Free Tools for Commercial Real Estate Brokers

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Check out these free tools for commercial real estate brokers, they are not affiliate links.

Yes, they are all free no credit card needed.

Compstak Exchange

Free for brokers, appraisers and researchers, CompStak Exchange is a platform for real estate professionals to exchange lease comps in an efficient manner. Exchange comp information you have to get credits and redeem those credits for comps you need, when you need them. Simple.

LeaseMatrix Office Space Calculator

Quickly calculate how much office space you need by inputting the quantity of each type of space you need within your office. You’ll enter the number of private offices, cubicles, meeting rooms, receptions areas, and kitchens. There’re default dimensions for each type of space, but these can be changed. After your data is entered, you’ll see your total usable area and total rentable area.

LoopNet Trends

This widget from LoopNet allows you to get customized market trend graphs based on location and property type. You can get the code and use it to paste these graphs on your website or blog to show how current prices and rents compare to historical data. All you have to do to get access is sign up for a free LoopNet account.

The News Funnel

The News Funnel is a news aggregator and content platform for the real estate industry. You can sign up for a free customized news feed so that you see the real estate news relevant to you.

Customize your feed by filtering for market, industry segment, areas of interest, or keywords. It’s also a great distribution platform for real estate companies to upload and showcase their press releases, videos, blogs, and market research.

PRLog

You can set up your own press room for free and issue multiple free press releases monthly. PRLog has distribution to all of the major search engines with numerous RSS feeds. You can also distribute to your own RSS feeds. It integrates well with all of the social sharing and media platforms.

Valuate

This is a web-based CRE tool that will help you expedite asset valuation and investment analysis. You can use it on its own, or with your existing Excel, but they have plenty of reasons listed on their site why you should use Valuate over Excel.

You can try it out without creating an account and interact with the slick interface to edit Cap Rate, Square Footage, Holding period and more. You can also create a free account to get even more access, all without a credit card.

Waterstone Defeasance

This company specializes in the defeasance process when you’re selling a property or refinancing a loan. The free calculator available on their website can give you a quick estimate of your defeasance costs by entering a handful of data related to the loan.

Commercial Property Loan Calculator

This tool figures payments on a commercial property, offering payment amounts for P & I, Interest-Only and Balloon repayments — along with providing a monthly amortization schedule. This calculator automatically figures the balloon payment based on the entered loan amortization period.

Commercial Property Balloon Loan Calculator

This tool figures a loan’s monthly and balloon payments, based on the amount borrowed, the loan term and the annual interest rate. Then, once you have calculated the monthly payment, click on the “Create Amortization Schedule” button to create a report you can print out. This calculator automatically figures the loan amortization period based on the desired balloon payment.

6 Books for Rental Property Investors

When discussing his favorite book, Warren Buffett, who reads approximately five to six hours a day, remarked, ‘‘I can’t remember what I paid for the first copy of ‘The Intelligent Investor.’ Whatever the cost, it would underscore the truth of Ben [Graham]’s adage: Price is what you pay; value is what you get. Of all the investments I ever made, buying Ben’s book was the best.’’

Despite being relatively inexpensive, books can be extremely valuable to entrepreneurs and investors. With just a few sentences, book readers can walk away with new insights and practical lessons that they could use to improve both their personal and professional lives.

This is especially true for rental property investors. Whether you are a new or veteran real estate investor, these six books will add value to your rental property portfolio.

1. Investing with No Money Down

The best book on how to invest with no money down is “The Book on Investing in Real Estate With No (and Low) Money Down” (2014), by Brandon Turner. Unlike stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, investing in real estate requires a significant amount of money. Even if an investor plans to finance the acquisition or development of a property with debt, he or she will still need to have enough money to make a strong down payment to secure a loan.

2. How to Manage Rentals

On managing rentals, “The Book on Managing Rental Properties” (2015), by Brandon and Heather Turner is the top book. It serves as a comprehensive guide for rental property owners after they have closed on their deals. In the book, the Turners provide advice on a wide range of aspects associated with the day-to-day property management. This includes how actually to find and screen tenants, how to properly collect rent owed to you, as well as important clauses to include in your rental lease and bookkeeping tips.

3. Considering Cash Flow

When it comes to considering and managing cash flow, “What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow—And 36 Other Key Financial Measures” (2015, Updated Edition), by Frank Gallinelli is the best book.

Unfortunately, the world of real estate has a lot of financial jargon that often confuses new investors, but luckily “What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow” helps investors understand important terms such as discounted cash flow, return on equity (ROE) and capitalization rate. The physical nature of real estate often makes it easy for investors to fall in love with a property even though it may not make much financial sense to acquire it. This book can help a person avoid speculating and making emotional decisions when investing in real estate because it teaches readers how to analyze a deal and make calculated predictions on its future revenue.

4. Protect Yourself

On protecting yourself with investing in real estate, “Loopholes of Real Estate” (2013), by Garrett Sutton is the go-to book.

Part of the Rich Dad Advisor’s book series, “Loopholes of Real Estate” contains a number of strategies to protect yourself legally when investing in rental property as well as several tax loopholes to take advantage of to maximize profits.

5. Taxes

“Every Landlord’s Tax Deduction Guide” (2015, 12th ed.), by Stephen Fishman J.D. is the best book on managing taxes. Every year, many rental property investors overstate their net income. This results in a higher than needed tax bill.

Jamaican Billionaire Michael Lee-Chin once remarked that in order to be a successful investor, one needs to “minimize their taxes.” “Every Landlord’s Tax Deduction Guide” shares a long list of available deductions that are often forgotten by real estate investors. Knowing this can help reduce an investor’s tax liabilities while staying on the right side of the IRS.

6. Grow Your Empire

“Multi-Family Millions” (2008), by David Lindahl is the perfect book for ambitious investors who instead of owning individual houses would like to own and operate apartment complexes, often known as multi-family real estate. The book provides readers with a step by step guide to acquiring their first multifamily property, how to finance a deal of such scale, and how to eventually exit the investment.

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