What do I do with this property?

[Keith Olson]

Hi, I have a martial arts business with my family in Tennessee. We purchased a piece of commercial property last year. It is in a great location and we had plans of putting our own business on the lot in the future. 

However, I would like to explore options for turning it into a cash flow property. It is about 1.5 acres and we need a 10,000sq. ft. building for our personal business. So, if we put our business on the property it would take up most of the space. The land is undeveloped at the moment. 

We are just getting started in rental properties and are very new to investing in properties and real estate. I am looking for ideas and advice for increasing cash flow and using this piece of property to its fullest potential.

thank you in advance.

Keith

[Dan Weber]

Well, if you had a single story building that is 10,000 sq.ft. on a 1.5 acre lot, that leaves you with 55,000 sq.ft. to do something with. Take away some of that for parking and what not, you still could have 40,000 to work with. I would start by going to the town/city and exploring the zoning to see what types of uses are allowed in that zoning district. That will help you narrow down the decision.