Posted by Frank Chin on October 25, 2007 at 11:31:28:
John:
A professional commercial investor would do what a professional organization looking to lease, build or occupy a property, they do a demographic and retail study of the area.
How does the Starbucks, Home Depot’s, Walmart’s of the world determine where to place their next location?? What does your area need, and can the demographics supoort such a outlet.
It does not have to be retail. it could be a medical center (near a hospital?), office building, or warehouse (near a highway off ramp?).
Some RE investor I know does this, i.e., did his own study, and as it so happned, and it was quite a few years back, Sears was looking to open up business centers to sell office equipment. He read about it in the Wall Street Journal.
So he flew out to Chicago, Sears headquarters, to pitch the analysis he did. Turned out Sears was doing their own studies, and his was a lot more detailed for his area. Sears was impressed, and signed a long term lease.
Turned out he was looking for “triple A tenants”, and Sears fit the bill.
Frank Chin