Hello from Chicago! Arts non-profit investing in its future.

[Bryce P.]

Hello from the windiest of cities!

My name's Bryce and my wife's is Kendra. Together we are in the process of incorporating and registering a 501c3 community arts non-profit. In brief, we seek to offer mixed discipline low cost to free services for artists, as well as educational services for students and apprentices.

As such, our investment might be unconventional to what is normally posted here on BiggerPockets. Then again, it might not. I was encouraged to post here by a couple of users on the various real estate subreddits and figured it is definitely worth a go. Cursory reading shows that this community is incredibly positive and knowledgeable and I look forward to putting into it as much as I am given -- at least, once I better learn the concept and industry! For now I am as green as they come.

We are looking to invest in a commercial / industrial building to best position our non-profit and ensure it has a bright future. As one of the greatest threats to any arts-oriented business or, especially, non-profits is the rising cost of renting, we feel that total ownership of a property would allow us to better invest in the opening, operation, and far future expansion of the program. Eliminating rental expenses and minimising or eliminating property taxes (especially in Illinois!) would, for example, allow us to offer far more services at the lower cost and free end of the sliding scale. Further, far future expansion will be far easier if we plan and invest for it now and execute the plan when needs arise.

Given that we have both long been involved in various DIY communities, and that so many brokers don't just walk but run away from both non-profits as well as individuals with lower end budgets, we've decided to do almost everything ourselves. From scouting to purchasing to renovation to operation. Every dollar not spent on something we can do ourselves is a dollar that can be put towards the program instead.

That certainly doesn't preclude collaborating with other professionals (or I wouldn't be here!) -- I'm not a lawyer, so I've hired one that came very highly recommended -- but after working with numerous brokers who saw no value in us, our program, our desired location (West and South sides = best sides!), our budget ($300,000 cash or lower), or our money, we've come to the conclusion that being hands on and extra involved in the process is the only way to ensure our success. I'm sure that's why BiggerPockets was recommended to me numerous times -- it appears that so many of you are equally hands on and invested in your own success! Both as individuals and as professionals.

And that, to conclude, is exactly what I hope to learn from participating in the community at BP: how to perform every step of the process as if we were a professionals ourselves (or how to locate the very best professionals among the large pool of available talent to collaborate with) so that our already thin budget can go as far as possible. Questions galore and even more voluminous searching and reading of others' past experiences.

Hope this wasn't too long -- I always figure information overload is better than leaving you guessing. Thanks for reading!

Bryce