Commercial Real Estate
Location is the broker's job.
The contract is ours.
The building you buy or the space you lease is often the biggest number on your balance sheet, and the documents behind it decide who carries the risk for decades. Hank has handled commercial real estate for businesses and investors, from the letter of intent through diligence, financing, and closing, and through the disputes that may arise when a deal or a lease goes sideways.
On a purchase or sale, Hank first frames the outline of the deal in a letter of intent, then drafts or negotiates the purchase agreement, the earnest money terms, and the feasibility period you use to inspect the property and read the title commitment and survey before the deposit becomes nonrefundable. He coordinates the closing through the title company, handles the deed of trust and loan documents when a lender funds the purchase, and structures ownership so the property is held in the right entity. When a sale rolls into a 1031 exchange, he works with your tax advisors to meet the 45 day window to identify the replacement property and the 180 day window to close it.
A commercial lease sets a landlord's income and a tenant's obligations for years, so Hank negotiates both sides. If you're the landlord, he drafts the lease and the work letter; if you're the tenant, he reviews the rent structure, the triple net charges, the renewal and assignment rights, and the subordination and estoppel terms a lender will demand. Hank also handles easements, restrictive covenants, and development agreements, and when a deal or a lease turns into a dispute he prosecutes or defends claims over title, contracts, construction defects, and unpaid rent.
Hank has represented buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants, developers, and lenders, so you get real estate counsel that has seen the same deal from every chair at the table. On every engagement Hank works toward the same result, a property you can buy, lease, or finance knowing exactly what you signed and what it is worth.
Services Include
- Purchase and sale agreements and closings
- Commercial leases for landlords and tenants
- Title, survey, and feasibility review
- Deeds of trust and loan documents
- 1031 like-kind exchanges
- Easements, covenants, and development agreements
- Single-asset entity structuring
- Title, lease, and construction disputes
Commercial Real Estate Insights
The Letter of Intent in Commercial Real Estate: What It Binds and What It Doesn't
Most commercial real estate transactions start with a letter of intent, not a contract. A buyer submits an LOI to a seller outlining the proposed purchase price, earnest money, due diligence period, financing contingency, and closing timeline.
Read articleDue Diligence in a Commercial Property Purchase: What to Review Before Your Deposit Goes Hard
Due diligence is the buyer's only window to investigate a commercial property before the transaction becomes irrevocable. During the feasibility period (typically 30 to 60 days after execution of the purchase and sale agreement), the buyer can terminate the contract for any reason and recover the earnest money deposit.
Read articleCommercial Lease Negotiation: Key Terms Every Tenant Should Negotiate Before Signing
A commercial lease is a negotiated agreement, and every term in it affects your total occupancy cost, your operational flexibility, and your exposure if something goes wrong with the landlord, the building, or your business.
Read articleTriple Net Leases: What NNN Means and How Operating Expenses Shift to the Tenant
A triple net lease shifts property taxes, building insurance, and common area maintenance costs from the landlord to the tenant. In a gross lease, the landlord absorbs those costs and builds them into a higher rent. In a triple net lease, the tenant pays a lower base rent but picks up the operating expenses on top of it, and those expenses are variable, reconciled annually, and can increase substantially over the lease term if the lease doesn't contain caps and exclusions.
Read article1031 Like-Kind Exchanges: How to Defer Capital Gains on a Commercial Property Sale
When you sell a commercial property at a gain, you owe federal capital gains tax (up to 20 percent for long-term gains), depreciation recapture tax (25 percent on the accumulated depreciation), net investment income tax (3.8 percent for high earners), and potentially state tax depending on where the property is located.
Read articleStructuring Ownership of Commercial Property: Why the Entity Holding Title Makes a Difference
Holding commercial real estate in your personal name or in a general-purpose operating company exposes every other asset you own to liabilities arising from the property. A slip-and-fall on the parking lot, a construction defect, an environmental claim, or a defaulted loan can reach your personal accounts, your other businesses, and your other properties if you haven't isolated the real estate in a separate entity.
Read articleEasements and Restrictive Covenants: What Runs with the Land and How It Affects Your Property
An easement gives someone the right to use your land for a specific purpose without owning it. A restrictive covenant limits what you can do with your own land. Both run with the land, meaning they bind every subsequent owner regardless of whether that owner agreed to them.
Read articleLandlord Remedies When a Commercial Tenant Defaults: Eviction, Lockouts, and Rent Recovery in Texas
When a commercial tenant stops paying rent, the landlord's response determines how much of the lost rent can be recovered and how quickly the space can be returned to productive use. Texas provides commercial landlords a set of remedies that most other states don't, including the right to change the locks on a delinquent tenant's space without going to court first.
Read articleTitle Insurance and Survey Review: What Commercial Buyers Need to Understand Before Closing
A title commitment and a survey are the two documents that tell you what you're buying. They show what the legal record contains, whatever the listing broker described or the seller represented, covering the property's ownership, encumbrances, boundaries, and physical condition.
Read articleRelated Work
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