over 5.5 million<\/a> commercial buildings in the United States. Those buildings are used for a variety of purposes from housing fast-food chains to post-production studios.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you’re a business owner or a real estate investor, you may have your eye on commercial properties right now. Having your eye on something and knowing whether or not it’s a good buy though are two very different things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To help give you confidence in purchasing commercial property, no matter what your intended use for it is, we’ve compiled a quick checklist of items that you should go through to ensure that the property you’re interested in is worth your while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
1. Know Your Purpose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Before you dive into purchasing commercial property, you need to understand why you want it. That’s because a commercial property will present different tiers of value when bought for investment purposes versus business purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Knowing your intention can help you reduce the number of property choices that you need to look at and will ultimately guide you towards your intended end the fastest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. The Property Is Equipped for Your Needs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you’re trying to buy a commercial kitchen, purchasing commercial property that’s intended for warehouse storage, no matter how good the deal, is a bad deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walk through a piece of commercial property that you’re intending on using for business purposes. If possible, tour it with key members of your team that can advise on its usefulness from their perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the day, if you have to pay slightly more to find a property that’s perfectly suited for what it is that you’re buying the property for, that money will likely be cash well spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. There’s Room to Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Every business operates in hopes of achieving growth. If you buy a commercial property that can suit your business needs today but won’t be able to accommodate you after growing of the course of 5+ years, you may have to turn over your property faster than expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Try to frame your purchasing commercial property state of mind around how your business looks down the road, not what it looks like today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Its Location Doesn’t Inhibit Business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We’ve seen first hand the nightmares that location oversight can cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, if you’re a warehouse that stores merchandise that’s shipped to the airport for global transport on a daily basis, no matter how cheap the property you buy is, if it’s far away from the airport, you’re going to spend millions over the course of your life in high transit costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bottom line, understand what your optimal location looks like to keep customers coming in the door and costs down. Find a commercial property that enables those ends as best as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. All Structural Liabilities Have Been Accounted For<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When purchasing commercial property, you’re purchasing its structural problems. This is dissimilar to leasing property since with a lease, you can demand that your landlord fix your building’s issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s okay to buy a commercial property that has some bumps and bruises. Often times, it’s those properties that represent the best deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just be sure that all of your building’s quirks have been accounted for, priced and outfitted into your offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A good building inspector can help you to that end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Parking Has Been Assessed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Does your commercial property need a parking lot to operate effectively? If so, how big does the lot need to be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Understanding your parking requirements can help you eliminate a number of properties on the market from the onset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. The Price is Right<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This is an obvious buying commercial property checklist consideration. You’ll want to do extensive research on other properties in the area, what they feature and what they cost. Then, by comparison, you’ll want to deduce how good of a deal your commercial property really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, even if your commercial property stacks up to comparables in the area, the market just isn’t right to buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While commercial property isn’t anywhere near as prone to fluctuation as residential property, there are still buyers and seller’s market trends that are worth paying attention to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you feel in over your head when it comes to commercial property prices, find your local Ari Rastegar<\/a>, commercial property guru. Then, shoot them an email and see if they’d be willing to give you some thoughts on the purchase you’re considering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n8. The Community is Stable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When communities change, so do properties. The last thing that you want to do is buy a commercial property, see your area decline rapidly and watch its value evaporate. Conversely, you don’t want to buy a warehouse only to find that the city wants to level it to beautify their community a couple of years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While it can be hard to forecast how an area’s makeup will change, looking at a place’s history is a way to draw inferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wrapping Up Our Purchasing Commercial Property Checklist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Take any piece of commercial property that you’re considering and run them through each of the bullets that we’ve laid out above. If you’re able to favorably rate your property against each of our points, you should feel confident buying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In many ways, purchasing commercial property is as much of an art as it is a science. Understanding if you’re going to get the most out of your purchase comes down to analyzing intangibles that only experts can fully gauge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, again, talk a professional before throwing down a big investment. Even if they charge for consultations, a few bucks now for good advice could save you thousands later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more business-focused tips, bury yourself in more of the invaluable information that we publish on our blog every week!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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