When was the last time you were in a big city? The bright lights, the busy streets, and yes, the abundance of tall buildings. Many people marvel at these feats of engineering, but far fewer stop and ask, ‘Gee, I wonder who owns that building?’
Welcome to the world of commercial real estate, a world of “invisible giants” that are constantly seen but poorly understood. In this article, I’d like to shed some of the mystery around commercial properties and thus make them a bit more transparent.
As a real estate investor, you may be more likely to consider commercial properties from a financial or ownership standpoint, but may still consider them outside the scope of your own business. This can be for a number of reasons, the first being the perceived value of large commercial buildings.
Have you ever driven by a large apartment complex or high-rise office building and wondered what it would take to one day own that type of real estate? Yes, you can see the building, but the opportunity is invisible to you, seemingly out of reach.
What if I could tell you that commercial real estate is a lot less out of reach than you ever thought before? What if she showed you that there are multiple profit centers in commercial real estate, allowing you to find opportunities where she’s never seen them before? This is the power of both knowledge and experience, and my ultimate goal is to better prepare you to pursue commercial real estate by understanding what is truly possible with it.
Do you think those invisible giants are owned by larger than life individuals who are somehow blessed with the resources to build such huge buildings? Usually not. Most large commercial buildings are owned by entities that comprise larger groups of people, all coming together to help make ownership a reality.
Do you think these large commercial properties are never for sale? That is not the case either. They are simply not advertised in the traditional way, like the residential properties we are more used to. When you meet the right people, the so-called players in commercial real estate, the opportunities for the unseen giants are more plentiful than you might think.
The underlying theme here is that understanding commercial real estate is in some ways like learning a new language, except easier. People are different, properties are different, but there are still motivated sellers, financial opportunities, and fortunes to be made. Do you want to try this new language? I think you’ll be glad you did.