a confidential “Whisper” Listing, and then at the optimum time we launched the highly desirable property into the public awareness. We rapidly secured offers from 5 qualified Buyers and narrowed it down to 2 main contenders. After some hard negotiating our Client selected the Buyer that provided the best price and terms, and that also had the best plans for the legacy of the branded wine business.
The Client had a commercial property and another vacant commercial land parcel located several hours away on the Mendocino coast that they had been trying to sell for several years, using experienced local agents, yet with no success. After having had a great experience engaging us to sell a tricky couple of Solano County commercial properties for them, the Client decided to engage us to take on the listing and to get the properties sold.
We proceeded to visit and inspect the properties, met with the local City officials and produced marketing materials for both. We then proceeded to maximize the visibility of the listings by placing them on all of the main CRE platforms along with clear descriptions of the opportunity for buyers, and compelling Calls To Action. As expected, after many inquiries and tours, we found two different and excellent Buyers and obtained great sales prices for our Client.
The Client had an American Canyon property that they had begun redeveloping into a medical building that they intended to operate their medical business out of, but then their professional lives and family commitments had swamped them, and the project had had to take a back seat for several years. In the meantime their lives evolved and it no longer made sense to complete the project and relocate the business to this property – instead they made the decision to sell the property in its vacant and “Value Add” condition.
We inspected the property, discussed the property with the local City Planning officials and proceeded to market it to all of the local businesses as well as to those that were out of the area. We had multiple inquiries and tours, and found a qualified Buyer who had a vision for making the property the next location for their own expanding medical practice. We put in place a deal that worked for both Buyer and Seller, and both moved on into the next phases of their lives.
The Client had a Fairfield retail property in a downtown location where the tenant’s business had had to shut down during the pandemic. As a now vacant location, and with no active source of income from a business tenant, the owner chose to sell the property rather than try to attract a new tenant, especially with no guarantee about when the various restrictions on businesses would be lifted.
We created and widely distributed a marketing campaign that highlighted the potential of the location, and the attractiveness of the property in a location where the properties rarely come available for purchase. We qualified and toured multiple potential buyers and, in the end, the best offer came from a privately owned restaurant group that was expanding into the area and set a new price high for the sale of a retail storefront in the downtown area.
The Client had owned a 43 acre rural agricultural property near the Napa and Solano County line for a long time, but was not farming it. In recent years the property had faced a small eminent domain situation due to a highway widening that had been resolved, but there was also the shadow of a much larger potential eminent domain acquisition of land, of many acres, in the future, in order to make way for a new highway intersection. This situation might never be faced though if the public funds were not to be raised for this purpose.
The overhanging eminent domain possibility put off many buyers once they dug into the situation in order to understand its potential impact on them. The ideal buyer would be a small business owner that would likely restore the property to agricultural use as well as being able to benefit from using the property to store their equipment or vehicles.
After an extensive search we found a couple of qualified buyers, of exactly this profile, and one of them was not put off by the possibility of a future eminent domain action that would reduce the property size by at least 10 acres. Since the completion of the deal the new owner has made substantial changes to the property and had begun to return it to an active agricultural use, in addition to using it for some of their property and equipment.
The Seller had owned an out-of-area multi-family property, in Sebastopol, for years, that had always been fully tenanted. Yet he no longer wanted to deal with the hassles of managing it from far away, so he wanted to sell it and via a 1031 Exchange tax deferred process acquire a different investment property much nearer to him.
Client had outlived her spouse and wanted to liquidate his Fairfield industrial property in order to ensure effective estate and retirement planning.
The property had had a long term tenant that she wanted to offer it to first, but at the current market value.
So we reached out to the tenant and let them know the schedule for publicly listing the property and let them know that the Seller wanted them to have the first chance at it.
The tenant wanted to go ahead with acquiring their long term business location, so we introduced their agent to one of our top SBA 504 lenders who rapidly got them pre-approved and able to make a qualified purchase offer.
The rest of the transaction proceeded as planned and the Seller moved on with her planned retirement schedule.
Sellers wanted to engage an experienced real estate team that had specific expertise in the winery sector. They had already tried, unsuccessfully to sell the winery over the previous several years and wanted to get the sale completed without giving it away in the process.
We agreed to take on the mission, and due to our extensive reach and top quality marketing we found qualified buyers for them within just 90 days.
The transaction closed 60 days later, leaving the Sellers able to relocate out of state as they had intended.
Some specialty properties come with a business that is integrally linked to the specific property. Other businesses merely operate out of one of a wide range of potential leased premises. Industries and circumstances can vary quite widely, yet, when properly staffed and resourced, a profitable business can be a valuable asset …especially if the business owner does not work in the business in a critical role, nor need to work in it.
Whether buying or selling these businesses the Client will need an agent who can help them to understand the market value of the business, and what this value is based upon. There are assets, licenses and permits that are also necessary and which will need to be successfully transferred from the Seller to ensure that the Buyer can continue to operate the business without a hitch. This process requires a specialized type of escrow company that is experienced at these things and all of the public notices that may need to be filed in a timely fashion in California.
Operated for decades, but it was finally time to retire. Several years prior, they had stepped back from seeing patients on a day-to-day basis and managed the administration of the practice instead while multiple other veterinarians handled the patients. While the Client had had no specific plans to retire, they suddenly came to the realization that the time had arrived. We walked them through what to expect at each stage of the marketing and sales process and recommended that they have a 3rd party perform a valuation of the business, so that they would have a nationwide perspective upon what the asking price should be.
Once the valuation was completed we prepared the marketing campaign and attracted significant local as well as national interest from various buyers. After vigorous bidding, the most attractive corporate buyer went into contract with an offer that was double what the official valuation had predicted. After a couple of months of work with the Mergers & Acquisition attorneys the deal was completed and the Client’s process of transition officially began.
The siblings that inherited it were spread across the country and the business and property both needed to be sold as part of the process of settling the estate. The siblings very much wanted to ensure that any buyer would keep the business and its brand name and maintain the local legacy as its fourth owner and operator.
Due to the high visibility of the brand, there was a lot of interest from a wide range of potential buyers. The choice came down to several operators of similar businesses, who all had both the financial means to acquire it and also the proven ability to continue to operate it as a local treasure. One buyer stood out above the others and provided both the best terms and price. Since the sale was completed the business has continued to operate consistent with its history, much to the delight of its regular patrons.
The Client wanted to purchase a couple of existing Papa Murphy’s pizza franchise locations that the current owner no longer wanted to operate. The Client had arrived at a general understanding with the Seller, but there were many details that would need to be handled and not least of these was the approval of the franchisor themselves and the meeting of their strict franchisee requirements, in order for any such sale to be green lit.
We worked through the process, and over a period of more than a year the Buyer went through the franchisor’s training program, qualified for and acquired the first location and rapidly improved its performance. The Client then managed to secure the franchisor’s approval to acquire the second location, based upon their unexpectedly strong operating track record with the first location.
Get assistance in determining current property value, crafting a competitive offer, writing and negotiating a contract, and much more. Contact us today.