Goya's Ghosts

                                                                                       Promotional Poster fro Goya's Ghosts

I have just finished watching “Goya’s Ghosts” starring Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman and I shall say “what a great film and how superb all the actors are in it”.

The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Spain was one of the the regimes that exterminated most lives in human history.... and all in the name of “God” !! It lasted close to 350 years since it was established and I am so glad I was not born during that time since I would’ve been tortured and eventually burnt on a stick or brought to the Gallows Pole as soon as I learnt how to speak a word and opened my mouth regarding any matter that concerns religion or the Vatican as a religious business. Ooops....here comes the Pope to get me ! 

                                             Inquisition Torture Chamber- Bernard Picard- 1716

Anyhow, the film presents in a magnificent artistic way a vignette of the atrocities committed during those years by the Spanish Inquisition, and yet almost two centuries after it was dismantled we still see regimes around the World conducting the same inquisitorial practices with their citizens. Human race has always been obsessed with controlling the masses, inferring fear and perpetrating the so called in Spanish “Crimenes de Lesa Humanidad” or “Crimes Against Humanity” and yet supposedly nowadays these are punished in such tribunals as the international criminal court and the international court of justice in Hague, but how many of our contemporary history leaders shall be brought in front of such tribunal? How many of them should be brought to the same Gallows Pole.... And how many have been brought in actuality? I hear silence-

                                                                                     The Tribunal of the Inquisition - Francisco de Goya

On a positive note, the film mentions and reminded me of Voltaire; I used to read Voltaire as a teen in high school and then studied some of his work in Law School, and back then  I was able to see the influence that his writing had with still today’s stage acts such as Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden; dark and dense as his writing was, their music evokes pain, fear and sorrow in their lyrics as only “The dark Prince of the darkest principles” could’ve written... (I’m talking about Voltaire not Ozzy by the way)

Watch the film if you haven’t done so, regardless of your beliefs, it is our human history after all and we still have not learnt from it, and the way things are going it seems that we never will! Here is the preview

Cheers!

So.... you want to open a restaurant....! (PART IV)

Hello everyone and let me say thank you for all your support!! 
Let’s get started with PART "QUATTRO"of this series-

So.... you think you found the perfect space for your restaurant, the size is great, good location and the rent is even better so you say to yourself and to your partners “This is a great f@*#*g deal !!!! Let’s sign the lease before we lose it “ right? Caveat Emptor and do your homework- 

                                                        PBC Building & Zoning 

First off, before you run and sign that lease document, you need to do your due diligence as far as finding out if a restaurant will be allowed by local authorities in that particular address; different municipalities have different rules and regulations when it comes to allowing a full scale kitchen being built in any given commercial space, also when it comes to serving alcohol they have rules that may or may not allow you to do so; is there a school or a church nearby? 

Jesus making wine from water in The Marriage at Cana, a 14th-century fresco from the Visoki Dečani monastery


If so, how many feet away are they located from the potential location for your stage..... I mean .....restaurant? 

Obviously, I’m talking about a raw space versus one that had a pre existing food operation in it; nevertheless even if the latter was the case go on and find out things like "how would a change of name and/or ownership affect the interior layout", as in for example : the bathrooms. It will probably cost you the same amount of capital to remodel an existing non ADA compliant bathroom than building one from scratch. As I mentioned in PART I....I think ...or PART 2 (go back and look or actually scroll down and read the whole series rather), if your capital is somehow limited, it is better to find an existing operation that closed down; but even if that's the case, an alteration, such as modifying bathrooms, needs to be known and addressed before you sign that lease on the dotted line; not only will cost you money that was not included in your business plan (you have a business plan don’t you? ) but also, it will greatly affect your square footage, therefore affecting the number of seats or efficiency in the kitchen by reducing space in any of those areas to add it to the restrooms- So let's say you found the space with a pre existing restaurant already built out and all of the sudden you find yourself with a big initial budget shortage to accomplish your goal. 

As I also mentioned in PART I (or II), the main reason why restaurants go out of business on their first or second year of operation is UNDERCAPITALIZATION- Do your homework before signing- You could either ask for it on your proposal or just do it while negotiating the lease terms, it will only take you a few days to go to your city hall and find out all about it. To walk away is easy ....before you sign-

Let’s go back to the “raw space" scenario, all of the above applies +++ PLUS you need to know if there’s a grease trap available.

