Oakwood Realty Group has nearly 70 years of combined experience in commercial real estate. With deep roots in property ownership, property management, and brokerage, Oakwood has FLEXIBILITY to provide clients and their properties with high level expertise in many different areas.
Oakwood can be your eyes and ears at your property, and function as the liaison between ownership and either tenants or vendors. We have the ability to oversee many aspects of the operation of your asset from a brokerage team to 3rd party vendors performing work on site. Our Asset Management skills allow us to supply the following services:
Oakwood has the ability to lease your property. We are well connected within the brokerage and tenant community, as well as apprised of market trends and forecasts. This allows us to maintain current market knowledge of trends. If ownership prefers a different brokerage team, then Oakwood will work with ownership to interview, hire, manage, and fire, if necessary, a brokerage team.
Oakwood is highly capable of selling your asset, if that is a direction ownership desires. We have deep skills in underwriting, valuation, comparables, market trends, capital markets, and contacts at lending institutions. Much like leasing, if ownership prefers to hire an independent third party investment sales team, then we will gladly help ownership to interview, hire, manage, and fire if necessary, a brokerage team.
Oakwood has made many contacts with all types of vendors over its decades of experience from snow plowers, landscapers, electricians, HVAC contractors, and many more. Because we have a deep list of vendors to contact, we are able to create bid sheets for any work to be performed at a property we manage. The bidding process will allow for Oakwood and ownership to review each bid and select the job that best fits the need. Oakwood will then manage the vendor and the job from start to finish, including payment and collection of Lien Waivers, thus relieving ownership from having to deal direct with these vendors.
At Oakwood, we pride ourselves on being a full service operation. Just like Asset Management, we will act as the buffer between ownership and tenants or vendors. Given our extensive history of many decades in this industry, we have formed a deep understanding of how important Property Management is, and therefore can provide the following services:
Through examination of rent rolls as well as tenant relationships, we can determine when lease rollover may occur and then create and execute a plan for either a lease renewal or leasing of an upcoming vacancy.
We are capable of working with tenants to renew their lease on behalf of and in the best interest of our client. Our leadership team has spent many decades in the commercial real estate industry which allows us to effectively understand leasing trends, market rents, market vacancies, negotiation skills, and how to effectively communicate with Tenants and clients in order to maximize the probability of successful lease renewal. Our goal is to have as high a percentage of tenant retention as possible as that only creates more value for the property and its ownership.
One of the many key components to managing an asset is the ability to understand what is going on there physically. We will make regular and routine visits to the property in order to ensure that there are no issues with either the physical nature of the property or with the tenants. By doing this, we will be able to keep ahead of any unforeseen issue that may arise.
Oakwood will set up an individual bank account for the property in conjunction with ownership. Once the account is open, we will be able to collect monthly rent from the tenants. We will send out a detailed monthly invoice to each tenant, so they understand what their charges are. Should there be a tenant that is having trouble paying rent, or has not paid rent, Oakwood will then engage directly with that tenant to either collect rent, or work with legal in efforts to give the tenant a 5 Day Notice or to evict the tenant.
We are first a provider of real estate services to clients. What will set us apart from the rest is our technology. We are able to connect our cellular phones to our email as well as our office landline, which means we are accessible at all times. This technology will help us respond quicker and more efficiently to either ownership, tenants, or 3rd party vendors.
One of the few most critical pieces to property ownership and management is accounting. Oakwood will be using specialized accounting software in order to achieve the highest level of service and ease of reading and understanding financials of the property. Oakwood is capable of accounting in these categories: accounts receivable, accounts payable, budgeting, reconciliations, bank account management, owner's distributions, and financial reporting.
We will review each lease for all tenants at a property for a client and then make a shortened detailed list outlining all critical pieces to the lease such as lease commencement date, lease term, lease expiration date, rent abatement, notice dates, rent, rent increases, options to extend, tenant improvement allowances, landlord work, CAM, exclusives, and any other critical pieces that an owner should be aware of in a short and easily read form. This will help both management and ownership in a quick retrieval of information.
Oakwood has the ability to act as Receiver on any property. We are able to step in on behalf of a Lender and quickly bring together a management, leasing, and then sales team in order to stabilize an asset and then prepare it for disposition. We will attend monthly court meetings to give status updates on all aspects of the asset until we are discharged from our duty as Receiver.
We have made many connections throughout our decades of experience, including real estate legal representation. We have lawyers that can negotiate contracts or leases, protest real estate taxes, litigate, or work on evictions. In the event that a client needs legal representation, Oakwood has the ability to provide the necessary connections.
Oakwood Realty Group is a vertically organized company. We have in house abilities to provide clients with construction management services such as:
Oakwood can bid on, or receive 3 or more bids for comparison, for any type of construction job at a property from ground up new construction, capital expenditures, or routine common area maintenance.
Time is of the essence. The longer a project takes, the longer an owner has to wait for income. We will work diligently with 3rd party vendors on a tight timeframe in which a job must be completed by. We will create a timetable for a job and make sure that vendors are adhering to the schedule.
We will work with vendors and owners on budgeting for a job. This begins with understanding the scope of work and where the funds will come from to pay for the work.
Once a job is completed, we will inspect the job site to ensure that all agreed upon work is done to satisfaction pursuant to the agreement. If there are missing items, we will make a detailed list of such items and work with the vendors to get them completed before any final payment is made.
Upon completion and approval of work performed, Oakwood will diligently work with any and all vendors to obtain their Final Lien Waiver prior to final payment for services. We will not issue any payments to any vendor without a Lien Waiver or approval from ownership.
Once all Lien Waivers have been received and approved, all work has been completed and approved, Oakwood will request approval from ownership to process and make payments to any and all vendors from the property’s operating account.
Oakwood Realty Group is located in Lake Zurich, Illinois which is a northwest suburb about 30 minutes outside of Chicago. Because of our strategic location, we are able to easily make routine visits to managed properties and service commercial properties not only in the greater Chicagoland area, but also Wisconsin and Indiana. On a rare occasion, we can service a property in another state depending on the need of the client.