“I guess my concern is that I’d hate to look back 5 or 10 years down the line and think ‘Geez, I should have just bought a space.’”
I think of this kind of decision as “future-defensive”. It’s common - to do something now to prevent something later. Except…5-10 years down the road, are you REALLY going to be in a worse position to buy, vs better?
There’s no such thing as a perfect space - now or later - so I would make sure that a purchase is a strategic choice vs a future-defensive one.
Separately from the coworking space itself - ask yourself some questions. Do you want be a building owner? Why? What happens if the coworking space fails - do you still want to own that building? What else would you want to do with it?
It’s definitely smart to be thinking about this, and it’s something that’s personally a close-to-home issue for me, but it sounds like you’re putting the cart before the horse.
I’ve learned a LOT about commercial real estate along the way…but I don’t regret renting for the last 8 years. It’s really helped us stay focused and learn what we’re best at. A fully loaded mortgage, insurance, etc would’ve been a bit more expensive financially, but renting gave us a LOT of flexibility and peace of mind that owning wouldn’t have.
I’d put your energy into in two places:
1 - work on building your community before you even start thinking about specific locations. Until you have a community who wants to make this happen with you, the rent v purchase conversation is premature.
2 - start talking to a lot of business owners, regardless of your goals of buying or renting. Find someone who you really like and trust, and understands what you’re thing to do. Whether you rent from them or have their assistance when you begin to execute a purchase, it’ll be VERY valuable to have them on your side long before you NEED anything from them.
-Alex
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The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.
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On Tuesday, May 19, 2015, Stephanie Miles [email protected] wrote:
I guess my concern is that I’d hate to look back 5 or 10 years down the line and think “Geez, I should have just bought a space.” A lot of it will come down to the cost of what’s available (both to buy and lease) when we’re at that stage. In the small community we’re in, there aren’t tons of spaces that would even be suitable. Still in the earliest stages of planning right now…
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 4:16:22 PM UTC-7, Stephanie Miles wrote:
Hello all. I’m new to the group, at the very beginning stages of opening a coworking space in Redding, CA. (pop. 90,000)
I’m considering buying a commercial space for my coworking business, rather than leasing. Obviously it’s a big financial investment up front, however based on looking at the market here, it seems like the monthly payments on a commercial real estate loan would be less than the cost of a lease on a similarly sized space. (I’m looking at pretty run down industrial spaces, with the plan to renovate.)
Wondering if anyone else has done that and what unexpected issues, challenges, or even benefits you faced by doing so?
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The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.
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