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How many times have we heard this stupid cliché? Why is it stupid? Because we would absolutely not operate on ourselves. But, comparing a medical procedure to educating ourselves and taking control of our own financial destinies are totally separate events or issues in our lives.

I would absolutely not represent myself in a court of law for a civil or criminal proceeding. But, I would read up on every piece of material there was if I was facing a law suit pertaining to contaminated property and owner rights and obligations. Without going into too many examples, the point I am trying to make is this… we have a duty to empower ourselves. We have to take personal responsibility for making sure we know what is going on with our personal wealth. Likewise, as a commercial real estate broker it is my duty to customers to try and give them my professional opinion regarding the real estate transaction.

Furthermore, I feel it is my duty to facilitate self empowerment to my customers. I think as a real estate professional, when I show that I care about my customers they will pick up on my care and concern for their well being. It's something you can't fake either. I, like many of you, have been burnt in this market. In the last 10 or 15 years we have been programmed to think that "the market" is going to provide this big retirement nest egg for all of us. How many prospectuses have we read that state "… if you had invested just $10,000.00 5 years ago you would have $80,000.00 today..." I know you have seen these marketing mutual fund tools time and time again.

Here is what I feel I have to do, in my humble opinion, as real estate professional. I have to show the consumer out there that commercial real estate should be the MAIN asset in their IRA and 401K plans. Why? Because you can't insider trade real estate. You can't have a hostile takeover with real estate. How many times have you ever heard of a commercial strip center overstating earnings? Never. Because it is a HARD, tangible asset. You can't monkey with it. You can't be lied to about occupancy right? You can't be lied to as a landlord about rent rates right? Sure you might have a management company managing the property for you, but if you ever have any doubts, you can always visit the property for yourself. You can see the rent rolls for yourself, also. The books can't be "cooked" on you like they can as a stock holder of a public company.

Commercial real estate is probably the one asset most responsible for creating generational wealth. What is generational wealth?; the passing down of stable substantial resources to future generations. The time is now to participate in commercial real estate and start to secure you and your family's generational wealth building. A lot of wealthy and smart people have a lot of money on the sidelines waiting to be put to work. I can't think of a better time in history to invest in commercial real estate than right now. A lot of generational wealth will be created in the next few years by smart, intelligent, and well informed investors that will be passed down for decades to come.

Commercial real estate provides both growth and capital appreciation. More importantly it can also provide a very nice income for you. As I have written in a previous column, there is no better commercial real estate property that provides a "great" return by today's standards than the single tenant retail NNN property. The returns that banks are paying for money markets and CD's are paltry compared to NNN properties. In a lot of cases we are talking three times a greater return. And with some of the banks talking about going out of business, just how safe are they really?

Self-empowerment is very important when it comes to your finances. Don't put your financial future totally in someone else's hands.

I would not operate on myself. I would do a lot of research on my condition. I would furthermore do investigation on the best medical professionals that would specialize in my condition.

When investing in commercial real estate, I would recommend to my clients 100 percent of the time that they seek legal counsel regarding their contract to purchase, rent, or lease. But, I would also recommend that they study, study, study. So they know what is going on. After all, who has the biggest interest in their investment success? Right again!


Carmine Tutera is president and CEO of Street Wise Investments Inc., a commercial real estate brokerage company located in Lake Mary.You can reach him at carmine@streetwiseinvestmentsinc.com.

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