So, you’re looking around to buy a property for your business, in your mind you know exactly what you want, exactly what you need and all of your focus is on finding that exact property The most common thing people forget to do when purchasing commercial property is to have a good understanding of what happens if and when they need to sell or lease the property. At some point in time you won’t need that premises for whatever reason, your business shuts down, you need to expand or maybe you need to downsize. When purchasing a property, whilst the main focus is to ensure it works productively for your business, there needs to be a small token of emphasis placed on that property also being suitable for the next person. All too regularly do we as agents walk into properties that have worked extremely well for one type of business, only for that business to vacate and the property sits empty for a long time. It may be because of various reason, there may be too much office space for an industrial shed or copious square metres of storage mezzanines or limited access for large vehicles. Once a business moves out a commercial decision needs to be made and appropriate advice needs to be made from experienced real estate agents in that area as to what is most commonly required in the current market. By educating yourself on the market and what is needed it can reduce time on market and in some instances increase value by providing a building that is desired in the marketplace.
Murphy’s law is not a reason to leave things in a property. Owners tell me they will remove a mezzanine if it’s not needed or reduce the amount of office if not required. The reality is in most cases if these things are done in the first place there will be less negative responses from prospective tenants and buyers at inspection time. If a tenant requires more office, more mezzanine or more power and it’s not there either because you removed it after the previous tenant left or not, they will spend the money to install it as long as they can see that the base building layout works. Don’t work on assumptions work on facts. Experienced agents should know what is needed in each type of property. Ask the questions and when it is that time that you don’t need that property anymore get the property positioned correctly ready for sale or lease.
Phil Grant – Director Commercial Sales & Leasing
NAI Harcourts Pinnacle