NestEgg Launches ‘Freedom’ To Give All Real Estate Investors Access to Affordable Property Management Service

NestEgg, a fintech software company that helps growth-minded mom and pop real estate investors reach their goals of financial independence faster with easy online property management, today announced the launch of their Freedom plan. With NestEgg’s Freedom plan, real estate investors are able to turn their long-term rentals into truly passive income with full-service management for only $29 per rental per month. This allows real estate investors to be completely hands-off much more profitably and saving on average 8-10% of their monthly rental income that typically goes to traditional property management.

The majority of mom-and-pop real estate investors today live within driving distance of their rental properties so that they can self-manage and avoid paying expensive property management fees. Now with Freedom, they can receive the benefits of professional property management at a fraction of the cost with a human rental manager that coordinates maintenance issues, collects rent payments, fills vacancies, handles all resident interactions, and more. Additionally, Freedom gives all real estate investors the opportunity to expand their portfolio with properties all over the state or country, coupled with financial benefits such as automatic rent payment on the first of the month (every month), and a six-month interest-free buy-now-pay-later option for property renovations.

Knowing that most real estate investors don’t have the time or confidence to do it themselves and someone will be there to take care of your property, regardless of where it is geographically, opens up a whole new world of opportunity. It makes a secondary form of income operate on autopilot without any real-time or energy being put in by the investor. Click to read more at www.galvnews.com.

Banking on CRE: Texas Lenders Break Down What They Look for in Deals

Robert LaRue knew it was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of a deal. His client, who happened to be another mortgage banker, was refinancing a 230-unit apartment complex. “The 10-Year Treasury dropped down to 60 basis points. I’d never seen it hit that number in my career,” says LaRue, Senior Vice President of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital.

While the client debated locking in that rate or waiting for it to drop, the 10-Year rebounded a bit. “We closed at a spread of 165 over the 10-year Treasury, which was 1.04% at the time of rate lock, for an all-in rate of 2.69%, 10-year term, 30-year amortization, nonrecourse,” LaRue shares. “That deal included an $8 million cashout to the borrower.” The lender is a life company, which rarely agrees to cashouts as it did for this deal. It was a sign to him that the appetite for multifamily investment is there. “My advice to borrowers is to take advantage of these rates while you can,” says LaRue.

He calls the real estate finance sector “much improved” compared to this time last year. Other experts REDNews spoke to used words such as “robust,” competitive” and “vibrant.” “There’s a lot of capital being put to work and I think there’s more capital coming in, so the overall health of the capital markets in terms of liquidity is pretty high,” says Jeffrey Erxleben, Executive Vice President and Executive Managing Director for NorthMarq.

“From an asset class perspective, real estate is looked upon pretty favorably. There are plenty of opportunities to deploy capital into many different options for borrowers depending on their overall strategy.” Click to read more at www.rednews.com.

Texas Legislature Close to Approving Billions to Pay for Winter Storm Financial Fallout

Justin Aguilar’s bingo halls in Corpus Christi lost a week of business and thousands of dollars during February’s deadly winter storm. That was devastating enough.

But that loss of income is dwarfed by what the business now owes because of the Texas power crisis: There’s a $120,000 electricity bill waiting to be paid.

Since the bookkeeper for Bingoland, Margaret Baldwin, got the eye-popping bill — nearly 50 times more than an average month for the two buildings — she’s just held on to it. Normally, the organizations that rent the bingo halls would be on the hook. But instead of passing on the obscene costs, Baldwin is hoping for help from Austin.

“If we had to come up with the money and pay this, it would shut down the halls,” she said.

The bingo halls had a variable electricity plan from Summer Energy that offers cheaper power when the state’s electricity supply is sufficient, but more expensive rates when it’s scarce. Exorbitant power bills now loom over thousands of Texas businesses like an overfilled dam, waiting. Baldwin and others are waiting for a desperately needed bailout from the Texas Legislature.

