Downtown or Not?
Land and buildings situated outside of the downtown are typically cheaper, have more land, have no parking problems and often have a great character to them. Living here in rural Canada we had great old farmhouse options. While the cost advantages were quite significant there was something special about downtown. Something just right about it. While being in the woods is cheap you loose the community aspect. It is self seclusion by geography. We decided early on in the process that we liked downtown, but we would only move there if we found the perfect building for us and it wasn’t ridiculously expensive. We looked equally at downtown and out of town options.

Searching
If you’re going to be buying a building, be prepared to look at a LOT of places. Finding one that fits your needs is going to take time, patience, and luck. We looked at hundreds of places on paper, and over a dozen in real life.

Shopping for buildings is a lot like shopping for a car, a computer, and musical instruments. This is a thing that you will experience everyday, you need to make sure you’re not going to hate it. The only way to do this is to spend time in the place and imagine yourself and your business in the building. It takes a little imagination, but talk about where desks would go, servers, wiring, lounges, etc. The more conversation had while actually in the building about the building will reveal whether or not it will work for you. If you find that it is hard to conceptualize where you might put your stuff, people, and toys, then it’s probably not the best spot functionally. The harder you have to think about a place the less likely it is a fit for you.

Renovations
We weren’t opposed to having to make renovations but the idea of doing so was not pleasant. We found it hard to look at a building as it could be compared to what it was. A number of buildings we looked at had apartments throughout. It was harder to imagine tearing down the walls, reshaping the interior and making things better. This also added a whole complexity to the financial side of the deal. Calculating renovation costs into the price is often confusing and nothing is worse than a half finished building and no money. The other problem was time. You need to own a building before you can renovate it. It can take months to do renovations properly. Essentially you are paying for two places while you bring your new place up to scratch. This can cause problems as your timelines could be off and the new place isn’t ready to move into yet you’ve been kicked out of your old. We wanted to avoid these possible situations as much as possible. If we absolutely needed to make renovations we would.

Don’t judge a Book by its Cover
Paint is cheap. Make sure your building adviser is smart enough to know when all that is required is a new paint job, not new siding.

What’s a Furnace?
When looking at a building there is more to it than “can we work here”. There is the building itself. Will it fall apart in 3 years? Is it condemned? Why is the current owner selling? How old is the furnace? Etc…etc…etc… If you’re building inclined then great you’ll be able to do your own evaluation of foundations, furnaces, wiring, etc. If you’re not then you MUST bring someone along who is. Have them look at the place and tell you their concerns. This will save you migraine sized headaches in the future. Luckily for us my father is quite building savvy (being a carpenter, contractor, resort owner, etc). He was able to evaluate each building from a structural point of view. He’d let us know what needed to be replaced, when, how much, and so on. This is extremely important information for budgeting and deal financing. No one wants the surprise of having to redo the roof a month after they’ve moved in.

The Feeling
Some of the best advice I can give about a finding a building is that “you’ll feel it” when you’ve stumbled into the right place. If you can confirm it with your building advisor that the place is structurally sound and the money works then you’ve got the right combination.

The Deal
If you’re buying a home you’ve got the option for 95%-100% financing. You won’t actually need much cash. If you’re in the business world the tides aren’t as favorable. Typically 65% is how much a bank will give you for a place. This forces you to come up with 35% on your own. For a business sized building this can be a significant chunk of cash. If you have the cash lying around then buy all means fork it over if you feel the place is a good fit. If not then you need to get creative. One of the most overlooked tools in financing is owner financing. Ask the current owner of the building if they’ll hold a note on the 35%. More than likely they’ve never thought about it and would be glad to make some extra percentage points on that money. This then allows you to go to the bank with the required 35% yet never having put in a penny of your own.

Luck
Be astute. You’re going to trip over the building you want in the most unlikely way. While the above points help you evaluate a building finding the right one is the problem. Your best bet is to ask everyone you know and meet if they know of any good places. Most are eager to help you out. I stumbled across our new office building while at a meeting having to do with our intranet software. I asked the right person and within three weeks there was a deal signed.

Everything is for Sale
Don’t just go look in the real estate guide for what’s for sale. You’re then like everyone else fighting over the same pieces of the pie. Look around the area you want for the building you want. When you find it approach the owner and ask if it is for sale. It may very well not be. But our experience shows that very few owners become offended at this and most love to take offers. This will also expose you to beautiful buildings and more contacts. We found that if an owner of a building did not want to sell they knew of other places & owners who may. Birds of a feather….or something like that.

Patience
Much like our philosophy on hiring, it’s better to not have a building than to have a building that isn’t the right fit. Wait until you get that feeling. Forcing yourself into a place that “could be ok” will cost you way more in the end. People won’t like work. They won’t hang out there; they will take every opportunity to not be there. You need a building that is perfect for you. As the weeks turned into months for our search we began to contemplate buying a building that was “good enough”, luckily our perfect building came into existence before we bought another one. In retrospect; wait. Wait for the perfect place. It could take six months (as ours did), or it could take two years. But working in a building that is perfect for you everyday is worth the wait.

There’s More
I wasn’t the only one involved in the process; many are readers of this blog. They will more than likely pitch in their advice, contradict mine, and add to the whole process.