ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

NOTE 1. ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

Organization

As used herein, the terms “TCI”, “the Company”, “we”, “our” or “us” refer to Transcontinental Realty Investors, Inc., a Nevada corporation. TCI is the successor to a California business trust which was organized on September 6, 1983, and commenced operations on January 31, 1984. Effective March 31, 2003, TCI’s financial results were consolidated in American Realty Investors, Inc. (“ARL”) Form 10-K and related consolidated financial statements.

The Company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and its common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “NYSE: TCI”. Subsidiaries of ARL own approximately 82.7% of the Company’s common stock. TCI is a “C” corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes and files an annual consolidated income tax return with ARL, whose common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “NYSE: ARL”.

TCI owns approximately 82.7% of the common stock of Income Opportunity Realty Investors, Inc. (“IOT”). Effective July 17, 2009, IOT’s financial results were consolidated with those of ARL and TCI and their subsidiaries. Shares of IOT are traded on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol “AMEX: IOT”.

TCI invests in real estate through direct ownership, leases and partnerships and it also invests in mortgage loans on real estate.  Prior to April 30, 2011, Prime Income Asset Management, LLC (“Prime”) was the Company’s external Advisor and Cash Manager. Prime also served as an Advisor and Cash Manager to ARL and IOT. Effective April 30, 2011, Pillar Income Asset Management, Inc. (“Pillar”) became the Company’s external Advisor and Cash Manager under the same terms as the previous agreement with Prime.  Pillar also serves as an Advisor and Cash Manager to ARL and IOT. Prior to December 31, 2010, Triad Realty Services, L.P. (“Triad”) managed the Company’s commercial properties and Regis Realty I, LLC (“Regis Realty”) provided brokerage services. Triad and Regis Realty are affiliates of Prime. Effective January 1, 2011, Regis Realty Prime, LLC (“Regis”), an affiliate of Prime, manages our commercial properties and provides brokerage services under the same terms as the previous agreements with Triad and Regis Realty for a term of five years. TCI engages third-party companies to lease and manage its apartment properties. We have no employees.

Properties

We own or had interests in a total property portfolio of 68 income producing properties as of September 30, 2011. The properties consisted of:

• 19 commercial buildings totaling 3.9 million leasable square feet, consisting of 11 office buildings, five industrial properties, and three retail properties;

• 49 apartment communities totaling 9,027 units; excluding apartments being developed; and

• 1,856 acres of developed and undeveloped land.

We are involved in the construction of one apartment complex as of September 30, 2011. In addition, we invest in several tracts of land and are at various stages of predevelopment on many of these properties. We partner with several third-party developers to construct residential projects. The third-party developer typically takes a general partner and majority limited partner interest in the development partnership while we take a minority limited partner interest. We are required to fund the equity contributions. The third-party developer is responsible for obtaining financing, for hiring a general contractor and for the overall management and delivery of the project, and is compensated with a fee equal to a certain percentage of the construction costs.

Basis of presentation

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in financial statements prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or GAAP, have been condensed or omitted in accordance with such rules and regulations, although management believes the disclosures are adequate to prevent the information presented from being misleading. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring matters) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. The results of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2011, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for other interim periods or for the full fiscal year. 

The year-end Consolidated Balance Sheet at December 31, 2010, was derived from the audited financial statements at that date, but does not include all of the information and disclosures required by GAAP for complete financial statements. For further information, refer to the financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010.  Certain 2010 financial statement amounts have been reclassified to conform to the 2011 presentation, including adjustments for discontinued operations.

Principles of consolidation

The accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of the Company, its subsidiaries, generally all of which are wholly-owned, and all entities in which we have a controlling interest. Arrangements that are not controlled through voting or similar rights are accounted for as a Variable Interest Entity (VIE), in accordance with the provisions and guidance of ASC Topic 810 “Consolidation”, whereby we have determined that we are a primary beneficiary of the VIE and meet certain criteria of a sole general partner or managing member as identified in accordance with Emerging Issues Task Force (“EITF”) Issue 04-5, Investor’s Accounting for an Investment in a Limited Partnership when the Investor is the Sole General Partner and the Limited Partners have Certain Rights (“EITF 04-5”). VIEs are generally entities that lack sufficient equity to finance their activities without additional financial support from other parties or whose equity holders as a group lack adequate decision making ability, the obligation to absorb expected losses or residual returns of the entity, or have voting rights that are not proportional to their economic interests. The primary beneficiary generally is the entity that provides financial support and bears a majority of the financial risks, authorizes certain capital transactions, or makes operating decisions that materially affect the entity’s financial results. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

In determining whether we are the primary beneficiary of a VIE, we consider qualitative and quantitative factors, including, but not limited to: the amount and characteristics of our investment; the obligation or likelihood for us or other investors to provide financial support; our and the other investors’ ability to control or significantly influence key decisions for the VIE; and the similarity with and significance to the business activities of us and the other investors. Significant judgments related to these determinations include estimates about the current future fair values and performance of real estate held by these VIEs and general market conditions.

