[Note: To follow is an excerpt of an interview with the 2008 class of the Jay W. Levine Leadership Academy of the CCIM Institute. To listen to, or download the show archive MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com.]

Mosca: What is happening with the reemergence of the American city?

Goldblatt [Charlotte Goldblatt, CCIM from Goldblatt Associates in Woodbridge, Connecticut]: People are realizing they want to live where they can both work and play so there is an enormous movement back to the cities. With that, there is a reemergence of development in the cities where they are combining business, shopping, and residential. A mixed-use development. For instance, in New Jersey if you go to towns like Newark, Hoboken or Hackensack, those are areas where you can see development progress. The secondary cities and the third tier cities are great opportunities for investing in properties.

Mosca: Are there different types of investments for different types of investors?

Spadaro [Pamela Spadaro, CCIM Bank of America in Dallas]: If you're a conservative investor in the stock market or in your personal life you may want to be buying AAA credit tenant properties such as a CVS or a restaurant or a government building. Of course, those returns like any conservative investment are going to be lower and if you have a shorter investment hold those would be ideal. If you would like to have a value-added opportunity, look for moderate tenant credit properties with 75 percent occupancy or higher with three years of operating history. If you are an opportunistic investor, look to tenants with some credit risk with occupancy less than 75 percent like multi-tenant or vacant single tenant buildings that could be reused. Being able to look to those things, you would have a longer investment hold and more opportunity for appreciation.

Mosca: How much money should an investor place into investments like these?

Spadaro:We recommend anywhere from five to 15 percent of a portfolio. The next step is to determine what types of property are performing better than others and also geographic location. Do you want to do it by a specific region, do you want diversification, and do you want to do it by a certain market, either rural, suburban, or urban infill.

Mosca: Isn't that where the CCIM professional helps?

Spadaro:Yes, the CCIM helps the investor determine where those markets are and what location would work best with their portfolio. Plus, the CCIM will look at your investment objectives, yield, hold periods, income generation versus a value growth, and if you want financial stability or are you willing to take some risk.

Mosca: I know from our readings and our research that North Carolina is a hot market right now. Can you tell us why?

Rickard [Tony Rickard, CCIM Chesapeake Commercial Properties in Matthews, North Carolina]: North Carolina has three of the top five banks in the nation located in Charlotte. The real estate boom has not ceased. There are several areas within North Carolina that the market has been the same for years. The growth corridor along 85 going from Atlanta up to D.C. is a very high growth corridor with Dell computer moving in, Greensboro, the Triad market -- the Raleigh market, the Greensboro market, and the Charlotte market -- Federal Express hub coming into the Greensboro market, the ports coming into Wilmington, the Charlotte market, Lowe's Motor Speedway, Lowe's corporate headquarters and all the other corporate entities that have been relocating along I85.

Mosca: The CCIM Institute and its 18,000 members are located throughout the globe. What makes Vancouver, British Columbia a real estate investment opportunity?

Weaver [Lani Jo Weaver, CCIM Royal Pacific Realty Corp. in Vancouver, British Columbia]: The Vancouver area is well known for its beauty. We do have a lot of commercial investments. We have the 2010 Olympics, which is stimulating the market and a lot of investors from all around the world are coming and looking for an opportunity to make a return. We are on the Pacific Coast and our relations to China help drive investors from all over the world. Vancouver is a beautiful place to live and a beautiful place to invest.

Mosca: Can you [Miriam Campos-Root, CCIM Prudential CRES Commercial Real Estate, Las Vegas, Nevada] talk a little bit about green and what green means to investors?

Campos-Root: Project City Center along the Las Vegas Strip is the largest project under construction in the world right now. It is $8 billion and over 18,000,000 ft.² of retail, hotel casino, hotel condos, and convention space. And, this particular project is going for LEED ( certification. Las Vegas is an exciting place to live and is the home of entertainment. We have over 40 million visitors, 4.2 million ft.² of convention space and the gaming industry brings in $21,000 per minute which equates to $11 billion. Las Vegas will always land on top because of the job force. The Project City Center will bring in over 10,000 jobs. The city is thriving and we will continue to be a potential for investors not only nationally, locally, but globally.

