As a commercial real estate investor I own a number of commercial properties including warehouse, retail, office, residential, and land. There are pro’s and con’s to each type of investment property. Deciding what is right for you will depend on your investing goals, your current assets and liabilities and tolerance of risk as well as the location-specific demands for leasing and properties for sale in the area that you want to invest. As in so many things in real estate, supply and demand rule the day.

Do You Want To Lease Warehouse Retail Space Or Own It?

If you are looking to warehouse retail supplies for your own store, it is easy enough to do with a rental space at a mini-storage, or perhaps unused space owned by your landlord in your current location. If you want to buy this type of property as an investment, it will take a little more care because you’ll have more risk and less flexibility moving in and out of an ownership position than you will on a lease.

Although I can’t vouch for it’s accuracy, I did find an example of someone’s experience with warehouse retail space on the web:

Although location is important in starting a business, it is only one of many factors that determine the success or failure of your enterprise. A few years ago, I bought some warehouse real estate. I wanted to start a warehouse shipping business over the Internet. It seemed like an excellent idea at the time. Unfortunately, I was a little bit off. By the time I got into Internet sales, it was already a little bit too late. The market was already saturated, and I was not Web savvy enough to overcome the obstacles. Still, I knew better than to give up. Although I wasn’t in a traditional location for a warehouse retail space, I decided to give it a go anyway. To tell you the truth, the shop was a little bit out of the way, and although there were outlet stores about 10 miles further down the expressway, I still did not expect large numbers of people to stop at my store.

Things worked out better than I imagined. Within a few months of opening the warehouse retail space, I was already starting to break even on operating expenses. In another couple months, I was on my way to becoming a successful warehouse retailer. My retail warehouse was doing so well, as a matter of fact, that I was soon able to afford to upgrade it. It didn’t really look like a good retail store at that moment. It looked like a warehouse with a cash register thrown in. Once I gave it a more professional appearance, business grew even further.

The great thing about my warehouse retail store was that I was able to use my success and popularity to get a wholesale business going. Soon, my warehouse retail outlet was shipping all over the country. As a matter of fact, nowadays we get almost as many orders over the Internet as we do from customers coming in person!

A big part of our success was our location. The placement that I thought would hold us back actually helped us. You see, most of the people coming from the city passed right by our shop. It was only a matter of a quick detour off of the highway for them to visit. Although it is not a great location for people looking to stop in for a quick shopping trip, it is ideally placed to take advantage of the warehouse outlet shopping excursions that so many people go on nowadays.

Business Is Complicated So Take Care In Selecting Your Warehouse Retail Space

Regardless of whether you plan to buy or lease warehouse retail space, it’s a good idea to know what you’re getting into and educate yourself on the marketplace so you can be sure you’re getting a good deal. Think through your plans for the property so you can feel confident it will meet your needs, now and for years to come as your business grows.