Author: dayat

The Differences Between Commercial and Residential Property Investment

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When you invest in residential property you are essentially dealing with people. When the rent is late, you have to deal with a person – the tenant. If you feel the property is not being looked after properly, you will have to deal with people who may have a different opinion from you.

With commercial property, you are essentially dealing with contracts. If the rent is not paid on time, then the contract (lease agreement) stipulates a series of remedies that the landlord can take. If the property is not kept up to a certain standard, then the contract may stipulate that you can send in a commercial cleaner and send the bill to the tenant.

Generally, governments around the world have countless rules governing the renting of property to residential tenants, which override anything that you may put in your rental agreement. For example, in the UK, if a tenant is behind in their rent, you cannot just evict them. There are all sort of protections in place so that the tenants will not be exploited. You have to allow them to fall behind in rent for at least 30 days before you can start eviction proceedings.

With commercial property, what is in the lease contract is generally what goes. Many commercial leases have a clause in them that stipulates that if the rent if late by more than a week, then penalty interest will be applied to the amount of rent outstanding. If the tenant still has not paid the rent a certain period of time thereafter, then you have the right not only to change the locks and take your premises back, but also to seize all the tenant’s fittings, furniture and equipment on the premises, and to sell them to recover the rent owing. Your rights as a commercial landlord are far stronger than those as a residential landlord.

With commercial property, the tenants usually derive their income at your premises. Therefore they have a vested interest in keeping your property in good condition. With residential tenants, there is not the same drive to maintain your property, let alone improve it. With my commercial property, I spent thousands of pounds changing the business from a men’s hairdressers (which it had been for the previous 30 years) – into a real estate business. In fact, for the first couple of years, we often had men coming to the property and looking inside expecting to have their haircut.

With a commercial lease, the tenants often paint their premises every couple of years so that it will be attractive to customers. In fact, in a commercial property, the tenant is responsible for whatever maintenance repairs occur. So if there is a plumbing problem in a commercial property, it is up to the tenant to bring in his own plumber and to be responsible for whatever bills are presented to him. In a residential property, the tenant is entitled to call the landlord or the management company – they are compelled by law to fix whatever repairs are necessary.

Another fundamental difference between residential and commercial property concerns the typical length of the lease. With residential properties it can be on a month-to-month basis, but is rarely longer than one year. Commercial properties, on the other hand, are generally leased for many years at a time. From the tenant’s perspective, it gives their company or business the security of the same premises to work out of. Banks like long-term leases as well: the longer and stronger the lease, the more willing they are to lend money on the property.

In some countries a tenant cannot rent the premises with a lease that is under 5 years. There is an upside to this and a downside to this. The upside is that his business is secure in that location for at least 5 years. He cannot be asked to move. The downside is that if times are bad, he might be able to pay his rent and he has no wiggle room to get out of that lease. So in the end he possibly could lose everything. He could lose whatever deposits he has put down, he could lose his furnishings, his equipment. He could theoretically lose the essence of his business.

So far, you can see there are a lot of advantages of commercial properties over residential ones.

To summarise the main categories of commercial property:

1. Retail: shops or any building where passing trade or the general public are invited
2. Office: commonly found with retail or alone, and often above the retail areas on the ground floor
3. Industrial: places where things are manufactured or services provided – but not necessarily where the general public are walking past.

Commercial property is much more specialised than residential and it may be more difficult to find a tenant in the area of specialisation catered to by your building.

Typically banks will lend you up to 80% of the value of the property on a residential investment. However, with commercial property usually the maximum is about 60%.

The biggest advantage of residential property over commercial comes when your property is empty. If you have a house where the tenants have just left, if you have bought it in a good location and the market is reasonably active, then you should be able to find tenants quite quickly. Generally even in a slow market, the only reason why a residential property sits empty for a long time is because of the rental price. If you drop your rent by 10% or more, you will usually get a tenant. However, this downturn economy has vastly affected both residential and commercial properties. Workers who have been made redundant find that they cannot pay the rent. Many commercial properties are suffering because their tenants have been forced out of business.

With residential property, if your tenant has been laid off or fired, it may take you months to be able to evict him let alone find another tenant. In a commercial property, you are entitled to keep his deposits, fittings, equipment and furnishings, but that still doesn’t give you an income for that property. And right now there are many commercial properties that are going bankrupt. So my best advice is that in this downturn economy, that while there may be numerous opportunities for investment, be aware that there are just as many situations where you could lose a great deal of money.

Let’s look at commercial property that has been empty for 3 months or 3 years, then the problem may not be because the rent is too high. Even if you were to slash it in half you still may not find a tenant.

