Investing in Commercial Real Estate For Your Church
The stock market these days is a roller coaster ride; extreme highs and extreme lows. When investing your hard earned money, it’s difficult to know how to invest to get a positive return on your investment. Love the idea of investing in real estate but you’re not an expert house flipper? Making a commercial real estate purchase, might be a better option for you, and finding a commercial property manager should be next on the agenda. To locate land, build a church, and get people in the door on Sundays is the work of the lord. You just need to do your part by finding the right property, and getting the people to manage it for you in the area you purchase in.
When most people think about investing in real estate, they conjure up images of HGTV stars buying a house, refurbishing it and selling it for an amazing profit—all in record time. In the real world, however, this isn’t always the case, and unless you have some true experience flipping houses, the work and cost involved may actually put you in the red. Purchasing real estate that does not require refurbishment and already has positive cash flow sounds too good to be true. Real estate, though, can be a wildly profitable venture but many people don’t even consider investing in that hidden gem: commercial real estate. Commercial real estate could be investing in an office building, a warehouse, a retail shop, an apartment building, an industrial building or a mixed use building, one that may combine retail, apartments, and office space, for instance. A church is a great building for these properties also. There are tac benefits to owning land with religious structures on them.
Commercial real estate for churches and churches that are for sale can be an excellent investment because if you find a building with high rental potential, you can make some decent cash flow each month. If that building is in a good area, it’s long-term profit potential will build you equity while you are renting to others. This way you generate cash flow while you are building equity. Unlike residential rental properties, commercial renters are more likely to sign a long term lease, especially if they are using it as a business address. Most companies don’t want to move to make sure potential customers can find them, so it makes sense to rent a space long term. You can purchase a home to rent to renovate and rent to others but then you run the risk of renting to someone who just might destroy all the hard work you put in to fix the home. With commercial real estate, your tenants are less likely to trash the place, especially if it where they have set up their business! But if you are a church you don’t need to worry about tenants. No phone calls in the middle of the night to come fix something at a residential property; a building maintenance team can handle that task with a commercial property. Plus, commercial space renters often help to maintain the building they are in; no one wants to set up their business in a run-down building, so the likelihood a business renter will treat the property with respect is greater.
Another way commercial real estate is different from residential real estate is the manner in which the value is determined. When a house is put up for sale, comparable neighborhood properties generate the amount a house can potentially sell for, also known as a “comp”. Two 2000 square foot homes in the same neighborhood would be similarly priced, all other things being equal. With a commercial real estate property, the value of the property is based on the amount of rental money it can bring in minus the expenses to maintain it, called the “productive return”. There are very few investments where you can receive monthly cash flow and build equity other than real estate. There are risks, of course, as with any investment, so it is important to work with a commercial real estate broker who knows the area and can give you solid numbers regarding your cash flow and potential equity profit. It’s never a perfect science because no one can predict the future and the bottom could drop out, but history has shown that real estate is one of the best overall investments for your money. When you are investing in a commercial property, you are not only investing in the building itself, but also the land on which it is built, so you will want to work with your broker on an area that shows potential growth. That growth will help the local church expand also.
Many people prefer to invest in the stock market but the drawback is the lack of cash flow. Stocks may be a viable part of your investment strategy, but mixing it up with real estate gives you options you would not have otherwise. While owning a building may sound like a lot of work, you can hire a property management company to handle the day to day issues while you still generate monthly cash flow as the property owner. You may also hire someone to decide to make some upgrades to the building to increase its overall worth in the long run. Owning a commercial property also affords you some tax benefits, like depreciation. If you have owned the building for at least a year, you can be eligible for this particular benefit, even if your building has increased in value. To understand the latest tax laws, it is important to speak with an accountant to understand the available tax advantages to owning a church.
Investing in commercial real estate also gives you options to continue to work at an outside job, while saving the rental income you receive towards your retirement. Or, you could choose to be a full time real estate investor, taking the profits you receive from one building and using them to purchase another building. If you are unable to pay for a building in cash, there are some excellent financing rates available for investors. Before you purchase anything, however, you will want to speak with an accountant and tax attorney to ensure you have the capital or the credit to take on a piece of commercial property.
Many people believe that investing in commercial real estate is only for big time investors, but owning just one small building can be all that you need to establish your financial goals. It takes time and effort to find just the right property, but the potential of cash flow and equity is a compelling reason to explore commercial real estate ownership.