The February winter storm was one of the most devastating disasters in the state’s history, killing at least 100 people. It was also one of the most expensive because of spikes in wholesale power prices and natural gas prices. Electricity regulators set power prices at the maximum rate — $9,000 per megawatt-hour — for several days in hopes that market dynamics would encourage more electricity to be supplied.

Because the freeze knocked out many of the state’s power generators, electricity companies had to buy what little power was available at that exorbitant rate (the average price for power in 2020 was $22 per megawatt-hour). Natural gas fuel prices also spiked more than 700% during the storm.

Click to read more at www.texastribune.org.

The Sale of this Massive Warehouse Adds to Hugely Impressive First Quarter

Interstate Crossing, a newly constructed, 1,023,488 square foot distribution facility in Fort Worth, has sold. According to CBRE’s U.S. Industrial & Logistics Figures for Q1 2021, the industrial market shows no signs of slowing down. Companies are leasing space at a historically robust pace to accommodate the large increase in e-commerce sales. Nearly 100 million square feet was absorbed in Q1, the third-highest mark on record.

CBRE’s Jack Fraker, Randy Baird, Jonathan Bryan, Ryan Thornton, and Eliza Bachhuber with CBRE National Partners represented the seller, Hunt Southwest Real Estate Development, in the transaction. A publicly traded REIT purchased the long-term leased fulfillment center for an undisclosed purchase price.

INDUSTRIAL

Pennsylvania-based builder Exeter Property Group has filed plans for the largest Denton business park yet. The company plans to build an almost 1.5 million-square-foot warehouse project in the Exeter Westpark business park west of I-35. Construction is set to start in June, according to planning documents filed with the state. Richardson-based Alliance Architects is designing the new $60 million industrial park. Exeter Property Group recently leased an about 650,000-square-foot industrial building in the same area as Lowe’s. The company is also building in its Exeter Buckner business park off Buckner Boulevard.

Click to read more at www.dmagazine.com.

Partners Real Estate Company Announces New Director-Level Hire

Partners Real Estate Company—the holding company of NAI Partners, Partners Capital, and Partners Development—has announced that Brett Chiles, a veteran private equity professional, has joined Partners Development as a Director. Mr. Chiles will be responsible for growing capital and sourcing debt for Partners Development’s ground-up retail and other development and investment opportunities. In addition, he will be responsible for other aspects of development projects including legal, entity organization, project management and other activities. Mr. Chiles has over two decades of experience in the investment space, and comes to Partners Real Estate Company from KA Investments, a Houston-based private equity firm where he was a Principal. Prior to that, he spent time at Equus Total Return, Inc., and Murphree Venture Partners. Mr. Chiles has an MBA from Rice University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from Texas Christian University.

KBS Extends Technology Focus; Achieves WiredScore Status for Four Class A Office Properties in Texas

City View and Fountainhead Tower are the first two properties in the San Antonio market to achieve WiredScore certification. City View, a 221,373 square-foot office building located at the corner of Interstate 10 and Huebner in northwest San Antonio, was awarded WiredScore Gold, and Fountainhead Tower, 179,932 square-foot office building located directly off IH-10 with quick access to Loop 410 and just minutes from Loop 1604 and the San Antonio International Airport, was awarded WiredScore Silver. The certifications are noteworthy accomplishments in today’s tech-driven office environment, according to Gio Cordoves, Western regional president for KBS. “KBS understands that connectivity is critical to driving business for today’s office tenants and enabling them to operate efficiently,” says Cordoves. “By offering the first two WiredScore certified properties in San Antonio, KBS continues to lead the market in providing its tenants with outstanding service and amenities.” Two additional Texas-based KBS office assets – 515 Congress, a 263,058-square-foot office tower located at 515 Congress Avenue in Downtown Austin, and 1800 Bering, a 171,510 square-foot office building located at 1800 Bering Drive in Houston – have each been certified WiredScore Silver. With these new designations, KBS now holds a majority of Wired Certified assets nationwide. Click to read more at www.businesswire.com.