Category: Editorial

Helping Commercial Property Owners and Business Owners Get Back on Their Feet Post-Hurricane Harvey

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BY BILL VOSS

In late August 2017, one of the largest hurricanes in U.S. history made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast, bringing with it nearly 10 trillion gallons of rain. Reservoirs filled above capacity, riverbanks burst and flooded, and buildings were completely destroyed. In the aftermath, Texas business owners were left facing catastrophic circumstances. At The Voss Law Firm, P.C., we know just how profound Harvey’s impact on the business community has been, and we know just how difficult it is to get insurance companies to fulfill their promises to help you rebuild.

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Everything’s bigger: An analysis of Texas’ fastest-growing cities

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BY BRANDI SMITH

The lists pile up all year, each with their own metrics by which they measure a city’s growth. Some factor in physical expansion, while other focus specifically on population or industry. As different as they all seem to be, there’s a common thread running through each: cities in Texas are booming. The explosive growth isn’t isolated to a single region in Texas either. There are examples around Dallas, Houston, central Texas and west Texas. For the purposes of this article, we exploried * WalletHub’s recent compilation of “2017’s Fastest-Growing Cities in America” as well as
our own assessment of up and coming cities in Texas.

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CCIM November Luncheon

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BY RAY HANKAMER
rhankamer@gmail.com

Speaker: Dan Niemeyer, REALTY SHARES – “Crowdfunding” (“CF”)

Takeway: Crowdfunding started about twenty years ago as an online method funding ‘starving artists and musicians’, and today it is being used to raise both capital and equity from investors small and large for residential and commercial real estate deals.

  • There are several sizeable CF organizations now in the residential and commercial real estate industries, following relaxing of federal regulations pertaining to protecting smaller investors, ‘accredited’ and not
  •  In 2012 CF organizations were given more latitude in raising money through small investors- Go Fund Me is one of the earliest groups to raise small sums
  • By 2013 CF was further opened up to a diverse range of investing possibilities
  • Residential bridge loans were the first vehicles to be offered to small investors, and since then loans and equity pieces have become more varied and more numerous
  • The sweet spot in the market for CF funds seems to be for developers doing deals in the $2-20 million range- CF funds often allow the developer to retain more ownership in deals while at the same time gaining leverage through blending interest rates between CF investor-lenders and commercial banks
  • CF funding takes away the need for developers to go to ‘friends and family’ for equity, and allows the developer to do more deals in a shorter period of time equity pieces can often be raised  through CF in thirty days as opposed to much longer through previous ‘traditional’ methods
  • CF companies are becoming diverse and more segmented in the different kinds of deals they do
  • CF shops stress-test developer deals before offering them to their investors
  • Some commercial banks are still not fully comfortable coming in behind equity supplied via CF

Know Your Rights: New Limits on City Government

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BY OMAR IZFAR, ATTORNEY

Cities have enormous inherent and statutory powers to regulate land development.

Zoning regulations, economic development regulations, general police powers to regulate for the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the City,\ and many other sources of authority all greatly impact property owners. Every two years, the Texas Legislature is presented with numerous bills designed to change what cities can and can’t do. The 2015 Legislative Session prevented cities from instituting fracking bans. The most recent legislative session continued the trend of reigning in municipal power by enacting several bills specifically limiting a city’s authority over land development. 

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My Tribute To George Kirksey: The Father of Major League Baseball in Houston

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BY RAY HANKAMER
rhankamer@gmail.com

When I was in my early 20s I met George, who was then in his early 60s. We became friends quickly, soulmates,
despite the vast age difference.

George had grown up in Hillsboro, and after graduating from the U. of Texas as a journalism major, worked his way up the ladder until he became National SportsEditor for United Press. He covered sports from drafty press boxes long ago, when reporters dashed to be the first in a single phone booth to call in their story to their paper.

In World War II, George enlisted and due to his experience was given the management of the office in London which reported on the bomber raids over Germany, and on the boys who flew them, and on the ones who did not return.

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Building a Legacy: Bill McDade’s 57-year career

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BY BRANDI SMITH

While much has evolved, the focus on relationships as part of real estate has not.

In 1959, the average house cost $12,400. A loaf of bread was only 20 cents and a new car would set you back about $2,200. That year Mattel introduced the Barbie doll and the United States welcomed its 49th and 50th additions (Alaska and Hawaii, respectively). America met its first astronauts that year too. It turns out, 1959 is also the year William “Bill” McDade got his
real estate brokers license.

In the nearly six decades that have followed, he has watched the industry ebb, flow and bust. Technology has developed rapidly, changing how he and his colleagues, like Boyd Commercial principal Mike Boyd and Cushman & Wakefield vice chairman David L. Cook, performed their jobs.

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