How do I buy a million dollar building?

[Kristin Horowitz]

Hi guys, here's my story: when I was in my early twenties, my husband and I started a non-profit climbing gym club that's flourished. We decided to expand to a new location and I have spent a year or so reading the forums, doing research, etc, and thought that it would be a good move to BUY the next property instead of lease (as someone with a non-profit, we lose everything if we walk away). We found a property with the help of a friend who is a commercial real estate investor, but the pressure was on to secure the lease rather than work out a deal. After nine months . . . we're finally on the cusp of opening it and the thought of buying it keeps coming up.

Thing is, we JUST bought our first house around the same time. We have no assets. We DO however have some friends who have assets that could help us buy this property (and the next one, too, we're looking to expand in five years to another location), but I feel like the key is in the ask.

What I'd need is the down payment - and while one way to do that would be to sell our house (it's appreciated $100,000k since we moved in thanks to our improvements), but I don't think either of us is ready to make that big step. The mortgage would come from what we're already paying in rent. The business is solid and it's a physical wall so it's not going anywhere. A good investment, but I don't know the best way to approach a potential co-investor or loaner or what have you with a deal that's worth pursuing. One of my mentors has said she'd loan me money to flip houses (because of how well we did with this house), but that's a lot of work and a lot of risk to try to get the money in this particular market. 

I've also never held property before - we just got the house and that's been an education, but commercial can be it's own thing, I'm sure. Benefit there is I've been renting commercial properties for ten years so I think I understand what's needed to keep costs low and profit up . . . but any thoughts you have would be MUCH appreciated.

We've got a 401k and IRA going to take care of us in our old age, but I'd much rather have properties when we retire rather than nothing, you know? We've got solid businesses, why not capitalize on it a la McDonalds?