There are various aspects of the industrial, commercial, and investment real estate market that make it significantly different from the residential one. Perhaps the overriding one is a relatively hardnosed, much more objective, and undeniably less simple and straightforward approach to what can be -- or ought not to be -- bought or leased. More specific considerations include the following:
-- lawn signs are more the exception than the rule
-- many properties aren't included in MLS databases (or even listed at all)
-- value is less easily determined (and there are different ways of deciding it)
-- financing a purchase can be difficult (the banks frequently don't begin to understand it!)
-- commission is quite often paid directly to the buyer's agent instead of being built into the offer price.
Market classifications
Although a very wide variety of properties makes up the total ICI market, they can be broken down into six broad classifications of interest on the part of purchasers and investors, as follows:
Accommodation (e.g. hotels, motels, inns, B&Bs, campgrounds, trailer parks)
Agriculture (e.g. farms, ranches, vineyards, wineries, greenhouses)
Land and development (e.g. building lots, subdivisions, condos, townhouses, high rises)
Leasing and rental income (e.g. office, medical, and multi-family buildings, student housing, nursing homes)
Manufacturing and distribution (e.g. factories, warehouses, transportation companies)
Wholesale and retail (e.g. shopping centres, strip plazas, boutiques, big box stores).
One common denominator
Each one of the different classifications has it own peculiarities and, as implied above, there are subsets to all of them. Moreover, they tend to involve different approaches when deciding prices, calculating values, and arranging for financing.
Nevertheless, there's a question that every purchaser and lessee is going to ask -- or should be asking:
What am I getting for my money and how close is it to what I want?
In some respects, this is no different than any residential purchaser wants to know, but the answers are often not as obvious as they deserve -- and need -- to be.
Searching the Web
Unfortunately, there's a decided dearth of sites that directly expand on my thoughts here. The focus is on commercial brokerages and, as I've already implied, they seldom discuss what's involved in selling or buying property the way that residential websites often do.
However, there is an intense discussion of investment possibilities at http://www.uslandco.com/. The first impression can be a No Money Down one, but it soon becomes apparent that there's a much more realistic account of what it's possible to do.
Any questions? Something not clear? Need more information?
Please feel free to contact me:
Phone: (905) 468-3154 / Cellular: (905) 704-9037
e-mail: ebb@iciniagara.com
Or use the feedback form on the Contact Me page.
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