Recommendations

Real estate, accounting, and lending professionals who are satisfied RealBenefits customers wrote the letters of recommendation below. These professionals have used RealBenefits products for many years.
The first two letters are from commercial real estate agents at a Coldwell Banker office where the software is used extensively.
The third letter is from the broker of that same Coldwell Banker office.
The fourth letter is from a commercial real estate broker at another office. That broker is also a commercial real estate developer and professional investor.
The fifth and sixth letters are from senior partners of two CPA firms.
The seventh letter is from a bank president who makes commercial real estate loans.
The eighth and ninth letters are from commercial real estate developers (income property developers).
To Real Estate Developers:
The following two messages are from income property real estate developers who have used the software for many years and helped design it.
Note: the terms "commercial real estate" and "income property" are used interchangeably and are considered synonymous for our purposes here. Therefore, a "commercial real estate developer" and an "income property developer" are considered the same thing.
This message is from Bill Behrens, commercial real estate developer, broker, and owner of RealBenefits.
I helped design the software suite from 2000 to the present. I use it regularly as an income property real estate developer, broker, and investor.
The software is fantastic for analyzing income properties, both existing and proposed new construction. We use the software to provide lenders, partners and purchasers with pro forma data on new commercial, multi-family, mini-storage, mobile home parks, and industrial projects. It also works great for rental houses. It gives us a lot of flexibility in promoting our real estate products as well as providing data on how the project has performed in the past, present, or will likely perform in the future.
The software is not geared towards a land only deal, such as a subdivision. It is not geared towards residential real estate, except when it will be rented or leased. It is geared towards any real estate that will be rented or leased.
If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate in contacting me.
Sincerely,
Bill Behrens, Owner of RealBenefits, LLC and Equity Network Services, LLC.
Direct Line 360-921-0091 (this is my cell phone). I am on Pacific time.
Office Phone 360-225-4646 (office phone for RealBenefits and Equity Network Services). We are on Pacific time.
This message is from Charles Bond Sr, recently retired commercial real estate developer and broker, and still active commercial real estate investor.
I helped design the software from 1995 to the present. I used it regularly for many years as an income property developer and broker. I still use it regularly as an income property investor.
The software is very useful for analyzing income producing properties. I do not think it applicable to putting in subdivisions of homes or land only deals. It is great for income properties.
By income property, I mean any property that will be rented, leased, or in some way generate income. Examples would be apartment complexes, assisted living facilities, office space, stores, malls, restaurants, grocery stores, warehouses, etc. Also, homes or condos, if they will be rented or leased.
As a developer, I used the software's printed presentations to help me get financing and investors to build large apartment complexes and assisted living facilities. Click here to see my buildings. I organized each project as an LLC with the LLC owning the property. Then I took dozens of investors in the LLC.
The first big apartment-LLC project I did was in 1993 before the software existed. In 1993, I paid my CPA $10,000 to make all the presentations for my dozens of investors. That experience made me get involved with the software because I wanted to be more self sufficient and less reliant on my CPA for these projects. The software was great for making presentations to prospective investors and a lot more cost effective than having my CPA do the presentations. Once I had the software, I made my own presentations and let my CPA review the first presentation for each project (100% ownership presentation). Then when I gave each investor their presentation (part-ownership presentation) and suggested they have their CPA review it. Most investors did have their CPA review it, but at their cost. My CPA bill was vastly less for each project after I had the software. With the software, I had the option to have my CPA review each presentation, but I did not have to pay my CPA to make each presentation. The software has saved me a lot of money on CPAs. It also makes a much better presentation than my CPA ever did. The software's presentation has color charts and graphs and is very in-depth.
In my experience, using the software to make your presentations and then having your CPA review them gives better results for less money than having the CPA make the presentations. I also like this software better than any other I've seen.
RealBenefits software would also make a convenient way for CPAs to make real estate investment presentations (prospectus). It is my understanding that RealBenefits has CPAs among its customer base along with income property developers, brokers, and investors.
The software can make an analysis presentation for each investor according to their share of ownership, tax bracket, loan liability, loan type (recourse or non recourse) and entity type that owns the building (in this case LLC). Based on this input data, the presentation shows dollar figures that apply to that investor. I was able to do this conveniently because the software did not make me reenter all the input data for each investor. Most of the data inputs apply to the building. Only a few apply to the specific investor. Making a new presentation for a new investor only requires reentering a few data input values.
The Scenarios feature of the Benefits workbook allowed me to save each investor's input data all in the same Benefits workbook. This allowed me to have one Benefits workbook per project (per building). When I want to look at a building, I only have to reopen that building's Benefits workbook. By using the Scenarios feature, I can switch from one investor's input data to another with only a couple mouse-clicks.
I am now retired from commercial real estate development and brokerage, but still use the software regularly as an investor.
I have found that commercial lenders and appraisers are very impressed with the presentations, which makes getting the appraisal and loan easier. They are impressed because the analysis is in-depth, attractive, and it's done much of their work for them (income analysis), which I think they appreciate.
I highly recommend the software for income property investment analysis.
If you would like to see the projects (large apt complexes and assisted living facilities) that I used the software on, see www.BondApts.com. At that site you will see New Westside Terrace Apartments. That is the first project I did (before I had the software). The other buildings you will see at my website were projects done using the software, which made them much easier and more economical (saved many thousands on my CPA bills per building project). My current project is River's Edge Condominiums.
Thank you, Charles Bond Sr.

Recommendations 2008-07-18T06:04:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Merlyn Rosell