By Tony Seruga, Yolanda Seruga And Yolanda Bishop

Investing in commercial property can be a lucrative venture. However, you can capitalize on your return by boosting your commercial property’s value by adding some investment friendly features. These improvements can run the gamut from a substantial initial payment to a mere investment of your time and sales skills. You can take a piece of undeveloped land and increase its value exponentially by using a few techniques to give it more selling power and you a higher profit.

Property that is on or near golf courses, lakes and the ocean (beachfront) will be a sure fire profit draw. Purchasing raw property that is near one of these profit boosters and adding some improvements such as retail or rental property will greatly increase the value of the land. Ocean front condos are great for increasing your profits from commercial property.

In order to successfully invest in commercial property, you must have a comprehensive understanding of the criteria that is relevant to investing in commercial property. Once you know the ins and outs of real estate improvements, you can take aggressive steps in making a substantial profit.

There are various types of commercial property. Offices tend to have a high value when situated in the central business district of a city. Major office districts, regional centers and suburban centers are other viable areas.

Retail property can also yield a higher value in these areas, but they also do quite well in neighborhood centers and local centers. Location is key in getting the greatest investment potential for your money. Shopping centers, strip shops and malls have a great propensity for investment. However, when purchasing the land, it is typical for the land to come in a parcel of a certain size. Quite often that parcel of land exceeds the desired use and this is where the smart investor can cash in. By leasing the surplus property to other entities, such as popular mass merchandisers that dominate the market and strip malls, supermarkets, major chain corporations and some specialty shops and you have a recipe for great profits. In short, if you build a shopping mall on your property, then lease the surrounding property to Wal-Mart, Lowes, Old Navy and have some strip malls as well as a couple of restaurants and you have a money making machine.

Commercially zoned real estate can be improved by converting it to a multiple use property – office, retail, residential. Adding showrooms and offices such as with predominantly wholesale sales and car parking stations or multi level car parks are other good ways to increase a property’s value. Industrial improvements such as warehouses, factories, workshops and specialized properties such as brickworks, breweries, gas works and other similar properties.

Residential land like subdivisions and housing estates can be developed with improvements to increase the value. Adding ponds and other improvements to rental properties such as apartment complexes and strip malls will greatly increase the property’s value. You can also accomplish increases in value by zoning from a lower density, such as agricultural, to a higher density, such as commercial. By annexing property into the city, you can add property value as it is within the city limits. This and rezoning takes some coordination with the city government, but if you can show benefits, often it will pass if there is little or no opposition from the community.

Rental and residential properties are relatively simple to improve, thus boosting their values. A simple coat of paint, renovation, updates in fixtures and landscaping can go a long way in increasing the value. If you have raw land you can develop it, but doing something as simple as adding utilities and installing roads can go a long way in increasing the property’s value. Then it has development potential. You can also reduce your own costs by passing all utility costs on to the tenants. Placing a coin operated laundry facility on the premises of rental properties, apartment complexes or other similar properties. However, placing a coin operated laundry facility in a strip mall or building near or on a college campus or apartment complex can be outstanding for increasing value.

In fact, properties that are in or near a college campus, particularly restaurants, specialty stores and other facilities can prove to be extremely valuable. College campuses have a rather steady influx of constant traffic, even during the summer due to summer terms. The students residing in the dorms, in particular, are somewhat captive consumers because driving off campus can be inconvenient. Therefore, placing all necessary facilities, grocery stores and laundry facilities, on campus or just off campus will attract a great deal of traffic. This will be an attractive incentive for a buyer.

One of the final applications for increasing the value in commercial property is luxury positioning. Luxury is always an attractive asset. Building a luxury property or situating it such as on the ocean or as beachfront property. Consider some of the higher value properties that are well known and think about the surrounding areas. Luxury estates on the grounds of a country club or golf course will greatly increase the value. People are attracted to lush living conditions and they are willing to pay handsomely for those lush living conditions. You can facilitate that with improvements that cater to those desires.

It does not matter if you are developing raw land to improving on existing structures. An apartment complex, office park, shopping mall or warehouse, making additions to the property as detailed here will increase the value to the property and increase profits. To make optimum improvements to properties will increase the value and drive sales. Location is key, as is considering the population that will frequent the property. This could lead to additional improvements and to additional properties and developments. Assessing the location and population will go a long way in driving your profits to the properties and you can help to shape the markets by adjusting price and land improvements. With this knowledge, you can get the most from your commercial property.

About the Author: Tony Seruga, Yolanda Seruga and Yolanda Bishop of maverickrei.com specialize in commercial and investment real estate. As of May, 2006, they and their partners are managing over $600 million dollars worth of new projects.

Source: isnare.com

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