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I recently became a CCIM Candidate and thought I’d put up a little info on what that means. CCIM stands for Certified Commercial Investment Member - only 8,600 people in the world have this designation and here is why: It’s difficult and expensive and takes a lot of time. If you can get the designation in 2 years that would be considered very quick.

There are four week long courses taught in different places all around the world and you have to complete a substantial portfolio of work as well. Once you’ve done all that you get to take a final exam. The process has been likened to getting a PhD in Real Estate. See the details here. I recently finished CCIM 101: Financial Analysis and got 100% on my test - thereby becoming a candidate.

If you are thinking about Commercial or Investment property I can help you with the additional education, experience, and network of people and resources I now have available. If you are a residential agent I would be happy to help your client with their commercial needs.

Nick

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Let’s face it, 2007 is almost over, people are taking down halloween stuff and people are gearing up for Christmas and Hanukkah etc… So lucky me I was invited to attend an economic forecast for 2008 last week in fancy Lake Oswego with crystal ball seer and Duke PHd Economist Bill Conerly.

Some interesting facts: Bill gives a national recession a 1 in 4 chance with a vote that it likely will not happen. Recessions are also getting less frequent and less severe historically speaking. [This is Good News]

How to deal with a recession in four easy steps:
1. Assess your company and sectors vulnerability
2. Have an early warning system
3. Have a contingency plan [going on vacation doesn’t count]
4. Make sure you remain flexible

More cool number to know:
1. In the NW population growth is 1.5% annually - Nationally it’s 1% [we win]
2. 14% of homes in the US are vacant - this sounds really scary until I tell you that since 1965 it’s been about 12%
3. Economic value is now intellectual [software] rather than physical [coal mines] which means that jobs follow people now and not the other way around. This is why Portland had it’s biggest in-migration in 2002 when the unemployment was the highest.

If you want to learn more I suggest you read Bill’s book Businomics

I’m currently reading The Tipping Point

The bottom line is that while the rest of the country was building like “crazy” we were building like “really excited” so now that the market is trending to a buyers market we have less inventory than other areas to eat through. We also have a modest median home price that continues to fuel positive population growth [this is good]. We also have a magical security blanket known as the Urban Growth Boundary so we can’t do 10,000 home subdivisions [like Arizona]. Learn more about the Urban Growth Boundary here.

For people who want to read a huge and detailed report on the third quarter in Portland this is a must read

Thanks for stopping by to read this - please feel free to call me if you have any questions.

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