Glossary

Occupancy Costs

Occupancy costs are the total amount of property-related expenses paid by a tenant for use of a particular space. Occupancy costs include base rent as well as expense reimbursements paid by the tenant such as CAM charges but excludes business operating expenses such as payroll and sales tax. To calculate a tenant’s occupancy cost, simply add all property-related expenses pertaining to the specific space.

Office Percentage

Office percentage is the percent of an industrial property’s square footage that is attributed to office usage. In scenarios where mezzanine office space been built above an area that would have otherwise been used for industrial use, the additional square footage is not factored into the total square footage of the building.

Official Settlement Account

An official settlement account is a type of account that a central bank uses to track its reserve asset transactions with other central banks. Types of transactions include those involving gold, foreign exchange reserves, bank deposits, and special drawing rights among other items.

Oligopoly

Oligopoly is a setting in which a small number of individuals or firms restrict outputs and/or restrict prices to derive market returns. There is no exact upper limit on the number of individuals or firms involved in an oligopoly market structure, but the actions of one firm must have significant consequences on others in order for an oligopoly to exist. Instances of oligopoly over the course of history include steel manufacturers, oil companies and wireless carriers. In each of these environments, high costs of entry allow for a select group of producers to dominate a market and obtain significant power in the pricing and production of goods and services.

Opec

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) consists of 14 of the world’s oil-exporting nations. Founded in 1960, the organization was created to coordinate distribution of one of the world’s most valuable resources and avoid massive price fluctuations that would negatively impact national and global economies. The organization is a cartel. Created in Baghdad in 1960, founding member nations were Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Since its inception, the organization has added nine additional members: Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Angola, Congo and Equatorial Guinea.

Operating Expenses

Operating expenses are the actual costs associated with operating a property including maintenance, repairs, management, utilities, property taxes and insurance.

Operating Expenses, Fixed

Fixed operating expenses are the actual costs associated with operating a property that do not vary in the short term. These costs do not change with a property’s occupancy rate. Property insurance is a common example of a fixed operating cost.

Operating Expenses, Variable

Variable operating expenses are the actual costs associated with operating a property that vary in relation to a property’s occupancy rate or volume of some activity. Utilities are an example of a variable operating cost.

Operations Management

Operations management is a monitoring activity with the goal of increasing operational efficiency. This means cutting out waste while maximizing revenues. As a company creates finished products from materials and labor, operational management monitors this entire process for any inefficiencies. Once inefficiencies are identified, operational managers suggest methods for eliminating them. Some examples of company activities that operational management is concerned with include plant/factory maintenance, input procurement, inventory and raw materials shipping, inventory control, quality assurance, and equipment maintenance. As you might imagine, an operations manager must understand all facets of the business, along with local and global trends as they relate to the business.

Opportunistic Property

Opportunistic properties exhibit the greatest risk but highest potential returns within the four major commercial real estate risk profiles

Opportunity Cost

Opportunity cost represents the benefits an individual or business forgoes when it makes one decision in place of another. Opportunity costs are oftentimes unseen in that the consequences of choosing not to pursue one strategy in place of another, but individuals and firms can benefit greatly from working to quantify the cost of not pursuing a particular option.

Opportunity Zone

An Opportunity Zone is an economically-distressed community (see also “low-income communities”) where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment.

Opportunity Zone vs. New Market Tax Credits

Although there are similarities between the Opportunity Zone Program and the New Markets Tax Credit program, a crucial difference will be in underwriting the potential financial success of the low-income community businesses in which an Opportunity Fund invests.

Ordinary Income

Ordinary income is the income earned from providing services or the sale of goods. Ordinary income is composed mainly of wages, salaries, commissions and

Organizational Structure

Organizational structure allows companies to effectively communicate between internal groups and carry out activities necessary to the company’s profitability. An organization can be arranged as centralized or decentralized. In a centralized organization, information flows from the top (management) down (employees who carry out tasks). In a decentralized organization, such as a startup, information flows in many directions. There isn’t a wrong or right answer in choosing a centralized vs. decentralized structure. Younger companies may choose a decentralized structure as it allows them to move more quickly. Generally, as companies mature, they move to a centralized structure. Having an organizational structure in place is necessary for the efficient operation of a company. Otherwise, communication can devolve into chaos, and ultimately lead to the company’s demise.

Original Use

In order to qualify as a qualified opportunity zone business property (QOZBP), property acquired by a QOF or QOZB must satisfy the requirements of an “original use” test or a “substantial improvement” test. Original use is defined as the date on which the property is placed into service in the QOZ for purposes of depreciation or amortization. Additionally, original use and substantial improvement requirements do not apply to land. Suppose a QOF acquires a property in a QOZ that is worth $20 million, where the actual building is worth $14 million and the land is worth $6 million. In order to meet the substantial improvement requirements, the QOF must add $14 million of basis to the property within a 30-month period in order for the property to be treated as a QOZBP.

Origination Fee

A fee charged by a lender for processing your loan application. Similar to a broker’s commission, an origination fee is the Lender’s way of getting paid for its services. Origination fees range from 0.5% to 1.00%, and are often negotiated with the terms of the loan. In situations where a borrower desires a lower origination fee, the lender may demand an increase in the interest rate. Origination fees usually represent a higher percentage of smaller loans, as the lender is looking to make their time spent worthwhile.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a practice of a firm hiring third-party labor to replace services previously performed in-house. Firms typically use outsourcing to significantly reduce labor costs by enlisting the help of an outside organization that has the capacity to perform the service or production of a good at a materially lower cost. Outsourcing can also help a business to focus more directly on its core operations.

Outstanding Check

An outstanding check represents a check that hasn’t been cashed or deposited by the recipient or payee. Outstanding checks can have two different states. One state is that the payee has the check but hasn’t deposited or cashed it. The other state is that the check has not yet reached the recipient and is still in the payor’s bank-clearing cycle. An outstanding check is a liability for the person (i.e., payor) who has written the check. They must make sure that enough money remains in their checking account to cover the check until it is paid. The payee may cash the check immediately or might hold onto it for months. Checks that remain uncashed for long periods of time are called stale checks. Eventually, these checks will become void. This period can range from 60 days to six months. Sometimes a payee forgets about the check or loses it without notifying the payor. The payor has no control over when the payee will cash or deposit the check. The only thing the payor can do, for a fee, is stop payment on the check. When this happens, the check becomes void. The payee cannot cash or deposit the check once a stop payment has been issued. The payer’s bank has no way of knowing that a check has been written until the payee deposits or cashes the check. This puts the burden of tracking the check on the payor. Besides the liability it creates, the payor may forget that they wrote the check and spend money allocated for the check. When the payee cashes the check, and their bank tries to pull funds from the payor’s account, the payor will get hit with an overdraft or non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee. The payor must then deposit funds to cover the check. The payor can void these fees using overdraft protection on their checking account.

Overdraft

An overdraft is an issuance of credit to a borrower from a lender at a time when the borrower’s account balance goes to zero. The issuance of an overdraft allows for the account holder to continue to withdraw money despite the absence of sufficient funds to cover the withdrawal. The bank or financial institution charges an interest rate and/or a fee in the event of an overdraft.

Overhead

Overhead is a business cost that can’t be associated directly to the production of a product or service. It’s a necessary expense of operating a business. Overhead expenses include utilities to operate a building, employee salaries, insurance, rent, administration, and taxes. Overhead expenses show up on the income statement. Overhead expenses must be factored into product costs when setting a price for a product. The difference between the product price and cost is profit. If overhead expenses are left out of a product’s cost, the result will be a smaller profit or even a loss on the product.