Finding commercial properties with potential added value
July 16, 2008
Attention all those house flippers out there: sick of depreciating values, and looking to transitition into the world of the big boys in commercial world?
Good news — it is just as easy. The only difference is that you will need to rely more heavily on your real estate agents.
In commercial real estate, entreprenurial investors are in fact very rare, and real estate agents are very excited to work with you. You need to speak the code (saying you want “value-added” properties), and some of it will have to be pretty self-directed.
Real Estate agents will be able to tell you of any deals that have hit market, but as you know from house flipping, the best deals are not yet on market. Cruise the streets until you see a piece of commercial real estate in need of some TLC, write down the address, and then send it over to your real estate agent. He will then perform a reverse title search, and get you in contact with the owner…from there, you know the deal.
Real Estate agents will often test you — sending you only a mediocre idea, to see what your threshold for value is. But if you are firm and polite, you will get your way.