Most likely if you found a “Vanilla Shell Space” that has just being built, the owner/developer/landlord has pre-destined the spaces that will allow a restaurant attending to all of the above issues, therefore your due diligence is partially done, but .....and there’s always a “but”! You still need to go and corroborate.

Why am I telling you all this? Wasn’t PART IV supposed to be about Lease and Landlord Issues? You’ll figure it out in a minute!

Last but not least, get a general contractor and an architect with experience in building restaurants; DO NOT HIRE YOUR COUSIN VINNIE to do the job just because he has a  GC license !!!

                                                                Courtesy of Disney Junior-(TM)

Ok, now I will tell you why I have gone thru all this before talking about the lease and the landlord issues- See.... it basically comes down to the fact that you may encounter a fly by night developer that has built this nice shopping center....in, let’s say for the sake of giving a random city name....HIALEAH, FL and given his condition of “improv” and without any bad intentions will give you the “hell of a deal” that you thought it was when we started this PART 4 post, so you went ahead and signed a 7 year lease and only then you found out you cannot serve wine or beer because there is a school 350 feet from your place, you go back to Mr. Landlord and ask him to kindly rescind of the contract and he would answer “Son.... I might be a fly by night as you just mentioned, but my lawyers aren’t” you just signed a 7 year lease contract with a 7 years personal guarantee that makes you responsible for the whole amount of dollars of the monthly rent TIMES those seven years and there it goes your business plan up in smoke and facing a potential “suit to perform” and a potential judgement on your credit file.... “Not such a fly by night after all huh? “

So, bottom line is (and to wrap this up) -

If is too good to be true.....Take time to do your due diligence, also work with reputable GC's and architects with experience, hire a lawyer when it comes to revising the lease contract and work with a commercial real estate agent with experience in this area, obviously I will suggest myself and here is my direct email address moz@avantiway.com Commercial Division Director at Avanti Way Realty, but I have to warn you, I have been very busy bloggin' lately so my time is limited ! 

                                       Dante Alighieri, detail from Luca Signorelli's fresco, Chapel of San Brizio,Orvieto Cathedral.

I will see you in the last  PART V of this series where I will be addressing “Foreigners with experience in their own country that come to the US to open a restaurant “ ‘til then.... Cheers!

So.... You want to open a Restaurant....! (PART III)

Hello my dear readers and welcome once again !!!!

I have been very busy this last couple of days looking for a commercial space for lease for a group of clients that want to open .....you’ve guessed it.... a restaurant in Miami !!! 

I told them about this blog and about this post in particular, so they will be joining us.

Let’s start this PART 3 by talking about square footage, a very complex matter that will expose many issues that you may or may not know. 

            

Someone comes to me and says “I need to rent a space to open a Restaurant and I need 1,500 to 2,000 Sq.Ft.”!!!

First of all... How did this person came up with that number? Well, turns out that these people are not hypothetical, they are real and as a coincidence we crossed paths right at this time that I’m writing this series, so I will use them as a “case study” and they will be very happy about it since they love being in the spotlight, after all....they want to open a Restaurant. 

                                                         Def Leppard at the O2

They were working with another real estate agent that did not know much about the subject and who started throwing numbers about amount of $$$ per Sq.Ft. as in “RENT AMOUNT” and that’s all he cared about... the amount of rent which meant the amount of his juicy commission that now he’s not getting because, my now clients, figured this out before they wasted any more time with him. 

                             "YOU ARE FIRED!!!! "

                                                                                    Donald Trump's photo courtesy of The Apprentice and NBC.com

He stuck by their request of square feet needed without asking them why... See? What happens is that in my field you cannot do it all, you cannot know it all, like I do not know jack about let's say.....marinas for instance, it is just not my thing, so I do not attempt to strike a deal related to something I do not have knowledge of, and that is exactly the beauty of Commercial Real Estate... but let’s stick to the subject of this post shall we?

                                   This Photo Break is brought to you by 

                                    ( ADHD moment )

                       

So, I asked several questions to my new clients and it turns out that 2,000 Sq.Ft. was not going to cut it !!! “What type of food? What’s your business plan like? Is it a high end fine dining concept that you’re thinking about running? What’s your start up capital? Are you going to have delivery service? 

