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Welcome to the Commercial Real Estate Expert Blog! A host of industry leading real estate professionals, lawyers, and consultants providing the latest in real estate relevant news and advice.

Environmental Professionals as Required by ASTM E1527 (3 Comments)

Entry by JoeDerhake Entry There has been much discussion about the creation of a national environmental professional registration system and having a new ASTM Standard to require that a ‘Registered’ Environmental Professional conduct a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA). I support such a requirement, as Environmental Professionals too often have to compete with either…

Property Condition Assessment and ADA Compliance

To what extent should a Property Condition Assessment focus on ADA Compliance?    In our practice, some clients want a robust ADA Compliance Audit and other clients are happy with a brief paragraph discussing the building’s compliance on a general level.   The purpose of this blog is to make clients aware of the ADA options that…

AB 1103- Energy Disclosure Law Update

California is requiring Energy Disclosure via Assembly Bill 1103 (AB 1103) starting in 2011.   The California Energy Commission recently published the AB 1103 implementation schedule. Real Estate owners are actively beginning to do energy audits and energy benchmarking to prepare for the implementation of this law in 8 months. Building owners must disclose their building’s…

Probable Maximum Loss Reports (4 Comments)

Entry by JoeDerhake Entry As an engineer that has been providing lenders Probable Maximum Loss (PML) reports for the past 15 years, I was hopeful that the two new ASTM Standards published in 2007 would standardize the practice of PMLs.    However, the ASTM Standards are overly flexible and have not resulted in sufficient uniformity.   For…

Probable Maximum Loss Reports (3 Comments)

Entry by JoeDerhake Entry As an engineer that has been providing lenders Probable Maximum Loss (PML) reports for the past 15 years, I was hopeful that the two new ASTM Standards published in 2007 would standardize the practice of PMLs.    However, the ASTM Standards are overly flexible and have not resulted in sufficient uniformity.   For…

TCE by Another Name would Smell as Putrid

Entry by JoeDerhake Entry When doing a Phase I ESA, we all know that significant on site use of TCE, PCE, or vinyl chloride amount to a recognized environmental condition. But will we recognize these chemicals if they are called by an obscure brand name? For example, Petzinol is a branded solvent that contains a…

SBA Reports

Entry by: Gary Reynolds So what report do you need for your 504 or 7a loan?  This depends on the current and past businesses that occupied your property.  SBA has created a NAICS codes list of “Environmentally Sensitive Industries”.  The type and depth of an environmental investigation to be performed varies with the risks of…

Radon-An Invisible Killer

Entry by: Sue Krobthong, NEHA, NRPP Naturally occurring and chemically inert…although radon can come from man-made situations like landfills or use of radium-containing building materials, the vast majority is NATURALLY occurring and can be found in one thing that can been found everywhere from the breakdown of uranium (the same element used to make nuclear…

The Misunderstood User Questionnaire

There are many adjectives that you can use to describe the User Questionnaire established by AAI…..under -appreciated, neglected, forgotten, and misunderstood to name a few.   How did six little questions manage to become so dreaded? Some clients have made it a policy not to fill out this questionnaire and other clients require a dissertation on…