Determining Rent for Commerical Property In Binghamton NY

[Chad Kastel]

Hello Fellow Landlords,

I purchased a two family residential property (vacant) that has a commercial unit on the property but complete separate (occupied by a pet grooming store). This is in Binghamton NY.  The grooming store has occupied the location for 5 years.  After an inspection they have kept the place in good shape.   They have changed the property to suit their business, but the did it in a way in which it would be easy to convert it back to normal without much time or expense.    I don't know how to analyze commercial rent for square footage and I have two questions:

1. Can anyone suggest a website (like trulia) that can help me determine what fair market value for rent is for a commercial space

2.  In the abstract I would like to keep these tenants.  They are good wholesome people who pay their rent on time.   They pay $800 a month and can't afford to pay much more.   My question is what percentage of what would be considered fair rent would be mathematically incorrect to take no matter how good and stable the tenant.  For example if I knew fair rent was $825 and I'm collecting $800, I'm not going to raise rents at the moment and risk losing the tenant.  But if fair market was $1200, this would be easy for me to raise rents or try and find a new tenant.  I'm not sure where to draw the line?I have plenty of cash reserves and it would not kill me to lose the tenant financially.  But I also don't want the hassle of finding a new tenant who could potentially not be great.

Any help is appreciated.

[Ellie Perlman]

@Chad Kastel - a few good websites are rentometer and apartments.com. They are not perfect, but free. I'd advise you to focus on similar comps, meaning, properties within 1-3 miles radius and of similar vintage (5 years above/below the target property vintage).