BRAVE Fields for Retail Properties

Retail Properties and the BRAVE Standard

Retail properties — from neighborhood strip centers to regional malls — have income structures that differ significantly from other commercial property types. Percentage rent clauses, tenant sales reporting, common area maintenance charges, and anchor tenant economics all affect how BRAVE fields should be populated.

This guide walks through the BRAVE fields most relevant to retail appraisals and identifies the common mistakes that lead to lender rejections.

Property Identification

BRAVE organizes its 99 fields into 6 official categories (Job, Property, Income, Value, Appraiser). For retail properties:

• Property.Type: Set to "Retail". Use Property.Subtype to distinguish between neighborhood center, community center, regional mall, power center, single-tenant retail, etc.
• Property.Subtype: Further classify (e.g., anchored vs. unanchored strip center). An anchored strip center and an unanchored strip center have very different risk profiles.
• Property.NumTenantsCount: For multi-tenant retail, report the total number of tenant spaces (Int32).

Building and Site Fields

Retail-specific Property fields:

• Property.GrossBuildingArea and Property.NetRentableArea: For retail, GLA (gross leasable area) is the standard measurement. Report leasable area in Property.NetRentableArea.
• Property.ParkingType and Property.ParkingSpacesCount: Retail properties are particularly sensitive to parking adequacy. Typical ratios range from 4:1 to 6:1 spaces per 1,000 SF of GLA.
• Property.SiteTopography and Property.SiteFloodZone: Site characteristics relevant to retail value.

Income Approach

Retail income is more complex than most property types. BRAVE captures 16 Income fields:

• Income.RentalIncome: Base rent from all tenants.
• Income.OtherIncome: Percentage rent, kiosk income, temporary tenant income, and specialty leasing revenue. For retail centers with percentage rent clauses, this can be significant.
• Income.PotentialGrossIncome: Total PGI at full occupancy.
• Income.VacancyLoss: Should reflect both physical vacancy and credit loss.
• Income.EffectiveGrossIncome: PGI minus vacancy loss.
• Income.OperatingExpenses: Total operating expenses (BRAVE captures this as a single total; line-item detail for taxes, CAM, insurance, TI/LC remains in the PDF report).
• Income.NetOperatingIncome: EGI minus total operating expenses.

Note: BRAVE does not have separate fields for expense reimbursements or TI/LC. These details are captured in the aggregate income and expense fields. Detailed breakdowns remain in the PDF report.

For a complete walkthrough of income fields, see our BRAVE Income & NOI Fields guide.

Cap Rate and Valuation Fields

• Value.CapRate: Retail cap rates have widened significantly in recent years. The official validator enforces a 0-20% range.
• Value.DiscountRate: DCF analysis is common for larger retail centers with staggered lease expirations.
• Value.ReconciledFinal: The final reconciled value conclusion.
• Value.IncomeApproach and Value.SalesApproach: Individual approach conclusions.

Common Retail BRAVE Errors

Income field inconsistencies. Ensure Income.NetOperatingIncome equals Income.EffectiveGrossIncome minus Income.OperatingExpenses. The official validator does not enforce this, but lenders check it.

Incorrect area measurement. Using gross building area instead of gross leasable area in Property.NetRentableArea creates issues for per-SF calculations.

Validate your retail BRAVE submission with AppraisalAPI.com before uploading to catch formatting and completeness issues. For more on validation, see our Common BRAVE Validation Errors guide. To learn how BRAVE compares to other appraisal data standards, read our BRAVE vs MISMO vs UAD comparison.