Commercial and Investment Real Estate | John Lee, LPT Realty, West Central and Southwest Florida

What I work on

What I work on.

Twenty years of buying, renovating, and developing with my own money, plus a title company and a manufactured housing company.

Rental property

Long term holds and small multifamily

Single family rentals, duplexes, and small apartment buildings. The job is telling the difference between a property that produces income and one that produces a second job.

Land and lots

Infill lots, teardowns, development sites

This is the core of what I have done since 2006. What a parcel is worth after you price site work, utilities, and entitlements is usually a very different number from the asking price.

New construction

Build to rent and build to sell

Through TrueWay Homes I put manufactured homes on Florida infill lots, so I deal with construction budgets and timelines myself. I can tell you what a build costs and how long it takes.

Commercial

The commercial side.

Land and development is where my record is deepest, and the questions are the same in every asset class: what it earns, what it costs to hold, and who buys it next. My commercial investment companies, Cresouth and Peach State Properties, focus on small retail, shopping centers, net lease outparcels, and industrial property across the Southeast. Lineage Acquisitions is my multifamily company in St. Petersburg.

Land and development

Commercial parcels, assemblages, and development sites. Zoning, entitlements, impact fees, utilities, and site work. This is the deepest part of my experience.

Retail

Strip centers, outparcels, single tenant net lease, and owner user storefronts. Tenant quality, lease structure, and how much of the rent roll rolls over at once.

Office and medical

Small office, professional condo, and medical suites. Parking ratios, buildout cost, and what a suite leases for once concessions are counted.

Industrial and flex

Warehouse, flex, and light industrial. Clear height, power, truck access, and zoning that allows the buyer's intended use.

Multifamily

From small apartment buildings up. Rent rolls read against what units lease for, plus the insurance and capital expense numbers that decide whether the return holds up in Florida.

Mixed use and owner user

Buildings where the business owner is the buyer, and projects with more than one use stacked on one parcel. Financing and zoning both get more complicated.

Commercial due diligence takes longer and the problems are bigger. Owning a title company, I know to get survey, easement, and environmental questions looked at in the first week, whoever closes the deal. On a commercial parcel that can be the difference between a delay and a dead deal.

Underwriting

Underwriting you can check.

Every deal works on a spreadsheet if you choose friendly enough inputs. I show you mine so you can question them.

Real rents, from what comparable units are leasing for now.
Insurance, quoted. In Florida this is the line that kills deals underwritten on old numbers. Roof age, wind mitigation, and flood zone drive it.
Taxes after the sale. Your assessment resets. Underwriting on the seller's tax bill is one of the most common and most expensive mistakes I see.
Capital expenses based on the real age of the roof and systems.
Vacancy and turnover costs, because tenants leave.

If a deal only works when everything goes right, it does not work. I would rather tell you that early.

I make nothing on the deals I talk people out of. The ones I do bring you are ones I would consider putting my own money into.

The edge

Three things most agents have to refer out.

Title work on complicated property

Estate sales, partial interests, old liens, boundary conflicts, and parcels that have not traded in forty years. Running a title company taught me what each of those takes to clear, so diligence starts on day one.

What it costs to build

Site work, utilities, impact fees, and the construction budget itself. On a lot or a teardown, that is most of the analysis, and it is where an agent without development experience is guessing.

Who buys it

Part of my land work is finding lots and teardowns for the builders who develop them, so I keep track of which builders are buying in which areas and what they are paying.

Markets

Where I work.

The Gulf coast from St. Petersburg to Marco Island, and inland to Hendry County. These markets do not move together, which works in your favor if you are flexible about where you land.