Purchasing Premises: Three Things to Consider When Buying Commercial Property

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Just like buying a home can save you on wasting money on rent and can improve your financial position, the same is true when it comes to premises for your business. Most companies start off renting which makes good sense, but if you’re doing well, turning a profit and plan on being in it for the long haul then it’s well worth looking to buy. Just like when you’re buying a property to live in, there are certain things to bear in mind when it comes to buying for your business. Here are a few things to consider to ensure you get it right.

This is a contributed post. Please refer to my disclosure for more information.

Consider the location

Regardless of what you do or what you sell, you’ll need to ensure that you choose a location that’s convenient for your staff to get to. If you’re way out in the sticks for example and there’s no public transport for miles, or things like trains and buses only start running later in the morning then you’ll make it difficult for anyone you employ that doesn’t have a car. A huge thing to bear in mind when you choose a location is how much foot traffic you need, if any to make your business a success. If you’re a shop for example, you might rely on people walking past, something catching their eye in the window and walking in to gain a proportion of your profits. If you don’t deal directly with customers, perhaps you sell services or are running a head office for example then you can go with premises a little further out which are likely to be cheaper.

Have a survey done

You wouldn’t buy a car without looking under the hood, so why would you buy commercial premises without having it checked over? These kinds of structures might be built to last, but there can be all kinds of issues lurking beneath that could mean expensive repairs or even make the property very difficult to sell later on when a future buyer has a survey done. Lots of properties were built on old mines which can put them at a small risk of collapse due to sinkholes. Some were built with certain materials and it was later found that these were inadequate, leaving some building in need of things like full foundation repairs. There are lots of issues that you could come up against that would be completely impossible to see just from looking around. A survey from a company like Allcott Associates can save you time, money and hassle for the sake of a few hundred pounds. It allows you to make an informed decision about what you’re buying and negotiate the price if something does flag up.

Think about size and layout

If you’re planning on growing your business then you need to ensure there’s space to employ extra people, but without forking out on a huge building that you’re not going to be able to fill for many years. Find the balance between price and practicality and your plans for the future. Think about the layout and the use of the space, it’s better to have all of this done before you start using the premises than having to make renovations later on around people working.