A new forum for discussing issues in corporate and commercial real estate has emerged – Twitter!  A good friend of ours, Jason Sandquist, has started a weekly tweet-chat session to discuss issues pertaining to end users and services providers in the commercial real estate space.  Each week a different moderator facilitates a discussion with hundreds of real estate professionals from around the world.

The chat takes place every Friday at 2pm EST.  To participate:

1. Sign up for a Twitter account
2. Go to www.crechat.co for a filtered view of the conversation.
3. If you use Tweetdeck or Hootsuitesimplify the experience by filtering the #crechat hashtag into one stream or “column”.
4. For additional info check out 12 Most Helpful Tips for Conversing in a Twitter Chat.

We are especially excited for this week’s chat because Visual Lease’s COO, Chris Werely , will be moderating the discussion!  He will be focusing on this upcoming changes to lease accounting under the FASB.

During the CoreNet Summit, Chris Werely spoke with Duke Long about how Visual Lease makes it easy to manage leases on the iPad.  Duke is a popular commercial real estate blogger.  Please check out the video and visit www.dukelong.com.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Tomorrow’s webinar will explore the underlying theory behind the proposed FASB changes.  IFMA, a professional association for facility management professionals,  and Visual Lease’s President, Marc Betesh, will outline the potential ramifications and offer advice as to best prepare for the impact.

Topics Include:

1. Why the Changes Were Proposed
2. What Will Change
3. Impact on Lease vs. Buy Decisions
4. Treatment of Gross vs. Net Leases
5. The Most Current Updates/Deliberations/Alterations Made to the Original Exposure Draft
6. How to Start Preparing Now

Background:
Last August, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) sent shockwaves through the commercial real estate world when they proposed significant changes to how leases must be recorded in a company’s financial statements.  Although the Boards continue to deliberate, every major company (any company that follows GAAP) will be impacted by the upcoming changes.  At a minimum, substantial attention and manpower will be required to comply with the new rules.  But the changes could also impact such decisions as whether to lease or buy or how buildings will be serviced.

The Chicago Summit has kicked off with a great turnout, learning opportunities and networking.  Marc Betesh and Chris Werely sat down with Duke Long today to talk real estate technology and the upcoming lease accounting changes.

Check in at www.dukelong.com for the full video.

Marc Betesh and Chris Werely are headed to Chicago this weekend for the CoreNet Global Summit. If you are headed to the summit, say hello. If not, stay tuned to the Visual Lease blog for daily updates on the topics of conversation, speakers and other real estate buzz. We are very interested to learn how end users are preparing for the FASB’s changes to lease accounting.

We are expecting to see more people using iPad’s and contributing to the social media updates coming out of CoreNet. We will definitey be showing off Visual Lease on the iPad!

We recently had the opportunity to chat with Duke Long and Jason Sandquist from CREpodcast about the proposed FASB/IASB lease accounting changes and how all parties can prepare.

Marc and Chris drop some serious information on what could be a coming storm if businesses, tenants and commercial brokers are not prepared. We discussed the impact on the industry as a whole – as well as what the affects will be for both tenants and landlords in regards to how they handle lease accounting. They also fill listeners in on how to start planning for these changes and implementation strategies if the proposed changes do take affect.

Visit KBA Lease for more information on lease auditing and don’t forget to check out their blog as they keep it up-to-date with all the latest news as well as Visual Lease, which is the offers some of best leasing management software around.

Listen online

Download for free in iTunes

Download the mp3

Visual Lease’s management team, along with Grant Thornton recently hosted a webinar to address the impact on corporate real estate under the FASB/IASB’s proposed lease accounting changes.

The presenters include some of the country’s top real estate lease experts, Marc Betesh and Lou Ferro, as well as Gary Illiano, National Partner at the CPA firm Grant Thornton.

If you were not one of the hundreds who attended, and would like to watch the replay and download the slides, it is now available. Please click here or on the image below.

Marc Betesh and Christopher Werely will be interviewed by crePodcast’s Duke Long and Jason Sandquist on February 23^rd.  CrePodcast (Commercial Real Estate Podcast) covers news from every aspect of the real estate industry and features real conversation from industry leaders around the world.  Past interviews include Stephen Spooner, Executive Chairman of OSCRE, Mike Manning, VP of Marketing at LoopNet, and Garret Krueger from ROFO.  An archive of past podcasts is located here.

The February 23^rd podcast will focus on the upcoming lease accounting changes and what can be done now to prepare.  This interview continues a string of interest in KBA’s expertise on this topic from trade associations, service providers, and major corporations.

Duke Long is the owner of The Duke Long Agency in Indianapolis, IN and is the author of the popular one of the most popular real estate blogs.  Jason Sanquist is a Real Estate Client Advisor at Adam Commercial Real Estate in Minneapolis, MN.

Visual Lease’s President, Marc Betesh and COO, Chris Werely will be attending a joint FASB/IASB public round table today in Norwalk, CT to discuss the changes to FAS 13 lease accounting.  Marc Betesh has been invited to participate is the discussion, joining other real estate and accounting executives from Ernst & Young, KMPG, Toys R Us, AIG, SEC, Xerox and others.  The participants will have the ability to voice their opinions and concerns directly to the boards.

We will be blogging live and listening carefully to determine the boards stance on some of the controversial issues impacting commercial real estate, like determining the longest possible term.

Follow us live on Twitter at @VisualLease and @LeaseAudit

Click here to learn how Visual Lease’s software and consulting services can help you prepare today for changes to FAS 13.

Tuesday’s sessions started early with the hottest topic for corporate real estate end users and service providers – the future of FAS 13.  The room was packed with 150 people, almost a mega session itself.  Richard Podos from Lance and Russell Howell from Johnson Controls led the discussion.  Many of the questions and much of the debate was over how lease terms would be treated under GAAP.  Under the new rules, a lessee will have to determine the longest possible term that is most likely to occur.  This includes options to extend or terminate the lease.  The overwhelming response from the commercial real estate professionals in the room was the options in real estate leases should not be included in the term.

The moderators also made a plea for corporate end users to write their own comments and letters to FASB, as they will not accept group, association or form letters.  To learn more about how to comment visit the FASB website.

One of the fall-outs of these changes will be the necessity for companies to organize their lease information in a lease administration system.  Not only will the technology help manage the lease (critical dates, abstracts, reporting), but will also provide the tools to determine the ongoing obligations (most likely to occur).

To help our readers learn more about the upcoming changes, Visual Lease will be releasing a white paper outlining the full impact on corporate real estate.