For entities in which we have less than a controlling financial interest or entities where we are not deemed to be the primary beneficiary, the entities are accounted for using the equity method of accounting. Accordingly, our share of the net earnings or losses of these entities is included in consolidated net income. Our investments in ARL and Garden Centura, L.P. are accounted for under the equity method.

During the second quarter of 2011, we evaluated the non-controlling equity interests and made certain reclassifications among equity accounts to correctly reflect non-controlling interest.  In connection with that evaluation, we reclassified approximately $6.3 million of deferred gain to non-controlling interest related to the 2009 acquisition of the controlling interest in IOT, a consolidated entity.  These amounts have been reclassified for all periods presented in the consolidated financial.

Real estate, depreciation, and impairment

Real estate assets are stated at the lower of depreciated cost or fair value, if deemed impaired. Major replacements and betterments are capitalized and depreciated over their estimated useful lives. Depreciation is computed on a straight-line basis over the useful lives of the properties (buildings and improvements – 10-40 years; furniture, fixtures and equipment – 5-10 years). The Company continually evaluates the recoverability of the carrying value of its real estate assets using the methodology prescribed in ASC Topic 360, “Property, Plant and Equipment”. Factors considered by management in evaluating impairment of its existing real estate assets held for investment include significant declines in property operating profits, annually recurring property operating losses and other significant adverse changes in general market conditions that are considered permanent in nature. Under ASC Topic 360, a real estate asset held for investment is not considered impaired if the undiscounted, estimated future cash flows of an asset (both the annual estimated cash flow from future operations and the estimated cash flow from the theoretical sale of the asset) over its estimated holding period are in excess of the asset’s net book value at the balance sheet date. If any real estate asset held for investment is considered impaired, a loss is provided to reduce the carrying value of the asset to its estimated fair value.

Real estate held for sale

We periodically classify real estate assets as “held for sale”. An asset is classified as held for sale after the approval of our board of directors and after an active program to sell the asset has commenced. Upon the classification of a real estate asset as held for sale, the carrying value of the asset is reduced to the lower of its net book value or its estimated fair value, less costs to sell the asset. Subsequent to the classification of assets as held for sale, no further depreciation expense is recorded. Real estate assets held for sale are stated separately on the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets. Upon a decision to no longer market as an asset for sale, the asset is classified as an operating asset and depreciation expense is reinstated. The operating results of real estate assets held for sale and sold are reported as discontinued operations in the accompanying statements of operations. Income from discontinued operations includes the revenues and expenses, including depreciation and interest expense, associated with the assets. This classification of operating results as discontinued operations applies retroactively for all periods presented. Additionally, gains and losses on assets designated as held for sale are classified as part of discontinued operations.

Cost capitalization

Costs related to planning, developing, leasing and constructing a property are capitalized and classified as Real Estate in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. We capitalize interest to qualifying assets under development based on average accumulated expenditures outstanding during the period. In capitalizing interest to qualifying assets, we first use the interest incurred on specific project debt, if any, and next use the weighted average interest rate of non-project specific debt. We capitalize interest, real estate taxes and certain operating expenses until building construction is substantially complete and the building is ready for its intended use, but no later than one year from the cessation of major construction activity.

We capitalize leasing costs which include commissions paid to outside brokers, legal costs incurred to negotiate and document a lease agreement and any internal costs that may be applicable. We allocate these costs to individual tenant leases and amortize them over the related lease term.

Fair value measurement

We apply the guidance in ASC Topic 820, “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures”, to the valuation of real estate assets. These provisions define fair value as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in a transaction between market participants at the measurement date, establish a hierarchy that prioritizes the information used in developing fair value estimates and require disclosure of fair value measurements by level within the fair value hierarchy. The hierarchy gives the highest priority to quoted prices in active markets (Level 1 measurements) and the lowest priority to unobservable data (Level 3 measurements), such as the reporting entity’s own data.

The valuation hierarchy is based upon the transparency of inputs to the valuation of an asset or liability as of the measurement date and includes three levels defined as follows:

Level 1	–	Unadjusted quoted prices for identical and unrestricted assets or liabilities in active markets.
Level 2	–	Quoted prices for similar assets and liabilities in active  markets, and inputs that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly, for substantially the full term of the financial instrument.
Level 3	–	Unobservable inputs that are significant to the fair value measurement.

A financial instrument’s categorization within the valuation hierarchy is based upon the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement.

Newly issued accounting pronouncements

We have considered all other newly issued accounting guidance that is applicable to our operations and the preparation of our consolidated statements, including that which we have not yet adopted. We do not believe that any such guidance will have a material effect on our financial position or results of operations.