All these questions were answered -luckily and in part- because these particular group of people own one restaurant already (but not here in the US....which is important- and I will be discussing this in the last part of this blog) so they have some knowledge necessary, luckily I met them and they fired their real estate agent, and sure as hell they won’t fire me ! 

As I said, you cannot know it all, or at least you cannot fool yourself that you do (I will blog about this ...”Agent/Rock Star”)

You may be probably asking yourself “What does the type of food has to do with the square footage?” Well, the more complex the menu is, the more efficient the kitchen needs to be.

                                     Venison Mille Feuille w/ mint couscous @ Angie's World Cuisine in Coral Gables, FL

                          Photo Courtesy of MYSELF,  shot with my Nikon and a fixed 50 mm lens that I got from Santa

The menu ultimately determines the size of the kitchen, quality of the food and the amount of “covers” that will be served efficiently with the lowest margin of mistakes, which translates in the quality of service given to the customers. Now....watch this- The Menu dictates the size of your dining room as well, which is the amount of people you are going to fit into your space, according to the concept you will be designing around “The Menu” !!! See how everything is inter related? Do you realize how intricate and complex this thing is? 

           Courtesy of MYSELF, I took this pic when I bought my mew Nikon. Shot with a 18-200mm Nikkor Lens

Do you still want to pursue this illusion of having a restaurant? Let’s continue since my new clients will, and I will tell you how all this turns out-

If you are going to serve fine dining cuisine most likely you will need several people in your kitchen and each one of them will have a station where they are going to perform their duties - Think of the scene of Remy with Chef Gusteau describing from above each one of the positions in the kitchen. 

                                                                              Courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Now let’s move onto the dining room of Chef Gusteau’s restaurant, which is obviously a fine dining experience, and analyze how separated the tables are from one another, see how it all starts to make sense? 

If you think about running a sandwich shop then the mount of space needed everywhere (aside form ADA compliant bathrooms for which you will need aprox. 400 Sq.Ft. standard) is not as in a 5 star high end restaurant- 

Rule of thumb is : 27 to 32 Sq.Ft. per person including kitchen, bathrooms, dining room, and server stations are needed to run any restaurant, then you will need to adjust it around building codes in your city, concept (fine dining, cafeteria, mid range trattoria style etc.) and features such as full bar, a stage, maybe you want to put a nice fountain right in the middle of the dining room, etc. All this data needs to be  on your business plan’s spreadsheet to see if the math adds up; in the case of this new clients of mine it turns out that they will need between 3,600 to 5,000 Sq.Ft. of space so they have to go back to their drawing board and adjust their initial numbers of their original business plan.

On Part IV of this post I will be discussing the lease and landlord issues which is another big piece of the equation to be considered and will definitely impact your bottom line $$$$ .

See you in a few days!!

                             Courtesy of Ratatouille/Disney/Pixar

Cheers!!!

So.... You want to open a Restaurant....! (PART II)

Hello and welcome to “part deux” of this post about restaurants; mind you that I will just be giving you a general overview of this complex subject; I simply cannot tell you everything I know because first of all it is not that much what I know, and second of all it would take roughly 23,456,986 parts or chapters to get in depth addressing every single issue.

To begin with I will start with the obvious, and that is “Location, location, location “ 

                                                 Kemah Boardwalk- Houston, TX
As simple as it may sound and as repetitive or trivial rather, the location of a restaurant is not only important because of the amount of traffic you might or may not get given any specific quadrant or street or corner, but instead it is very important because it is directly related to the food and concept you will be presenting to your potential customers...

...and also you may want to consider demographics before deciding on a certain spot. 

Most likely if you live in the city where you are thinking about opening your restaurant you already figured out what concept would go and in what neighborhood.

                                                          Puglia, Southern Italy


Here in Miami for example there are two different kinds of crowd, tourists and locals, each one of them with its own sub-categories but we are not going to get into that. Will you cater to locals? Will you cater to tourists? Or will you cater to both!

