THE ANATOMY OF A AN OFFERING MEMORANDUM PART 1

OM Cover page with professional photography

After admiring hundreds of offering memorandums and noticing surging trends in CRE marketing, I wanted to highlight; what to me, are the most important aspects of a well-constructed Offering Memorandum.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Visual Summary: More and more, this section should do what the title claims…summarize the details of the property. Obviously, one must display the factual make-up of the property obtained from title (e.g. square footage, units, year built, lot size, apn, etc.), but it doesn’t have to be boring. One clever and refreshing way to demonstrate said information is using one of my personal favorite techniques: employ the use of icons to break up information and provide a strong visual representation.

Visual summary that can also serve as section break

The opportunity: I learned this concept about 10 years ago from my days at Berkadia (formerly Hendricks & Partners). In this subsection of the executive summary, one should briefly express the selling points of the asset, the location, or the potential of both. A different way to put it is, this should be an expansion of the property highlights, but should remain in bullet point format.

Photography: This is obvious, but often missed in the CRE realm. If there is one piece of gratuitous advice I constantly offer commercial brokers, is that they ought to take a page from residential agents on this. Residential agents understand the importance of investing in their marketing, especially when it comes to professional photography. Of course, not every listing merits expensive photography, but with so many options available, there is no excuse for an iPhone photoshoot on a listing. Some aerial photographers offer packages for as low as $75, while others have more options including ground shots and video components.

The importance of professional photography

Aerials: There is an opportunity of killing two birds with one stone here. There are some extremely talented drone pilots that additionally include ground-shots, and color correction in their packages. Look for a vendor that has a legitimate website, but also one that does his own work and does not outsource his projects. Aerials should capture local amenities and proximity to the subject. Checkout how we label and use aerials throughout our offering memorandums.

Plotted professional drone photography

Maps: Here are the maps that I deem imperative in any offering memorandum. Parcel map…I recommend a soft color border with a 50% transparency fill. Regional map should have a pointer to a zoomed in local map for brevity (see example below). Aerial parcel outline…I recommend using the same direction as the parcel map.

Aerial map highlighting the subject property and local amenities