REAL ESTATE FINANCE & INVESTMENT

A real estate investor or a real estate entrepreneur to a lesser extent is someone who actively or passively invests in real estate. An active investor may buy a property, make repairs and/or improvements to the property, and sell it later for a profit. A passive investor might hire a firm to find and manage an investment property for him. Typically, investors choose real estate for several reasons: cash flow, appreciation, depreciation, tax benefits and leverage.
A cash flow investor might opt to put 5% or 10% down when acquiring a property. This may allow the investor to obtain favorable financing terms and a lower mortgage payment. This will often result in positive monthly cashflow, crudely derived by subtracting the monthly debt service from the monthly rent.
Appreciation occurs over time, generally, though an investor may "force the equity" in a property by making enhancements to it or the surrounding environment to increase its value. In general, residential real estate is valued by the "comparable sales" method which estimates the value of property under the principle of substitution. The method estimates property values by comparing a subject property to similar properties sold in similar locations within a recent period of time.

REAL ESTATE FINANCE & INVESTMENT UNIT (REFI Unit)
Real Estate Finance & Investment Unit (“REFI Unit”) provides in-depth advice on all aspects of real estate transactions including sale and acquisition of property, financing and consequent security, construction contracts, residential and commercial development, leasing and portfolio acquisitions. We are significantly involved with many of our clients in the real estate investment portfolio planning, acquisition, construction financing, leasing and management of office complexes, shopping malls, hotels and residential houses/estates.

Our clients include financial institutions, institutional investors, pension funds, insurance companies, construction companies, venture capitalists, state and federal governments, real estate investment vehicles and private developers.

From transaction inception to completion, our lawyers go beyond the traditional role of document preparation and due diligence. They are dealmakers with business acumen who listen to and advise their clients as commercial stakeholders in the success of each transaction. They are skilled negotiators whose aim is to partner with clients from the outset of each transaction to add value and obtain the best result for the client. We offer a broad range of services, which include;

Advisory Services in the acquisition, disposal and leasing of property and actual purchase and disposal of property on behalf of individual and corporate clients.
Advisory services in the structuring of Real Estate Investment Special Purpose Vehicles.
Advisory services to construction companies, contractors and private developers.
Manage real estate portfolios on behalf of clients.

Advisory services to individual and corporate real estate investors and financial institutions regarding financing options such as real estate investment trusts, asset backed financing etc.

Procuring Certificates of Occupancy and Governor’s Consent to Land Transactions on behalf of clients.

Preparing agreements in respect of real estate transactions such as;
B.O.T (Build, Operate and Transfer Agreements)
D. B. F. O. T (Design, Build, Finance, Operate, Transfer Agreement)
L. M. T (Lease, Maintain, Transfer)
B. L. T (Build, Lease, Transfer)
Construction Contracts
Real Estate Development Management Agreements
Deeds of Assignments
Lease Agreements
Real Estate Finance Security Documents

  Real estate is an asset form with limited liquidity relative to other investments, it is also capital intensive (although capital may be gained through mortgage leverage ) and is highly cash flow dependent. If these factors are not well understood and managed by the investor, real estate becomes a risky investment. The primary cause of investment failure for real estate is that the investor goes into negative cash flow for a period of time that is not sustainable, often forcing them to resell the property at a loss or go into insolvency. A similar practice known as flipping is another reason for failure as the nature of the investment is often associated with short term profit with less effort.