                                                                                       Beacon Hotel -South Beach, FL

Once you are totally ready to commit suicide find a good real estate agent that knows about this things (like me for instance)moz@avantiway.com   Commercial Division Director at Avanti Way Realty in Miami, FL

Then you have to find and architect, a contractor which will recommend a person that “walks the plans” thru the different departments to obtain approval for building permits, then you need to establish your business plan (very important) and design (also very important) - 

The main reason why restaurants fail in the first two years of operation is 
                      “UNDERCAPITALIZATION” 

which is a direct consequence of a poorly prepared business plan because of lack of knowledge. 
Think about it, you put on your excel spreadsheet your expected dining room rotation per day  times 12 months times your projected average ticket of X amount of dollar amount, and turns out that after your Grand Opening you were off by 67% and you are already riding that wave..... Plus you did not include things like insurance premium, security deposits for the landlord, pre paid rent, beer and wine license, coffee machine, etc. Turns out that there is an extra $50,000.00 that you overlooked and were not included in your business plan!!!!
Bottom line is that even If you think that you know what you’re doing, your business plan must be accurate or hire someone to do it for you- A feasibility study for any given area is in order; you cannot just go by the way you think or see that restaurants are doing in a certain neighborhood, like this one in this photo.... 

....that would be the dumbest financial move to make!!! 

Second item relates to another big issue and that is construction costs, I can only tell you what is more or less standard for my area, being Miami one of the largest metropolitan areas in the US, construction cost for a restaurant will start at around $80 per Sq.Ft. with low end finishes that is, once you start getting into high end touches like polished concrete floors, specialty lighting, sound system, etc. you will be in the $200 to $300 per Sq.Ft. range..... easily !! 

                                             Stephan Pyles Restaurant- Dallas, TX

I personally think that the best deal is to find a pre-existing restaurant already built out that closed down so you don’t really have to deal with construction from the ground up but rather some remodeling to fit in your concept and everything else related to a change of name and ownership, plus lots of advertising to make people notice that it is someone else with a different concept in that same spot, I assure you it will be a lot cheaper than building one from scratch. The good thing about this scenario is that you will most likely find all the most expensive and biggest headaches already in place, such as kitchen hood, grease trap, sprinklers, chairs, bathrooms that are ADA compliant and the BAR- Plus you will not have to deal with permits, construction, building inspections, new plans, etc, etc, etc.

These are the most expensive items that I could think of in a restaurant. 

If you still need a brand new space and wish to build it from the ground up then I invite you to read PART III of this series. For now ...... 

Cheers !!!

GlobeSt.com - A Strong Close to 2011 Confirms Improving Outlook for 2012 - StreetSmart Article

GlobeSt.com - A Strong Close to 2011 Confirms Improving Outlook for 2012 - StreetSmart Article

So.... You want to open a Restaurant....! (PART I)

Are you sure!!!? 

                                                                                       Photo Courtesy of Pari Dukovic

That is my first question to any prospective buyer that comes to me looking for restaurant space, followed immediately by my next one question without even letting them answer the first: Have you ever been in the Restaurant business? Do you know anything about it? Have you had restaurants in the past?  That’s rather 3 or 4 questions but they are all necessary; what happens is that I have encountered many people in the past that have come to me because of my experience and track record in both the real estate field and the restaurant business and I have found many times a common denominator, and that is lack of experience or lack of knowledge together with a strong desire for being in the spotlight; after all owning a restaurant looks very glamorous, elegant, gives you the illusion of belonging to the jet-set, of being part of a high class/VIP crowd, it’s a self esteem booster; all these ingredients together are a strong cocktail which will lead an investor to financial disaster- SO....!! Do you really want to open a Restaurant and do you really know what you’re doing? If so I will be happy to help you find the right spot or even build one from scratch...

                                                                               Apotheke in NYC - Photo Courtesy of Noah Kalina

...but if you have not been in the business, and regardless of all the warnings you are so hard headed that still want to venture in dangerous waters, then there are a few things you need to know which I will be discussing in the following PARTS of this short series. I am dividing it in “PARTS” because there are many topics that need to be discussed and if for you this is something new, and still want to do it, then it is better going slow so the digestion of information will be more effective. 

I will be discussing on PART II and PART III of this post things such as permitting, construction, design and concept, on PART IV we’ll be getting into leasing and landlord issues which are a key factor needed to be taken care of BEFORE getting into a commitment and on PART V we will be discussing what I have been seeing a lot lately and that is foreigners with experience in restaurants....in their country. 

Cheers!