Mosca: The CCIM designation is the premier designation in real estate. How has it impacted you?

Crotts [Darrell Crotts, Crotts Commercial Real Estate in Wichita, Kansas]: Real estate was a second career for me and I realized that without the experience that many of my contemporaries would have the only way I could compensate was through education. That's why I earned my CCIM designation; to put me at the forefront of my career. The opportunity to network with other brokers that are at the pinnacle of their profession in other locales throughout the country and the world for that matter is unequalled.

Mosca: Can you talk to us about the Wichita market?

Crotts: Wichita, the largest city in Kansas with a half a million people, is an oasis and very good place to invest. We are the home of Coleman products and the aircraft industry including Beechcraft, Cessna, Boeing Military, Bombardier, and the home of the largest, independently owned company in America -- Coke Industries. A lot of our employers have signs hung that say, “now hiring.” That's the best indication of the economic status in Wichita.

Mosca: Phoenix, Arizona is in the news for a number of reasons. Can you set the record straight and tell us what is happening in the Phoenix area?

Verwer [David Verwer, Eagle Commercial, Phoenix, Arizona]: When looking for an opportunity to invest, it's always better to look on the front end than on the back end. For the benefit of investors, opportunities for them lie by taking a look at a market today. In the Phoenix area, look for multifamily investment and small retail opportunities. Start now to investigate and build a relationship with a CCIM who's looking out for you all the time. You can bet that we are going to bend over backwards to do everything we can to keep our clients happy, to pick up referral business and to establish long-term relationships.

Mosca: What is important to an investor on the front end?

Shelton [Michael Shelton, Magic Financial Services, Longwood, Florida]: One factor that really drives the deal is the capital end of the real estate transaction. Many individuals have not been schooled on how long it takes to close a commercial real estate deal. The first thing I tell investors to do is fill out a personal financial statement. Lenders today are much more conservative than they've ever been. They look to see how many assets you own and how the cash flow is on those assets.

Mosca: Any other items the individual investor needs t know about?

Shelton: Most do not think about their exit strategy. If they own other properties, I ask them for how long. If they haven't owned property, we have to see how long they're going to hold the desire investment. From that standpoint, we can take and make a decision on the right type of financing to use.

Mosca: The CCIM designation represents the experts in commercial real estate. In fact, there are corporations across this globe that will work only with CCIM designees and that says a lot, doesn't it Richard?

Juge [Richard Juge, RE/MAX Commercial Brokers, Metairie, Louisiana and 2010 President of the CCIM Institute]: Yes, in fact McDonald's Corp., just as an example, puts their students through our curriculum. The Institute is going through some interesting times now. We're actually in a $3 million rewrite of our education, which for those of you who have taken it, it's probably an opportunity for you to come back and take some refreshers. For those of you who haven't taken our courses, they are cutting edge and getting enhanced every day.

Mosca: The Institute is 18,000 CCIM designees across the globe. Is the globe a big part of what you are looking at right now?

Juge: In fact, most people say the CCIM Institute is a global company. We have 1,000 international designees in 38 countries. We teach in eight countries and have ambitious plans for expansion.

Published: July 31, 2008

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Peter L. Mosca is president and founder of BAK Communications, Inc. He has over 22 years of communications and media consulting experience, serving a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the CCIM Institute and the REALTOR Association on all three levels – national, state and local. He is the Spokesperson Trainer for the CCIM's Jay Levine Academy and trains hundreds of residential REALTORS nationwide to be effective industry spokespeople. He is consistently ranked as "excellent" by about 90% of those who attend his presentations. While his principal consulting focuses are public speaking and media relations development and content delivery and management, Peter is also the host of the Voice America Network's weekly radio program, "Income Property Investment Talk," a one-hour program that brings the powerhouses of commercial and residential real estate to property investors every Wednesday at 11 a.m. EST. Peter is married 17 years to his wife Barbara. They have two children: Ashley, 15 and Kelli, 12. Hence, the name BAK Communications, Inc.