Many nuances make purchasing a commercial property quite different from buying other types of buildings.
But once you’ve navigated some of the tricky parts of the process of buying a commercial building, it can be quite a lucrative venture. According to Forbes.com, owners of commercial properties can frequently make as much as seven figures on their investments if they play their cards right.
How to Buy a Commercial Building
The differences between the two types of property acquisition include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Occupants. Commercial building owners’ tenants generally include stores, restaurants, and other businesses instead of specific people. The exception to this rule is apartment complexes. In the end, a tenant is still a tenant, whether they are a business or a person. However, dealing with companies often requires different tactics than does dealing with individuals or families.
- Lease Components. In contrast to residential leases, commercial leases often extend for more extended periods. Additionally, commercial leases typically require tenants to cover liability costs, repairs, and upkeep of the space, along with rent each month.
- Lending Considerations. Regarding a home or residential property, lending ultimately comes down to how strong the tenant’s credit is. This differs considerably from commercial properties, where the commercial business’s net operating income or NOI is the primary consideration for lending.
- Property Value. It’s a reasonably straightforward process to provide a valuation on a residential property or home. This valuation is determined by comparing the sold property to other homes and residences that recently changed hands in the area in question. When it comes to commercial properties, the valuation is determined by the amount of money produced by the business.
What is the Process of Purchasing a Commercial Property?
buying commercial real estate
As with all big purchases, it’s best to follow a step-by-step process to ensure you aren’t getting into something you are not prepared for.
Scout the Area
If you’re conducting business in a specific location, you need to know more than just surface-level facts about the region. It’s essential to understand the area in which your commercial property is situated to attract the best possible tenants that will fill the needs of the community.
Of course, differences depend on the types of businesses or services which will be housed in your new commercial space. If your tenants don’t need to see customers face to face, it’s not critical that your building is located near densely populated areas. However, for foodservice operations and others who inherently need to interact with customers in person, you’ll want to ensure that people can access your building easily.
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Consider Your Advisors and Partners
You may have a real estate agent that you’ve worked with for years. They may have provided you with sound advice that has helped you grow your career exponentially. But if they don’t have experience in the commercial real estate arena, you’ll want to ensure that you carefully consider whether or not you should work with them on this project.
Commercial real estate’s legal, financial, and other aspects do not necessarily transfer from residential real estate or other fields. You work with your business, but make sure you have the right person when making decisions about a commercial real estate purchase.
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Perform In-Depth Research
Before you make any offers or go too far down the road of purchasing commercial space, ensure that you know the basics about how other commercial properties in the area have succeeded and failed in the past. Performing this analysis for your desired location will give you insight into what works, what doesn’t, and why.
Pay Attention to the Details
At this point, you’re getting close to purchasing your commercial property. As exciting as this is, you’ll still want to ensure you continue to use your commercial real estate team most effectively and take all necessary steps in the process. Through your commercial realtor, start making offers on properties. You and the rest of your team will also need to begin researching the necessary details of your properties of interest. These details include surveys of the land, monetary considerations, and lots of other information.
Make the Purchase
Once you’ve gotten to the final steps in the process of acquiring your commercial space, the job is not yet over. This is when you’ll need to start considering your financing needs. As far as your down payment is concerned, you’ll need to gather at least a 20%, but likely closer to a 30% down payment for the building.
Conclusion
If you are new to the field of commercial real estate, it’s a good idea to take your time and perform plenty of research on the subject. Following the above steps is a good starting point. However, you’ll need to spend considerable time talking to experts and generally figuring out how best to go about the process. Soon enough, you’ll be well on your way to purchasing a commercial building.
Hi! We’re Josh and Jolene Baijot, the creators of this website. We’re also commercial real estate brokers in Bellingham, Washington. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. We appreciate your time spent on this site. You can connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or contact us through this website.
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How to Buy Commercial Real Estate
It’s easy to hop online and start looking at properties you may want to purchase.
However, before you start investing in commercial real estate property, begin
investing in your commercial real estate knowledge.
