Thoughts of office building/storefront for first venture?

[Stephanie Kelly]

I think this property is over our heads to get started with, but I wanted to get unbiased opinions from investment pros.

This is a storefront/office building, roughly 50% leased, with nearly all leases short term-1 to 2 years. Basically, we'd be putting down 50% of a purchase price which is just short of 1 million. The property is valued about 300K over that.

It needs some roof work, which the seller assures us falls under the warranty of the installer. There is also some water damage due to the roof issue. It's a high traffic area, but the viability of neighborhood is questionable-it's an older part of town.

Your thoughts would be very welcome. Keep in mind, we have no experience in RE investing or property management. Are we overambitious?