Why does everything have a catch to it?

[john1]

Been looking to open a store front in my town area and man there is NOTHING open or reasonable.

People are trying to sell like 1000 sq ft places for like $3000 and other crazy prices not even on main roads.

Looked at a place that was 1425 sq ft and it was $1400. Landlord guy said that included trash removal and him painting the walls with a fresh coat of paint and wiring for our dedicated outlets on the machines.

He sent over the contract today for me to look over and there is a 3% increase each year for whatever reason on the rent, $20 a month trash removal fee that's extra and now he is saying he didn't include painting the walls with a fresh coat of paint or wiring up our dedicated outlets in the cost.

The walls are scuffed and theres 500 small holes with tap screws in them from the previous tenant and looks like crap. There is a huge water stain for some reason on the floor that's a brownish over top the ugly robins egg blue carpet that's beat.

To me, this sounds like a complete joke and no matter how bad i want a store front i do not want to jump into anything i am not 100% happy about.

*Sigh* Always a catch to something

 

[CES020]

We've fought the battle twice now with space and battling those guys is brutal. I can tell you that a 3% increase per year is not at all unreasonable or uncommon. It's fairly standard. I think our last one even said 5% and we negotiated it down to 3%.

Don't worry about the walls and the paint. You'll hate what they end up doing anyway and you'll want to put your own twist on things.

Hang in there, don't get discouraged. It's a big step and those guys want you to lock in forever, but once you hammer out the deal and get your shop, you'll be amazed at how fast you'll outgrow that space.

Make sure you cover that in your negotiations. You need to know what their plan for you will be if you need to move to a place with more space. That's critically important, in my opinion.

 

[AzGene]

Best thing for you to do is contact a commercial RE agent to represent you. Keep your cards close and tell him/her you're thinking about expanding if you can find something within your budget. Don't know what the economy is like in your area but I'm guessing it's still iffy unless you're within the beltway. Drive a hard bargain and try to keep emotion out of it. It's not uncommon to get a month or two of free rent on a multi year lease AND new paint, flooring and other improvements to suit your business. But again, let your agent negotiate for you.

 

[cdiesel]

Gene's right--get a broker to represent you. It won't cost you anything and they may be able to show you stuff that you're not even aware is available.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

I feel you on the store front thing ... lately it seems like if someone owns property they are going to try to milk it for everything it's worth (or not worth) ... I was looking into just some warehouse space possibly for my studio ... 500 sq foot warehouse area ... $1k a month and the d-bag expected me to pay the property taxes. told him where to shove his tiny space. around here 1k sq foot store front is around $2 a sq foot to $5 a sq foot.



and people wonder why there aren't as many people trying to start up their own business.

 

[HulkSmash]

Been looking to open a store front in my town area and man there is NOTHING open or reasonable.

People are trying to sell like 1000 sq ft places for like $3000 and other crazy prices not even on main roads.

Looked at a place that was 1425 sq ft and it was $1400. Landlord guy said that included trash removal and him painting the walls with a fresh coat of paint and wiring for our dedicated outlets on the machines.

He sent over the contract today for me to look over and there is a 3% increase each year for whatever reason on the rent, $20 a month trash removal fee that's extra and now he is saying he didn't include painting the walls with a fresh coat of paint or wiring up our dedicated outlets in the cost.

The walls are scuffed and theres 500 small holes with tap screws in them from the previous tenant and looks like crap. There is a huge water stain for some reason on the floor that's a brownish over top the ugly robins egg blue carpet that's beat.

To me, this sounds like a complete joke and no matter how bad i want a store front i do not want to jump into anything i am not 100% happy about.

*Sigh* Always a catch to something

we have about 5k sqft and pay 3k a month. And i'm pretty sure Denver is more expensive then Maryland. Where are you looking..?

 

[96XP]

re: Always a catch,

My folks paid off their home of $16,000.00
Later in years, that same home sold for $186,000.00

-most of which is a caused by an out of control financial system and fraud.

For the Canadians, have you heard of the
Bank Of Canada Lawsuit - Press Release (Toronto, Ontario, Dec. 22, 2011)
Probably not, and you won't hear or see of it in any main stream media, so please get informed and see this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvDf92MKucM&feature=related

For those in the US, there is the Joe Banister story. Slightly different, and a true account.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHP_doQ7jXI&feature=related

Anyways, I'm glad I no longer pay triple net on a lease. Was full of surprises, year after year. Particularly when the owner decided to put up an awning around the complex and gave each of us a share of the bill to pay.
Those pesky little contracts can be tricky.

 

[Locals Find!]

Been looking to open a store front in my town area and man there is NOTHING open or reasonable.

People are trying to sell like 1000 sq ft places for like $3000 and other crazy prices not even on main roads.

Looked at a place that was 1425 sq ft and it was $1400. Landlord guy said that included trash removal and him painting the walls with a fresh coat of paint and wiring for our dedicated outlets on the machines.

He sent over the contract today for me to look over and there is a 3% increase each year for whatever reason on the rent, $20 a month trash removal fee that's extra and now he is saying he didn't include painting the walls with a fresh coat of paint or wiring up our dedicated outlets in the cost.

The walls are scuffed and theres 500 small holes with tap screws in them from the previous tenant and looks like crap. There is a huge water stain for some reason on the floor that's a brownish over top the ugly robins egg blue carpet that's beat.

To me, this sounds like a complete joke and no matter how bad i want a store front i do not want to jump into anything i am not 100% happy about.

*Sigh* Always a catch to something

A $1.00 a sq ft is very reasonable for rent. Having to do your own build out at that cost is even better. Trash for that low of a prices seems like a joke. I know I am paying $16/sq ft for my office space and I am only about 300 sq ft. + internet & phone. All I get is trash.

