In the real estate market today, owning commercial property can still be very profitable even though prices of properties have dropped. If you are the owner of a piece of commercial property, you'll still be able to make a decent income, but it will take some work. Owning commercial property comes with a lot of work and time invested.

Facility Maintenance

One of the main responsibilities that you have as a commercial property owner is maintaining the facility. When you have tenants in a commercial property, you must make sure that the property is kept up. This may mean making repairs, updating certain parts of the building, painting, plumbing and a host of other activities. Usually a company like Premiere Works needs to be hired to handle these commercial repairs and building updates. If you can handle this work yourself, it could save you quite a bit of money, but at the same time, it will require you to invest a lot of your own time. Also see http://www.premiereworks.com/services/construction/ for types of commercial construction services needed to maintain a commercial property.

Lease Terms

When you own a piece of commercial property, you also have to decide on a specific type of lease for your tenants. In the commercial property world, using a triple net lease is common. With a triple net lease, the tenant has to pay rent, property taxes, insurance premiums and maintenance costs. With this type of arrangement, you really don't have to do anything for the property. You just sit back and collect your rent every month from the tenant.

You could also choose to avoid this type of lease and handle everything by yourself. With a triple net lease, you will not be able to charge as much for rent since the tenant has taken care of most of the work for you. You could also use a double net lease or a single net lease in which the tenant takes care of one or two of these areas for you.

Considerations

When it comes to owning commercial real estate, you have to take into consideration the location of the property and who could rent it out. Only buy properties that are in good locations and that have many different types of potential tenants. Otherwise, you could end up with a property that you may not be able to use in the future.

Resources:

http://www.lni.wa.gov/TradesLicensing/Contractors/HowReg/

Premiere Works
5125 MacArthur Boulevard, NW Suite 13 Washington DC 20016
(202) 618-3099