AREAS OF OUR PRACTICE INCLUDE
-Property tax reduction services
-Strategic intelligence for business and legal matters
-Asset & property search
-Litigation intelligence, support & consulting for legal professionals
-Damages analysis
-Fraud /corruption / secret profits / kickback schemes
-Expert witness testimony
-Evidence analysis
-Review opposing attorneys evidence for 'opportunities' or weakness
-Intelligence (internal & external)
-Documentation and reporting / review and document transaction documents
-Disclosures review (agency, property)
-Standards of care (obligations for agents, real estate professionals)
-Transaction timeline and reconstruction
-Valuation & appraisal
-Purchase contracts (abstract terms, analyze)
-Agency relationships
-Leases (residential, industrial, office, retail)
-Due diligence
-Property management
-Market analysis
-Litigation services
-Complex transactions
-Escrow and title
-Design internal controls
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TYPES OF PROJECTS
-Residential properties
-Commercial real estate
-Corporate real estate
-Industrial properties
-Retail & shopping center properties
-Office building properties
-Purchase transactions
-Lease transactions
-Brokers
-Complex property transactions
-Contracts
-Intelligence (market or specific)
| OUR CLIENTS INCLUDE
-Attorneys
-Accounting firms
-Business
-Insurance companies
-Government
-Buyers and/or sellers
-Property owners (commercial, residential)
-Tenants (commercial, residential)
-Property managers (commercial, residential)
-Corporations
-Real estate brokerages
-Publicly traded companies
-Real estate developers
-Fortune 500 firms
-Investment funds
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CASE HISTORIES & PROJECTS
(sample)
CASE:
An institutional investor purchased a 320,000 square foot office building from a large commercial real estate developer. The investor-client suspected a problem with the transaction but did not have the expertise to investigate their concerns.
An investigation discovered:
- The seller and tenant established a fair rental rate. The tenant was given one (1) year of free rent utilizing an “occupancy agreement” and given an inflated rental rate utilizing a five (5) year lease agreement. The blended rate for all six (6) years achieved the tenants established rent.
- The seller valued then sold the property to an investor. The price was based on the rents established in the tenant’s five (5) year lease and did not include the free rent.
- The seller failed to provide the ‘occupancy agreement’ to the buyer. Inclusion of the free rent would have lowered the value of the building.
- The inflated rent helped the landlord to deceptively achieve a higher sale price in excess of several million dollars.
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CASE:
Assisted an attorney’s litigation efforts throughout a real estate transaction case. The opposing attorney’s evidence, due diligence, documents, and case brief were examined. There were ‘opportunities’ and ‘weakness’ in the opposing parties case discovered in the process. Based on these discoveries, strategic questions were prepared for the attorneys use at the depositions and trial.
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CASE:
Conducted a confidential internal investigation within the real estate department of a fortune 100 firm to determine the unusually high real estate costs of their office facilities.
An audit discovered: The client-firm was overlooking common landlord-provided office construction allowances that are amortized into commercial tenant’s rental rates. Designed and implemented a corporate internal controls program which saved the client $15,000,000.
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| CASE:
An architectural client-firm was in the process of purchasing a building. Negotiating directly with the listing real estate broker, they believed his role to be a dual-agency. Purchase terms had been established, but not ratified, when the client asked our firm to ‘review’ the transaction.
A review of the transaction discovered: The broker was not acting as a dual-agent, did not in good faith disclose this fact to the buyers, and based on this deception negotiated higher than market terms for his seller-client at the expense of the architectural firm. We advised our client to renegotiate the terms or withdraw the offer.
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CASE:
A property owner listed a residential property for sale with a local realtor. The market was lively and the property seemed to be priced appropriately. After a long period without offers a candidate buyer submitted an offer through the listing agent. The seller accepted the offer based on the agents recommendation.
An investigation determined: The agent was only entertaining offers from buyers who were not represented by an agent, thus the agent could claim the commissions of both the buyer-agent (3%) and seller-agent (3%). This is a violation of ‘standard of care’ and called a ‘pocket listing.
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CONSULTING MATTER:
Assisted a law firm’s internal facilities management efforts. Abstracted and documented all of the firm’s leases throughout the country and discovered multiple opportunities for savings.
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CONSULTING MATTER:
A real estate firm wanted to conduct an internal study to determine if their agents were effectively implementing company mandated training and education. Compliance with legal disclosures and responsibilities were also a concern.
A ‘study’ was designed and implemented. A professional contacted each agent anonymously to determine compliance with company policy and whether the agents were implementing the brokers continuing education and training. The results were presented to the client in a detailed report.
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