First CRE Purchase - 8,200 sq ft vacant building

[David Paul Grau]

Investment Info:

Office Space commercial investment investment in Portland.

Purchase price: $2,200,000

Purchased a 8,200 sq ft commerical building that was in desperate need of updating. It had just lost its one tenant that had been in the building for 20 years. We have completely renovated the space and got the price-per-square-foot up significantly.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Wanted to diversify the portfolio

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Traditional CRE broker we retained - but given the building was completely empty and the seller had a 1031 they didn't want to miss out on, we were able to negotiate the price down a bit and get some additional concessions at closing.

How did you finance this deal?

All SBA for this one!

What was the outcome?

It was a LOT of work and long nights, and a lot of capital invested to get the building activated, but finally getting tenants in and cash flow.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Don't buy an empty commercial building if you've never done commercial before!