All Forum Posts by: Lee G.

I would be looking at this generically as I don't think you want to run a salon or rent spaces/stations. It's nice that the salons around this can charge so much but unless I'm reading your original post incorrectly, you are a landlord not a salon operator. These are two distinctly different businesses. I'd be trying to look at the strength of your current tenants, identifying prospective tenants for your other spaces and have a clear understanding of where your breakeven point is in terms of rents and gross income. 

I bought Ray Alcorn's course on ebay and found it to be not worth the money... 

Call potential tenants! 

Couple thoughts - 

how is the access? Can people easily get in and out from both sides of the street? 

Which side of the street is it on in relation to daily traffic flows? Is it a side that most people go home on or into work on? 

How big are the traffic flows? Is it a major street? What is visibility like when you are driving by? 

How far away are other major shopping that will bring people near your center? Major shopping would include centers anchored by grocery stores all the way up to a major box center. 

What sort of other retail is around it? What is missing from that retail? This will help you determine your potential tenant list. 

Looking at that surrounding retail, where the rents at the similarly sized and positioned centers near you? How do you compare to these? You shouldn't look at the inline rents as they will most likely be higher. 

How fluid are your units? Can you demise a couple down to smaller spaces or combine a couple to make larger units? 

How about parking? How many spots? 

And then as you mention, the typical structural and mechanical stuff. Roof? Power options (can get get more power in for a tenant like a tanning salon)? HVAC and electrical condition? 

That's my general thought process when looking at retail. We own a similar center and love it. 

Thanks! It was fun. I like doing that sort of stuff, despite what I said! 

I'm looking forward to this! There are a ton of great people who come to this! 

I'd find a commercial broker to represent you in the leasing transaction. Like in a purchase transaction, the lessor will pay your agent a percent of the lease. You will almost always end up with a better lease this way. 

Maybe @Joel Owens has some advice on finding a good retail leasing agent? 

Joel is right about a 100K commercial deal being like a 10K house. They are out there but there is a reason why they are priced that way. I've found that the old adage of "location, location, location" is almost everything in a commercial deal. Sure you can buy a 100K office building but is it a place where your existing patients will drive to? Is it a place that will give you exposure to the patients you want? You need to be looking at more than the price if this is where you are going to practice. As an owner/user, you have more financing options available to you than an investor and these options tend to be a ton cheaper than pure investor loans.

One of my buildings is under contract and it looks like the buyer is going to need more time to complete the financing. We are supposed to close on Tuesday (two days from today) but they are coming around today (Sunday) looking for an extension to close. Their earnest money is hard at this point.

My remedy is a couple things:

1) Cancel the contract and pocket the earnest money ($10K)
2) Negotiate something and if so, what?

Part of me is thinking I'd raise the price $5K and close the deal. I'm not really happy about this last minute delay.

What would you do?

We specialize in student housing and have 32 students renting from us. It's tough but we just screen their co-signer versus the tenant. Just make sure the consigned has enough assets to cover your assets... Also you might look for more of a deposit. A half month's rent is thin.

And as this is a roommate for you, go grab a coffee and just shoot the bull for an hour. Make sure you have enough in common that you can more than tolerate him using your stuff and so on. Nothing is worse than a crap roomie.