Commercial Real Estate Resource Center

Welcome to Marvin Levin’s Tip Warehouse

I’m Marvin Levin, and I delivered my first Real Estate tips in a UC Berkeley extension class in 1960. Over the next 45 years, I worked with over 20,000 students, and coached some of the most successful real estate entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our many years of commercial real estate experience have generated some mistakes to learn from, and have resulted in some wonderfully useful information, collected here for the first time.

Enjoy this educational web site, and please, if you have a tip to share, send it in! I’ll be happy to give you credit as a contributor to this real estate resource for agents, brokers, lawyers, and others. If you’d like to get periodic advice updates, sign up for our e-newsletter. Thanks for coming by!

The P.O. Box 597 Story
Should advertising and direct mail try to sell the product, or just pique the readers’ curiosity and produce inquiries? I learned the hard way more than 40 years ago.

A Borrowed Marketing Lesson
Saving a property from foreclosure by applying the lessons of high-end car dealers, creating more traffic to a luxury rental site. This example illustrates out the difference between a salesperson and an order taker.

Beware Of That Form Note – It Can Bite
When we had neglected to put a discount provision for early payment in a note and lost $200,000, I learned a valuable lesson. There are a lot of items overlooked in standard off-the-rack “form notes.”

Wraparound Loans
You have probably had considerable experience with obtaining second loans on income property, but have you considered “wraparound” loans.

An “Out-Of-The-Box” Leasing Idea
The lease agreement for an industrial space is about to be called off when some strategic thinking saves the deal by handling the tenant objections and proposing creative lease terms.

You Can Rehab Land Parcels As Well As Buildings
A painful lesson in taught me that while I understood how to rehab homes and income property, I was yet to learn how to rehab land parcels.

The Salary Vs. Commission Decision
A salesperson at a San Jose, California property shows how commission can motivate talent, and offers some clever responses to common apartment rental objections.

A Little Anticipation Might Produce A Big Reward
When planning for framing, rough plumbing, and other construction, a little upfront planning now might save a lot of expense later.

A Management/Option Contract To The Rescue
How to secure a property for a minimal down payment in an inflationary market? A clever solution from my friend and colleague, Bob Kagan.

The Eleventh Commandment
Sellers are not necessarily unreasonable in demanding a quick closing before entitlements can be granted. However, that is not necessarily good judgment with the proliferation of neighborhood, regional and state-wide development protest groups.