commercial property management

[Aaron McCarty]

I've been managing my own residential properties as well as a few for others and I've recently been approached to provide my services for some commercial property. I'm really new at this and was wondering if anyone can give me some advise as to major differences between residential and commercial properties? I plan to meet with clients tomorrow who want to rent the place and all I have are my typical rental applications and leases I've been using for residential homes. I need to do some research tonight and come up with some commercial type contracts and figure out what all I need to consider. Your thoughts and advise would be greatly appreciated.

[Shane H.]

@Aaron McCarty

I assume you already had your meeting, however for your first commercial lease may not be a bad idea to bring in a commercial RE agent to help you out with the leasing/lease or involve an attorney familiar with commercial leases.  

As Joel said whole different ballgame.  Have you thought about whether or not your lease will be gross/triple net etc?  Is it a towing company or simply a repossession company?  

I've been involved in the insurance claims industry for some time now as well as working to transition to REI full time. Some tow companies are above the line and good to work with, some not so much. My only word of advice in dealing with some from my claims perspective is I'd take extra time to vet them and make sure they are a reputable operator (you could probably get a list of banks or car dealers they work for and then contact them to see what their reputation is/if it checks out...some of the banks or car dealers I may have contacts to provide you) ....one other thing to think about is the potential environmental impact as well...ie if they do start hauling wrecked cars, who's responsible for all the fluids leaking on the ground, could they potentially contaminate your property etc. If they are simply only in the repo business maybe not such big deal but something to think about.