Real Estate Services
Commercial Investment Sales in the DMV
Investment sales is the discipline of moving a commercial building from an ownership decision to a closed transaction at a defensible price. Levaru provides commercial investment sales services across the DMV — Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland — for owners selling and investors buying office, retail, industrial, medical, and mixed-use assets. What separates the work is where the numbers come from: we also maintain and manage commercial buildings every day, so our underwriting is built on real operating costs and real capital exposure, not a cap rate applied to a hopeful pro forma.
That operating background is the whole point. A sale price is only as sound as the net operating income under it, and net operating income is only as sound as the expense assumptions and the deferred capital nobody wrote down. We read those the way an operator does, because we are one.
Underwriting from the building up
Most offering memoranda underwrite from the rent roll down: take the income, subtract a tidy expense ratio, apply a market cap rate, print a price. It shows well until a buyer’s engineer walks the roof.
We underwrite from the building up. Before we set a value we read the actual service contracts, the preventive-maintenance history, the utility spend, and the near-term capital exposure — roof age, chiller and boiler condition, elevator modernization, envelope and parking-structure repairs. Those are the line items that move a deal in due diligence, and they are the ones we budget for a living through our facility management and projects and construction practices. A disposition priced on real economics survives the buyer’s inspection; one priced on fiction gets repriced, and the repricing always favors the buyer.
A building priced on an optimistic pro forma gets repriced by the buyer’s engineer. A building priced on its real operating numbers holds its value through due diligence. Pick the fight you can win.
What a disposition engagement covers
Selling an asset well is a sequence, not a sign in the ground. We handle the full arc: a broker opinion of value grounded in comps and the building’s real numbers, a positioning strategy for the right buyer pool, an offering package and populated data room, targeted and confidential marketing, buyer qualification, and negotiation through the purchase and sale agreement to closing.
Buyer qualification matters more than sellers expect. A high offer from a buyer who cannot close, or who is quietly planning to retrade after tying the asset up, costs you the one thing you cannot get back: time on market and the momentum of a clean process. We vet capital sources and track record before we recommend accepting, so the deal you sign is the deal that closes.
Acquisitions: buying on real numbers
For investors buying in the DMV, we run the same discipline from the other side of the table. We source on-market and, where relationships allow, off-market opportunities that fit your criteria, then underwrite them honestly. Our operating read is most valuable here: before you’re under contract, we can give you a grounded view of the capital plan a building actually needs over the next five to ten years, not just a summary of the seller’s reserve line. That is the difference between buying an income stream and inheriting a capital problem someone else deferred.
Through diligence we coordinate the property-condition assessment, reconcile the seller’s expenses against what the building will really cost to run, and flag the items worth a price adjustment or a seller credit. When the acquisition closes, the same firm can take over operations, so there is no gap between the underwriting assumptions and the team executing them under property management.
Documentation that protects the price
Every building we operate lives on Levaru’s own platform, and that record is an asset in a sale. Mechanical spaces are captured in browser-based 3D walkthroughs, equipment carries QR-coded asset tags with service history, and work orders close with photos in the client portal.
For a disposition, that changes the tempo and the trust of the process. Out-of-market buyers and their investment committees tour the asset the day the link lands, so a coast-to-coast decision stops being a three-week travel problem. And a building that can prove how it was maintained answers the questions that otherwise become retrade ammunition. Buyers discount uncertainty; a documented building removes the uncertainty, and the price holds.
Where we work
We cover Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland, with daily presence across Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Tysons, the District, Bethesda, Rockville, and Baltimore. Each of those is a distinct capital market with its own buyer pool and pricing logic, and we treat them that way rather than applying one regional cap rate to everything. We do not publish static market statistics, because they age badly and mislead; when you engage us you get a current, defensible valuation built for your specific asset.
Investment sales is one line of Levaru’s full commercial real estate services practice, alongside landlord representation, tenant representation, and market research. If you are weighing a sale or an acquisition in the DMV, we will give you a straight read on value and a plan to execute it. Request a proposal or call +1 (703) 646-8300.
FAQ
Investment Sales — common questions
What is a broker opinion of value (BOV)?
A broker opinion of value is a written estimate of what a property should sell for, built from current sale comparables, the building's income and expenses, and market conditions in its submarket. It is not a certified appraisal, which is a separate licensed product with its own standards, but it is the working number owners use to decide whether to sell, hold, or refinance. We ground a BOV in the building's real operating numbers rather than a market cap rate applied to an optimistic pro forma, because a value built on expenses the building cannot actually hit is a value that collapses in due diligence.
How is Levaru's underwriting different from a typical brokerage?
Most brokerage underwriting starts with a rent roll and a market cap rate and stops there. Ours starts with the building. Because we maintain and manage commercial properties every day, our underwriting uses real service-contract costs, actual preventive-maintenance budgets, and a grounded read on near-term capital exposure — the roof, the chillers, the elevators — rather than placeholder reserves. A disposition priced on operating fiction gets repriced by the buyer's engineer during due diligence; we would rather put the real number on the table first.
What does an investment sales broker charge?
Sellers pay a commission defined in a written listing agreement, typically calculated on the sale price and due at closing. On the buy side, the fee is often covered by the seller's side through the standard commission structure, though larger or off-market assignments are sometimes handled on a negotiated advisory basis. We put the structure in writing before any work starts, and we provide licensed commercial real estate services in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland.
Can 3D documentation help sell a commercial building?
Yes, in two concrete ways. A browser-based 3D walkthrough lets out-of-market buyers and their investment committees tour the asset the day they receive the link, without booking a flight, which keeps more capital in the process. And a documented building — photographed mechanical spaces, QR-tagged equipment with service history, a clean work-order record — signals to a buyer that the asset was actually managed, which shortens due diligence and protects your price. Buyers discount uncertainty; documentation removes it.
Do you represent both buyers and sellers?
Yes, but never both sides of the same transaction without written disclosure and consent. On a disposition we work for the seller: pricing, marketing, buyer qualification, and negotiation to closing. On an acquisition we work for the buyer: sourcing, underwriting, and due diligence coordination. If a building we have listed interests a buyer we also represent, you will know exactly who we work for and how we are paid before any terms are discussed.
Next step
Tell us about your building. We'll show you what we'd do with it.
Curious how it works? See how our 3D walkthroughs work →