Real estate is ever-evolving, and it takes long-term experience to navigate any market or project. Howard Shapiro has worked in various roles in the real estate field throughout his storied 35+ year career. From small personal developments to consulting on $250 million projects, Mr. Shapiro knows the lay of the land, the law that governs it, and the players to be dealt with.
As a consultant, Mr. Shapiro brings his experience and the respect he commands in the industry to bear and dedicates himself to improving every project he is involved with. From guiding project specifics to in-the-trenches work like navigating permit offices, acquiring funding and investment, or negotiating use and rights, Howard Shapiro is a powerful ally on your team for large and small real estate projects.
In real estate, it’s all about the lot. Identifying the right property to purchase or invest in is only step one. A successful real estate project requires correctly predicting future value, the potential for development, and the often obscured complications that can turn a property into a nightmare – or a golden goose.
Howard Shapiro has seen it all in his nearly forty years in the real estate business. He’s handled real estate at all levels, having worked on some aspect of almost 5,000 properties in his time.
Mr. Shapiro can help identify the suitable properties to invest in or help shape an existing deal into the most profitable and advantageous one possible. Drawing on his experience and knowledge of the law and the market, Howard Shapiro is the key member of any real estate investment team. Don’t hesitate to contact him at 954-214-1069 for more information.
In his career, Mr. Shapiro has been involved in the acquisition, planning, design, development, and marketing of over 4,500 properties with a combined market value of more than $750,000,000. He learned something about the market and the business in each project, and he brings those lessons to every project he consults on. Call 954-214-1069 today to receive first-rate consulting services.
Real estate is ever-evolving, and it takes long-Locating partners to bring real estate dreams to reality can be challenging. Having local knowledge and connections to identify and partner with the right contractors and service providers is essential for the success of any real estate project. Howard Shapiro has worked in the local real estate market for more than thirty-five years and can quickly help you identify the perfect partner for your goals.
Once a project is underway, you need experience and knowledge to monitor its progress and know the warning signs of problems before they spiral out of control and cause expensive delays. Howard Shapiro has overseen so many projects he knows when all is well at a construction site and when there are issues that need tending sooner rather than later.
Every project needs an experienced expert like Howard Shapiro on the team to guarantee the best possible results. Howard would love to discuss your project goals and his possible role in making them come true. Call 954-214-1069 to start getting help.
Whether new construction, a conversion, or a complete gut renovation of a classic property, condominiums have become the leading edge of urban real estate development, offering the most efficient space to maximize a property’s return on investment (ROI).
After 40 years in the real estate business, Howard Shapiro knows the condominium market’s special development, marketing, and financing needs. Having personally developed several condominium projects, including a 287-unit building in Fort Lauderdale valued at $250,000,000, Howard knows his way around condos, including
If you’re looking for someone with the knowledge and hands-on experience in a condominium development that can take your project to the next level, Howard Shapiro stands ready to assist. Having brought thousands of his projects to profitable fruition, he can offer your project the benefit of his deep experience, business and personal connections, and his creative and modern take on both design, marketing, and sales. No matter the specifics of your condominium project, Howard can offer you invaluable input and assistance that will speed things up and get you to full occupancy faster and more profitably. Call him today at 954-214-1069.
In the realm of real estate development, fundamental to the real estate Developer’s ability to convert their vision of developing property for a profit to the reality of realizing that a “noble” goal is their ability to accomplish myriad, complicated, and interrelated tasks along the critical path of the project’s development to completion. First, this has to do with ownership of the property on which the r project will rise.
We are assuming here that the Developer (or “Owner”) is buying vacant land to build a “ground-up” improvement on the property he is acquiring.
The Developer must be assured that the development plan is economically feasible and market acceptable and that the project will be legally permissible (e.g., zoning and other governmental regulations). Prior to making significant commitments of their resources and those of their partners, investors, and lenders, title to the land he acquires is, in the parlance of lawyers and title insurers, must be “good and marketable” (from now on, referred to as, “good title”). Moreover, they must be assured that it always remains that way. They must provide that same good title to the project’s construction lender, who is, in effect, the project’s largest cash investor by far and who bears the most significant amount of economic risk. The financing associated with a to-be-built asset (e.g., funding the construction of a building) is as opposed to financing an already built asset where the risks, while still significant, are much less than in the construction loan setting. So too will the Developer’s successors in interest, and each of their lenders, partners, and investors demand no less quality of title for their account.
To assure theme self and their lenders that the property being purchased enjoys good title, the Developer, as the title insurance policy beneficiary, depends initially on the title insurance underwriter’s title commitment to insure, followed by the title insurance policy.
To assure theme self and their lenders that the property being purchased enjoys good title, the Developer, as the title insurance policy beneficiary, depends initially on the title insurance underwriter’s title commitment to insure, followed by the title insurance policy. Subject to exceptions and exclusions to coverage, which usually include “standard” industry exceptions, the Developer must be assured, as must their lender, that any title matters will not impair the Developer’s ownership and development of the property or the lender’s ability to lend the project vast sums of money for the purposes intended. These loans are secured by the land and the improvements to be developed on it. Interestingly, unlike casualty and liability insurance which insures against future events, a title insurance policy insures against what has happened in the past.
Typical exceptions (meaning items that the title insurer will not insure against) include such items as the current year’s real estate taxes or any taxes or assessments not shown as liens of record on the property, easements or claims of easements or rights-of-way not shown of record, riparian and littoral rights, (these include water rights and are generally never insurable), as well as other matters of record or some which might not be of record. Although easements not of record are a standard exception, they are usually deleted as an exception and are therefore insured against. A critical part of the Developer’s initial due diligence in evaluating the property purchase is to review with competent legal counsel and other professionals, such as engineers, surveyors, and others, the matters which are not insurable. The Developer must be confident that none of these items will pose a problem from an ownership, development, and financing perspective. If there are title matters that are not clear cut, negotiations by the Owner and his/her counsel with the title insurer’s counsel as may be supplemented with the purchase by the Owner of special policy endorsements come into play to provide the required coverage.