The reason for this is simple. Just about any residential property on the market has all that is required for someone to live in it. However, when it comes to commercial property, the requirements vary hugely from tenant to tenant. For example, when a dog food cannery becomes vacant, it may not be simply a matter of reducing the rent to find a tenant. No matter how much you drop the rent, no photographer looking for a studio is likely to settle for the dog food cannery. No shoe shop that relies on passing foot trade will want the top floor in an office tower, no matter how good the view or how reasonable the rental.

To summarise the differences between residential and commercial property:

Residential
Tenants have little interest in maintaining or improving your property
Leases tend to be short
Tenants contact the landlord for minor problems
Governments tend to legislate to protect tenants rights
Banks lend up to 80% of the value
If the property is empty, it is usually easy to find a new tenant
You deal with people

Commercial
Tenants have a strong vested interest in the upkeep of your property
Leases tend to be long
Tenants tend to fix minor problems
Governments tend to leave you alone
Banks will lend only 50-60%
The appraised value when tenanted may be 2 or 3 times the value when empty
If the property is empty, it may be difficult to find a new tenant
You deal with contracts, not people

If you were coming to me for property investment advice and you didn’t know which would be better for you: to buy a house or to buy a piece of commercial property. The first thing I would say to you is: research, research, research commercial property. Find out everything you possibly can about being a landlord, about tenancy agreements, about your areas of responsibility, the tenant’s areas of responsibility, and when you have spoken to a number of commercial property landlords, and gotten to understand the business really really well, then I would look for a group of investors who would go in on a building with you.

I would also look for a syndicate – you would be just a small part of that syndicate. Your financial obligation would be very small in comparison if you had just gone into it yourself or with one or two other people. A syndicate usually implies a large group of investors. The upside is that you don’t have to have much of a cash outlay if you invest with a syndicate. The downside is that you don’t make as much money if you invest with a syndicate. But your risks are greatly reduced, which is why people have a tendency to look for syndicates. When you have a syndicate investing in residential property, a lot has been written about landlords – that the la

Investing in Real Estate – Should You Buy Residential Or Commercial Property?

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We hear this often from real estate investors: “What’s the smarter move? Residential or commercial investment property?” It should come as no surprise that there isn’t a one-word answer to this question. You’ll arrive at your best choice — the one that maximizes your chances for success — by working through a decision process that includes some “global” issues, some local and some that are entirely personal.

Definitions

Let’s start with some terminology. For the purposes of our discussion, we’ll define as residential any property that derives all or nearly all of its income from dwelling units. Single-family homes, multi-families, apartment buildings, condos, co-ops are all residential. (FYI, the tax code classifies any property in which 80% or more of the gross income comes from dwelling units as residential, so many mixed-use properties can be classified as residential for tax purposes.)

For commercial property, we’ll use a typical layman’s definition: property that derives its income from non-residential sources, such as offices, retail space and industrial tenants.

Why do I say that this is the layman’s definition? Because appraisers and lenders would consider large (>4 unit) apartment buildings to be commercial investment property since they are bought and sold strictly for their ability to produce income and not as a potential personal residence for the owner/investor. However, it will suit our discussion better to treat all apartment buildings as residential properties.

Global Issues

What are the global issues that should affect your choice to buy residential or commercial property? The state of the U.S. economy certainly tops the list. If you believe we are in or are on the brink of a recession, then it makes sense to be cautious regarding commercial property. You will have to rely on businesses to occupy your commercial space, and if they’re struggling to survive or simply deferring their plans to expand, then rental rates may soften and demand for space decline. Replacing a lost tenant — especially one lost unexpectedly (in the middle of a lease, or the middle of the night) because of a weak economy — can take longer than it might in unstressed economic times. When the economy and employment are strong, of course, you are likely to see the opposite. Service businesses need more space, retailers open more stores, distributors need more warehouses.

Another issue is the cost and availability of financing. Interest rates are always important to investors, but there is one situation that may strike you as counter-intuitive. When home loans are readily available and mortgage rates drop, it’s not uncommon to see an increase in apartment vacancies, making apartment buildings less desirable as investments. The reason? Low mortgage rates and easy credit often mean that individuals can own a home at a monthly cost that is the same — or less, after taxes — than renting. So part of your potential tenant pool may be lost to home ownership.

Local Issues

In the real world, each of these global issues comes with a “however” attached. You need to stay on top of your local market because that market may contradict the national trend. For example, highly restrictive zoning regulations can mean that commercial space is always in short supply in a particular location, recession notwithstanding. And the cost of single-family homes in your community may be so high that there will always be a strong demand for rentals. Think globally but act locally (with apologies to environmentalists for borrowing their slogan).

Personal Issues

You could buy a property and then insulate yourself from it by turning over every aspect of its operation to a management company. But if you’ve never operated a property yourself, how would you know if the management firm is doing an acceptable job? Most investors begin as hands-on managers and your chances of success will be greater if you choose a type of property that you’re comfortable with.

So, at the personal level, will residential or commercial suit you better?

