Commercial RE Facts on Income Producing

The basic elements of an investment are cash inflows, outflows, timing of cash flows, and risk. The ability to analyze these elements is key in providing services to investors in commercial real estate.

Cash inflows and outflows are the money that is put into, or received from, the property including the original purchase cost and sale revenue over the entire life of the investment. An example of this sort of investment is a real estate fund.

Cash inflows include the following:

• Rent
• Operating expense recoveries
• Fees: Parking, vending, services, etc.
• Proceeds from sale
• Tax Benefits
• Depreciation
• Tax credits (e.g., historical)

Cash outflows include:

• Initial investment (down payment)
• All operating expenses and taxes
• Debt service (mortgage payment)
• Capital expenses and tenant leasing costs
• Costs upon Sale

The timing of cash inflows and outflows is important to know in order to project periods of positive and negative cash flows. Risk is dependent on market conditions, current tenants, and the likelihood that they will renew their leases year‐over‐year. It is important to be able to predict the probability that the cash inflows and outflows will be in the amounts predicted, what is the probability that the timing of them will be as predicted, and what the probability is that there may be unexpected cash flows, and in what amounts they might occur.