Investor · Stamford, CT · Member since 2013 · 75 posts · 30 votes
Hello, I've gotten my feet 'reasonably wet' on home flips and now have gotten my first request to serve as investor on a commercial property. The opportunity happens to be a building of local bank that closed - small brick building on a busy commercial st.. My question is more general, however:
With any commercial project, it seems that knowledge of the type of business that will lease, the lease rate and other terms, the neighborhood and estimated customer density, stablity of the renter, all make a difference. The developer approaching me has ideas about this but I need independent validation. So, who do you ask?
Would a broker or undewriter involved in this type of property talk to me, out of the blue?
Would I need a specialist lawyer to negotiate the investment and lease?
Does the extra pre-deal advise get to be very pricey?
Are the online courses in commercial RE licenses worth much?
I plan to proceed cautiously with any commercial deals, but would greatly appreciate advice on how people switched to commercial.
You can go to CBRE on net and get city reports for individual reports Lease rates avg rates for area etc. In my opinion tenet credit worthiness is of upmost importance. I just closed om my first commercial retail deal.
Often local bankers will be a wealth of information. Just tell them you are thinking about a deal, describe it and see what they have to say. If they all roll their eye Vs. trying to write you a check, then the indicator will be pretty good. If you have time and are serious about the deal, make who eve is pitching the deal provide an appraisal. all the info on rents and market will be in there. Since this is your first rodeo, please hire an attorney and they may have local market data too. You are welcome to call me to cuss and discuss the deal.