Unless you were raised in the woods by wolves, there is a very good chance that you’ve spent most of your life in a residential dwelling unit: a single-family house, a condo or an apartment. You have a first-hand understanding of the rights, obligations and appropriate behavior of a residential occupant. If you were a tenant, you probably also know something about the roles and responsibilities of both tenant and landlord. It is for this reason that first-time investors often lean toward buying a small residential building. You may not know the fine points of leasing and landlording, but you understand the basic ground rules. This is familiar and comfortable territory.

Of course, some novice investors come to real estate with a background in business and perhaps as a commercial tenant. If that description fits you, then becoming a commercial landlord may be an easy transition. You already have firsthand knowledge of how commercial lease deals come together, and what the parties typically expect of each other.

The Pros and the Cons

Like any of your investment choices, each type of property has its pros and cons. For example:

Residential Pros:

1. Residential units are generally easy to rent. Turnover in housing is high, so your pool of potential tenants tends to be large.
2. Leases are generally short, especially for apartments, so you can keep pace with the rental market. This means cash flow tends to be fairly strong with a multi-unit residential property.
3. Financing residential property is usually fairly straightforward. For smaller properties, the process is similar to financing a home.
4. The cost per unit tends to be lower for residential than commercial. The more units you have, the less likely it is that a vacancy will severely impact your cash flow.
5. You could live in one of the units of a multi-family property. Obviously it’s easier to keep an eye on the property if your eye is actually there.

Residential Cons:

1. Residential properties usually require a lot of hands-on management.
2. Residential properties usually require a lot of hands-on management. (That’s not a typo. I said it twice.)
3. With a single-family home, one lost tenant equals 100% lost rent.
4. Multi-family houses tend to be older and therefore may require more repairs and maintenance.
5. Residential tenants don’t keep office hours, so you can get a call or complaint at any time of day or night.
6. Larger multi-unit properties generally have a lot of traffic in common areas and will require greater upkeep.
7. Did I mention that residential properties usually require a lot of hands-on management?

Dealing with commercial tenants is quite different. Ideally, it’s business, not personal. You may require a personal guarantee on a lease, but you should expect to have more of a business-to-business relationship.

Commercial Pros:

1. Typically leases are longer, with built-in rent escalations. Five years, with options to renew is not universal but certainly quite common. Except perhaps for small offices, few businesses would be willing to go to the expense of becoming established in a particular location without a guarantee of more than just one year.

2. Many commercial leases pass through to the tenant a pro-rata share of certain expenses (or a pro-rata share of the increase in certain expenses, over a base). For example, the tenant may be obligated to pay its pro-rata share of property taxes and common-area maintenance. This helps stabilize the cash flow for the landlord and makes that cash flow more predictable.

3. Management is less hands-on than with residential. Renewals are less frequent. Many commercial leases are written to include the requirement that the tenant be responsible for interior repairs, HVAC maintenance, glass breakage, etc.

4. Depending on the type of space (i.e. more common with retail and high-end office), the tenant may fit-up the space to suit itself. The landlord may give a one-time fit-up allowance or a period of free rent, but the interior finish then becomes the tenant’s responsibility to maintain.

5. Because the property’s value is strictly a function of its income stream, you have the opportunity to create value by enhancing that income stream. In other words, you don’t need to rely on general market “appreciation” to increase the value of your property, but can take steps to do so yourself.

Commercial Cons:

1. Trying to purchase a commercial property on a shoestring may not be a realistic plan. Lenders are generally tougher underwriting commercial loans, especially if you have no experience operating commercial property. Down-payment requirements tend to be higher, as do interest rates. Loans are for shorter terms and often have a “balloon” requirement (i.e., must be refinanced before the nominal end of the term). The property will have to pass muster in terms of its projected cash flows and debt coverage ratio.

2. Leasing a commercial space can take much longer than leasing a residential unit. After a tenant is identified and basic terms agreed upon, it is usually necessary for attorneys for both sides to negotiate the language of the lease. The complexity and cost of this process can vary greatly, depending on whether you are dealing with a local or a national tenant.

3. Filling a vacancy can take much longer than with a residential unit. Commercial leases will typically require that a tenant exercise an option to renew well before the lease expires — perhaps six to as much as twelve months prior — so that the landlord can have ample time to look for a new tenant.

4. Financing commercial property can be more complex than with residential. You’ll need to demonstrate to the lender that the property will perform at a level that can can cover the debt service with room to spare.

5. If you don’t have experience being a commercial tenant, then becoming a commercial landlord may require that you get familiar with some concepts and skills that are particular to the commercial world. You’ll want to learn about “tenant mix” if you own retail space, about commercial insurance and about the billing and reconciliation of pass-through expenses.

While there is certainly no right answer to the question, “Residential or commercial?” there is probably a best answer for you. Do you want the hand-on involvement of residential? Do you have the resources for commercial