Great Music Never Dies

In between posts I will be “posting” stuff to relax, to chill.... as I mentioned when I wrote my very first one, I will be writing about things that make ME feel good and I hope that they will make their way thru you somehow- Life is not only about money and work and business, although I pursue happiness in a lot of ways, and one of them is actually attempting to make an insane amount of MONEY, I truly believe that happiness is achieved by following and pursuing what makes you feel complete, what makes you realize that this journey is temporary and we better make the best out of it because we actually don’t know shit of what’s coming next in the so called “afterlife”.

This evening I had the luxury of watching and excellent documentary about the band U2 and the making of their album “The Joshua Tree”; released in 1987 and Grammy award winning work from the Irish band. 

The film goes about the members of the band speaking together with the manager (Paul McGuinness) and the producers of the album,  in the studio, with the original recording tracks of it and just going over the state of mind, the political environment at the time, the protest, the sorrow, the anguish, the laughs and cries of a time that didn’t know better..... 

Catch it if you have a chance, it is only shy of one hour long and it is all worth watching it. 

I’ve never been a big fan of U2, I have to admit it, I love their music but I come from a different school of Rock’n’Roll, nevertheless I have to say that they are certainly a pivotal band in Rock Music’s history; they explored sounds, they were innovative and way ahead of their time wether in writing or in the studio, sort of like one of my favorite bands of all times, which Bono actually quotes during a segment of the clip when he states that the thundering drum beat and the guitar of “Where the streets have no name” kinda resembled Bonham and Page.... 

Don’t miss it and since you’re there browsing, try to also find “It Might Get Loud”, if you like true Rock’n’Roll you will love both films !

Cheers !!!

Testing Languages to defeat its barriers

Hello everyone ! 

I just heard from someone that knows a lot more than me about "blogging" and he suggested that a blog should never be written in another language other than English- I believe that I should try and see what kind of response a post gets by being written in other languages as well; the way I see it is that there are a lot of people out there in other countries that may understand english when they read it but doesn't mean that they wouldn't like to see a post in, Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish or any other language they are comfortable with. So, I will translate my very first post about the movie "Margin Call" in Italian and Spanish (which are the other two languages I speak)- Please accept my apologies if you see something not written in English this is just a test to prove something, to make a point, I hope you'll understand- Thank you!

In Times of Turmoil.... (PART V)

Hello everyone and welcome to the final post of this series “In Times of Turmoil”. Let me start by saying THANK YOU to all of you that have read and followed this new venture of mine ....BLOGGING! 

Let’s get started with GSA properties as promised-
All I can tell you is that I really like the United States Government as a tenant, they are very demanding, but I like the stability, strength and return that goes with it. 

Let me start by telling the downside and that is that GSA will not sign a contract for more than 10 years firm or a 5 year firm with an option to 5 more years.

“So, what is it that you like so much about GSA? “ you might ask, well you have to pick your investment very carefully and by that I mean you will have to analyze and understand the way they think, the way they operate. In a nutshell,the GSA will put out for bid a request to obtain and get into a building within certain specific coordinates and once a government approved contractor gets that bid awarded he will proceed to build their structure according to their specs. The tenant will then request the TI’s which will get paid back to the builder/landlord as a loan with interests and everyone is happy.
GSA does pay premium rent but the owner has to be ready to take on any issues or problems that may arise 24/7 so property management is somewhat tough, but any of this buildings can generate a NET CAP of 8%+ and that is what I like about it !!! Also what I like is that more often than not I have seen the GSA as a tenant in certain buildings for more than 3 decades !!

When it comes to analyze these type of investments you have to look at several factors such as size of land for them to grow without moving, services around the building such as fast food chains, bus stops, also amount of interior improvements paid by them, all of these issues are closely related to the possibility of the tenant wanting to move to another location at the end of any of the terms of the lease; would it be really feasible to move at a lower cost than renewing one more time the lease contract? 

Remember, just because it’s the US Government does not mean they do not get treated as any other VIP tenant, VIP but nevertheless a tenant- One catch is that you have to go thru their bureaucracy to get approved as a buyer/landlord and also if you want to take on the property management you need sub-contractors that could get approved by them to enter their facilities, after all you are dealing with national security.