 

[qmr55]

We have a 10k sq. ft. building 10 tall bays w/ 5 offices, kitchen, conference room and 2 bathrooms.

We are trying to sell it though if anyone is looking for space in Jersey

 

[Mikeifg]

My house droped 20,000 in the last 2 yrs. But my building rent keeps going up? WTF OBAMA. Or all the greedy suits in the world.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

My house droped 20,000 in the last 2 yrs. But my building rent keeps going up? WTF OBAMA. Or all the greedy suits in the world.

Greedy a-holes in suits.

don't know about property values though ... we are buying a new home ... at $20k less than what it's appraised at. so awesome sauce.

 

[ova]

I looked for five years before I found the "perfect" building. I leased for those five years. The contract was for the same $$/mo for all five years. When the contract was ready to expire, the landlord wanted us to re-up for another five. I told him I would only go for a year at a time with no increase so I wouldn't be stuck in a contract if I found a building. At that time not much good was happening with the economy around here so he almost had to agree or have a vacant building.

We found a 5300 sq.ft building with a paved lot for $80,000. Spent another $80,000 to renovate it to our liking. Now we have a 40' x40' garage for vehicle graphics and plenty of shop space. Mortgage payment is just a tad higher than the lease payment. Only other added expense is the taxes on the property.

With the big gas well industry boom going on in the surrounding area, you can't find a vacant building or empty lot. If you do, the price is out of sight.

If you can afford it, and are somewhat of a handyman, you might try looking for something like I did. One of the only things that's not made anymore is land. We have what we have and that's it. Buying property will always be a good investment.

Dave

 

[m_s_p]

You should negotiate a few free months in exchange for you doing all of the remodel yourself. If you can find a landlord that is hungry enough they will do it quickly and without issue. You could do a great remodel on that size space with a few grand.

 

[Techman]

Greedy a-holes in suits.

HUH?
Lets see here..

Commercial property has property taxes. Those taxes are huge.
Commercial property has finance contracts with the banks. Most of those contracts require a 5% positive cash flow to service the loan. The landlord cannot lease for less or the bank will call the loan. The land lord is caught in a frigging trap.
That is why their rents do not decrease in a recession. Is also why there is no business growth during a recession.

 

[SD&F]

If you really like the space, negotiate it to a price that you can handle. Then lock it down for up to three years. Then let it jump up to 5-7%, make it appealing to him.
I always find there is room to negotiate, as long as there is a carrot for them somewhere. If you are not happy in three years......do not resign and move on.

 

[CES020]

HUH?
Lets see here..

Commercial property has property taxes. Those taxes are huge.
Commercial property has finance contracts with the banks. Most of those contracts require a 5% positive cash flow to service the loan. The landlord cannot lease for less or the bank will call the loan. The land lord is caught in a frigging trap.
That is why their rents do not decrease in a recession. Is also why there is no business growth during a recession.

I think it's issues like we experienced that give some of the people their reputation. We were subleasing and the tenant was moving out so we had 30 days or so to find a new home. We were desperate but tried not to let it seep through our pores.

We had a budget set and he was close. Within $100. We asked him if he'd drop the price by $50 per month ($600 per year). He said "NO WAY".

We went and found a place, got it for a good price, and it was near that place. It stayed vacant for over 2 years. So instead of having $12,000 in income a year, or $24,000 over the next two years, he had zero, plus all his expenses.

I think the $600 per year could have easily been made up, but his hard head got him nothing.

It's people like that that deserve what they get. We had one heck of a time finding a broker. They flat don't want to mess with the little guy. We called no less than 7 brokers. Most of them wouldn't even return our calls, others wouldn't find any locations for us to look at. We found a younger guy that said he'd be glad to help and he found us a place and went to bat for us. For what? A staggering $260 a year. It's no wonder they don't want to help the little guy, but us little guys still need space.

 

[thinksigns]

You definitely need to get a representative to work for you - and not someone else in the office of the landlord. Like others have said, sometimes the landlord is stuck and cannot drop the rates. There are plenty of other places to look, at least in my neck of the woods. I moved 1.5 years ago. The old landlord dropped the rates some to get me to stay, but not enough. I moved 2.5 miles up the street and went from 1,350 sqft to 2,400 sqft. My new monthly payment is $100 a month less than the old place's best offer. They also threw in $10,000 for improvements. I did have to sign a 5 year lease, but my rep negotiated no increases.

I know about signs, not how to negotiate commercial leases. It doesn't cost anything, so I would get a rep.

 

[cdiesel]

We're looking at building and will be around $100 a sf. Land and custom building.. Buy, don't lease!

 

[TyrantDesigner]

there is a tiny (10x15) cinderblock shop next to ours that has had "for rent" on it for over 5 years. all the windows are boarded up, roof is tore to **** and has holes you can fit your fist into, holes in the cinderblock INSIDE the shop, all the wiring and copper tubing was stripped from the building, bathroom was used by hobo's and COMPLETELY defiled, etc, etc, etc ... dude wants $900 a month for it, won't repair a thing and wants a 3 year lease. ... thing can easily be condemned if inspected ... but he thinks his p.o.s. shop is worth the 33k for the contract when really it might be worth $10k to BUY since you'd have to spend about 25k tearing everything down and hauling it off, THEN start over building a new building. asked him how much he wanted to sell it for ... $200k ... i never thought I could laugh that hard.

some people just have unrealistic expectations on what their **** is worth.

 

[Mosh]

Ten years ago I bought some farm ground for $2,000 an acre, the same type of ground goes for $9,000 an acre today. Houses went down, farmgound is still gowing up up up.