3 Details To Consider When Purchasing Commercial Real Estate

Posted on: 17 March 2019

If you're interested in expanding your space for your business or investing in a new business site, you may choose to purchase commercial real estate. Before you start submitting offers for potential properties, here's a few details to examine to make sure the property fits your needs.

1. Your Surrounding Neighbors

Ideally, the property's surrounding neighbors should complement what your business offers or at least blend in with your product or service. For example, if you have a store that sells clothing, it would be pretty out of place in a commercial building that houses medical offices. If your business is an insurance office, it wouldn't fit among a collection of breweries and bars.

Having a good mix of favorable neighbors can actually draw more people to your business. When someone stops at a neighboring business, they're likely to stop and peruse your business as well.

2. Parking Availability Near the Property

When researching a potential property, you need to look at everything the property has (or doesn't have) to offer. One detail to examine is the amount of available parking near the property. You want it to be as convenient as possible for potential customers to visit the property; if they can't find a parking spot, this decreases the likelihood that they'll patronize your business.

Even if it seems like there's a large number of spots, this may not be sufficient if you have businesses that host large groups of customers as your neighbors. You'll have to decide if the lack of secured parking is worth having a significant number of people go by your business. 

Assume that you operate a small bakery; one of your neighbors is a large bar that hosts live music. Parking is shared for all your neighbors. Though the bar may use more than its fair share of spaces, there's a decent likelihood that some of the patrons will stop by your bakery for a pre or post-show snack. 

3. The Level of Exposure from the Main Roads

If individuals traversing the main roads can see your business with ease, this can increase the amount of traffic for your business. Depending on your business, exposure may not be a concern. However, for other businesses, it's an easy way to potentially increase your drop-in traffic.

You should also check that it is easy to get to your business from the main road. Prospective customers might be less likely to stop if they can't easily calculate a path to get to your property. For more information, reach out to commercial real estate agents in your area.

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