Were any brokers here around in 2008?
Many landlords I deal with own C-grade commercial properties, but price them as if they’re oil rich and do so with their nose held high. I understand that’s it’s the nature of the cycle and I’ve only been in this industry since the beginning of it. But the maniacal, watch-the-world-burn side of me can’t help but wonder what this industry looked like during the crisis...were these same landlords screaming blood? Selling at lows? Was there tons of cash being thrown in by the savviest of investors, seeking to take advantage of weak stomachs? Did you see any ridiculous deals? Or am I fantasizing? Just want to get an idea
[{"id": "e01ajmg", "text": "Depends on the market you are in like all things real estate. In Boston and strong sub markets the prices didn\u2019t flinch, what you see now is what was happening then ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e01cunv", "text": "I started in 2002 and back then and today do 80% Office and retail leasing in NYC. The 20% Of Sales is probably 1-2 properties a year. In 2008 everything stopped... the phones stopped ringing and all deals halted. The trend in NYC at the peak was buy a building, kick out all the tenants, and prepare to Gut-renovate or sell that empty building to the next guy at a high price. All these buildings had high mortgages. When the music stopped; those empty buildings were the worst properties you could have. I jumped head first into pre-foreclosure sales because there was not a lot of other work. From 2002-2008 my biggest sale was about $3M. From 2009-2011 I did about $400M. My life changed forever. The answer is YES everything was cheaper, but most buyers were putting out fires and trying to keep their other properties from foreclosure AND landers weren\u2019t lending... so even if you wanted to buy cheap it was 3 times as hard to buy; unless you had all cash. Hope this helps", "replies": [{"id": "e01qyae", "text": "Thanks for the thoughtful response.  Looked you up - wasn't disappointed.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "e02kg6e", "text": "&gt; The answer is YES everything was cheaper, but most buyers were putting out fires and trying to keep their other properties from foreclosure AND landers weren\u2019t lending... so even if you wanted to buy cheap it was 3 times as hard to buy; unless you had all cash.\n\nReally insightful perspective right here. Glad to read it.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e01jxvv", "text": "Deal mostly with institutional capital. When it hit, nothing happened at first. Real estate is not like the stock market. Prices move very slowly. But once the first guy dropped, it was a race to the bottom. All development stopped, protects that took 5 years to put together were dead. Nobody had any money and everyone was scarred so nothing happened. \n\nIf your c class people have no debt on their building they will be fine, it was the a class leveraged with others people money that got hit the hardest. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]