The title review must be done even in advance of signing a contract to purchase the property if that is possible because the Developer is wise not to incur legal fees attendant to the contract of purchase negotiations when there may be an overriding matter of title that literally can “kill” the project” before it even gets started. For example, a recorded easement running through the middle of where the building is planned to be built would preclude the property purchase in the first instance without an appropriate requirement remediating the problem.
If a title problem is imminent, negotiations with the title insurer are as important a part of the acquisition transaction as the purchase contract itself. The Owner deals with the title insurance agency, often a law firm that acts as an agent of the title insurance underwriter. Initially, the agent will provide a title insurance commitment to the Owner and a contract to provide the policy according to agreed-upon terms and conditions. As in any agency relationship, the agent insures nothing but merely is an agent of the title insurance underwriter, the “title underwriter,” who assumes the title insurance risk to defend the title for the Owner and the Owner’s lender underwriting the title policies. For example, the agency might be an agent for several title insurance underwriters. It receives a commission calculated as a percentage of the premium cost paid by the insured as a one-time fee at the closing of the issuance of the policy, which generally coincides with the closing on the sale of the property and its funding by a third party lender. The Owner’s lender will also receive Mortgagee Policy to the extent of its interest as a mortgagee provided by the same agent and underwriter. The Owner also typically pays the Mortgagee Policy premium, the cost of which is mitigated favorably for the Owner because it is being issued simultaneously with the Owner’s policy.
The Developer’s confidence in their ownership and property development rights continues uninterrupted through the completion of the project. Their moving ahead is borne out of their knowledge that the title insurance underwriter, through its title insurance policy, has, among several of its contractual obligations, the obligation to defend the Owner’s title against claims that may be made against it, in strict compliance with the terms and conditions, exceptions and exclusions of the contract of insurance. Moreover, suppose such claims require money or performance to correct or eliminate title problems, to satisfy or relieve claims. In that case, it is the title insurance company’s responsibility to comply with its obligations under the policy of title insurance up to the full extent of the policy’s value. It is under contractual obligation, that is, it’s the “duty to defend for the Owner” on which the insured, together with all other provisions of the title insurance policy, relies. The comfort given by a title insurance policy is a testament to the great importance property Developers, and their investors and lenders give to the title insurance process and the blanket of protection it affords.
In real estate, people say it’s all about The most ideally-placed properties are empty lots unless you have the resources to develop them properly – and develop them quickly, before the market shifts and leaves you holding the bag.
Howard Shapiro has worked in real estate development for four decades, and over that time, he has built relationships with lenders, financial institutions, and private investors that are unrivaled in the business. He knows where the money I and how to match investors with the suitable projects – because he knows that putting people into the wrong projects is a poor strategy.
No one can get financing results faster, and no one knows the law, the regulations, and the procedures better. If you need guidance in locating funding for your real estate project, look no further than Howard Shapiro. Howard has handled the development of more than 4,500 units whose market value exceeds $750,000,000, including a 42-story, 287-unit, $250,000,000 luxury high-rise in Fort Lauderdale. Call Howard today at 954-214-1069, and find out how he can change your project from stalled to stellar using his experience and relationships.
Real estate is all about the numbers – but real estate marketing transforms those numbers into a persuasive, creative presentation that entices buyers and investors by accentuating what makes your property special. It’s a particular skill that requires not just marketing panache but extensive experience in the real estate development game.
Howard Shapiro has more than four decades of that experience at every level of property development.
He has sold over 4,500 units at a total value of nearly a billion dollars and, throughout that storied career, has learned everything there is to know about real estate marketing, including:
Howard Shapiro has been at the leading edge of using new and exciting technology to market property his entire career and remains ready to investigate any new tool that can help define your property and put it in front of the right potential buyers or investors. Creative, experienced, and with a proven track record, find out how Howard can kick your next project into high gear with great ideas implemented professionally and cost-effectively by calling him at 954-214-1069 today.
Land use and landscape architecture are as crucial as any other aspect of a real estate project and can often offer invisible obstacles in a real estate development project that the less-experienced don’t think about until it’s too late.
Howard Shapiro has been working in real estate development for almost forty years and is well aware of all the potential problems that any site can generate and the unique challenges of site planning for residential or commercial properties. He can not only anticipate problems and ensure that plans are in place to prevent them, but he also has the experience to draw on when unexpected problems arise with site planning.
Mr. Shapiro can also advise on the most profitable site planning strategies, drawing on the $750 million of real estate development he has been involved with during his storied career. Call him at 954-214-1069 today!
Real estate is a complex and high-stakes business. You can’t enter into battle without a strategy that considers your resources, goals, and potential pitfalls. Howard Shapiro has been involved in more than 4,500 real estate transactions and has been involved at every stage, from initial concepts to closing the sale on individual units. He can assist you with:
Needs Analysis – analyzing your financial resources, time frame, and goals to determine feasibility and potentially hidden problems.
Market Analysis – ensuring that your vision for the property aligns with the market realities.
Economic and Demographic Studies – a look into the crystal ball determining the ideal use of the property in question considering a deep-dive understanding of the economic trends and demographic shifts occurring long- and short-term.
Occupancy Analysis – Creating a detailed, data-supported occupancy plan, considering the location of resources and other factors in the final design.
Howard Shapiro can help you with any real estate development project of any size or complexity, from small residential projects to multi-unit condominiums worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Call 954-214-1069 to start getting help.
