Building Equity With Commercial Property Investment

Building Equity With Commercial Property Investment

Equity is Money
Building equity is the primary if not the ultimate reason to buy instead of rent a commercial property. Let's face it. It's money in the bank. In fact, it's better than money in the bank because you can't get the same kind of return on your money when it's sitting in the bank as opposed to when you're building equity. Moreover, if you choose the right financing for your commercial real estate purchase, you can not only build equity through ownership, but you can also leverage your capital saving in order to grow your business, hire additional employees, or even purchase an additional location when the time comes.

Owning beats renting because you can sell your investment once you outgrow the space or sell the business. Even if commercial property in your area has not appreciated (which is unlikely), you can recoup your investment by renting out the space once you move out and by selling when the time is right.

If you plan on growing into your building, buy something larger than your current needs, and rent out the extra space until you need it for expansion. This will provide you with steady income that you can use to help pay your commercial property mortgage or invest in your business.

Leasing the Land

Most commercial real estate is what's called fee-simple. The buyer buys the building and the land, and has owner title to both. But while you might assume that you'll be buying the land a building sits on, you may not have this option.

Some landowners choose to lease their land to a business that then constructs buildings on the leased land. The business owns the buildings, but not the land.

The disadvantages to "leasing the land" are the following:

* You own a building on land that you don't own. * You have to pay rent on the land. * You may have rent increases over the years. * You can't do with the land as you please. * You can't sell it, give it away, lease it to others, trade it or leave it to loved ones upon your death. * You are not building up equity in the land over time. * You may be forced to move out when you're not ready to do so.

It is usually in your favor to have a fee-simple arrangement where you own both the land and the building. This gives you more control over your property. Owning both the land and the property keeps things simple and you only have one person's interests to consider