I recently sold a building where the tenant is one of the largest government agencies and it was a beautiful transaction, a few weeks later after the transaction closed, the insurance company notified me, as I was listed as the new landlord’s liaison since they are from out of the US, that the tenant was complaining about the concrete car stops in the parking lot that their own customers damaged with their cars, my buyer is a client located overseas as I just mentioned, I had to contract someone, get him approved and replace or repair those car stops all before the Irene storm was due to hit us (which it never did down here in South Florida anyways), the total cost was less than $500 and I got it done in less than a week but this building is producing a net revenue of 8% on year 1 with yearly escalations and the likelihood of the tenant moving to another location is close to “zero” -

So.... to finish up this series of “In times of turmoil” I want to conclude by saying that some people may look at it as there’s no hope, I look at it as a great opportunity to make a lot of money.

                                                                    Courtesy of Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images 


Remember one thing and that is that a lot of the big companies out there were founded in times of financial turbulence, think of 3M, GE, Apple, HP, KRAFT...these guys are part of the backbone structure of our economy, capitalism at its best. There is always a great opportunity to make it, especially in times of turmoil, take advantage of it since it will last a little longer. This year, 2012 we might see a little bit of improvement, but remember that it is usually the case during election years; unemployment rate it is still in the red, CPI and PPI still show no significant inflation and interest rates are still at an all time low, altogether it is not such a good overall scenario; the road to recovery will be long so if cash is king keep it safe, invest it into something that is stable and low risk.... your grandchildren will thank you for it!

Cheers !!!

In Times of Turmoil....(PART IV)

                                          AWESOME PHOTO COURTESY OF Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Welcome back to PART IV of this series of posts dedicated to investing during uncertain times, and as I promised on PART III, I will discuss a little bit about what I think is a safe investment in Real Estate, examining the positive and also the very few negative aspects of them. 

As I mentioned, nowadays I really like NNN investments such as Walgreens, CVS, Dollar General, any Telecom/Cell Phone company.... you get the idea, strong and stable tenants. What I like abut them first of all is that their NNN status allows a worry free ownership, the tenant is responsible for all the expenses such as property taxes, property hazard insurance, general maintenance of roof and structure and also cleaning , landscaping, exterior paint, parking lot.....EVERYTHING!! 

This is the perfect investment for those foreign national investors by the way,  those that simply cannot or do not want to deal with the property management aspect of the asset since they are not in the US. 
The CAP is generally lower in this type of investment and also is directly related to the area where the building is located, but the NET revenue is nevertheless good, not to mention safe, since it is considered a very conservative lower risk type of investment. 

Across the board nationwide, any of these chain drugstores generates a NOI of roughly 7.25%, (the lowest I have seen is right here in Miami-DADE County where it is very hard to get anything above 6%, but then again premium location comes with a premium price tag). 
Is location at all important for this type of investment?  Well, since the leases are corporate guaranteed, Yes and No, and let me elaborate a little on that; either company will usually sign a very long lease, I have seen 20 years initial term with 10 options of renewal for 5 years each; every lease is structured differently but more or less they have a similarity among them and that is their length, if the Tenant decides to close that location they will pay the rent for the reminder of the initial term or the term they are currently on, risky? Maybe, but if you consider the stability of these type of tenants the risk is very much mitigated. 
Aside from Real Estate I am a day trader and I have performed the due diligence of analyzing these companies from a trader stand point, and they look solid as a rock, plus remember that the Owner/Landlord is getting a check every month without any effort on his part, as I would call it “Non Energetic Income”, the other factor that may stop the average investor is the price tag on one of these which can easily run up the double digits territory (as in the $10million +range depending on the area where is located). 

Other good ones and solid as well are the AT&T’s and the Verizon Wireless’ which can bring an even higher CAP but with shorter term leases though, nevertheless the top Telecom companies are nowadays very solid.

Mobile phone traffic in the US is at an all time high and in crescendo. 
Dollar General stores are also in my list of “good” mainly because their CAP rate usually is above 8% and sometimes over 9% depending on the area. 

They are mainly located in lower income rural areas and prices generally are a little over $1million, very good for those investors with a decent amount of capital but not high enough to get into a chain drug store deal; of course the rule of thumb here is “the higher the CAP the higher the risk” like everything else in life, but once you have evaluated the status of that corporation which eventually would be your tenant, and once you have established that indeed is a corporate guaranteed lease the risk is greatly diminished and the investment therefore is a lot safer than buying a strip mall or apartment building. I will get into the GSA properties on my next final PART V of this series. For now....

Cheers!