With property characteristics unobserved or difficult to measure, there are returns to evaluation, due diligence and performance. Buyers can invest in observable human capital signals including location and experience that lower search costs. Buyers with local experience have lower search costs,...

This study investigates the impact of Internet usage on the financial performance of residential real estate brokerage firms using a database of over 1,700 observations. Factor loadings and a factor score for Internet usage are developed. The results show that Internet use is positively related...

This paper develops an option-theoretic model of a retail lease. The standard retail lease contains provisions for a security deposit, a base rent, and a percentage rent or a sharing between landlord and tenant of rent revenue above a preset sales threshold or break point level. The findings...

This paper explores the profitability of real estate franchises. The database for the study consists of observations from the National Association of Realtors©' 2001 survey of real estate brokerage firms. Franchises are found to generate additional revenue for franchisees. However, net...

An apparent paradox in household wealth accumulation in the United States is the relatively small holding of financial assets and the large holding of housing wealth. To explain the high concentration of household wealth in housing, this paper estimates the marginal propensity to consume from...

Quality commercial properties differ in operating performance not only on physical characteristics but in type of ownership, management, and control. For 1996?001 data on Atlanta apartments, a primary market for multiple types of investors, there is varying operating performance by ownership....

A model of the real estate market is developed where the rent-vacancy trade-off also embeds selections on expenses. High expenses and rents or low expenses and rents are explicit strategies, positioning properties along an efficient isoprofit frontier. Instead of a rent-vacancy trade-off, the...

The demand for investment for any asset including houses and apartments depends on a relative yield-price ratio. In an equilibrium structure, the yield-price ratio is shown to depend explicitly on interest rates, capital gains and the loan-to-value ratio. For U.S. quarterly data from 1986 to...

The financing structure of a shopping center is decomposed into an income security and two put options. These put options are respectively held by the borrower against the lender for default, and by the lender against an insurer or reinsurer. The prices of the put option depend on the...

This paper develops a valuation model of the real estate brokerage firm. A brokerage has a positive market valuation, while having a negligible book value. Options theory is used to value the firm. The firm writes an option by taking a contingent claim on income generated, through the commission...