All guides
Own your building
Buying a building for your business: SBA 504 vs. conventional financing
How owner-users compare SBA 504 and conventional commercial loans, and the owner-occupancy rules that decide eligibility.
Lease vs. buy your business building: a 10-year comparison
A worked comparison of leasing and owning over ten years, the inputs that flip the answer, and the non-financial questions to ask first.
Leases & property taxes
Proposition 13 and commercial property: what changes when you buy
How a change in ownership resets the assessed value of a California commercial property and what that means for NNN tenants and buyers.
NNN, modified gross or full service: what your lease makes you pay
Who pays taxes, insurance and maintenance under the common commercial lease types, and the CAM clauses small tenants miss.
Commercial lease renewal: a 12-month negotiation timeline
When to start, what to gather and which terms to put on the table before your commercial lease expires.
Invest & sell
Reading a cap rate on a small commercial listing: adjust the NOI first
What a capitalization rate measures, how listing cap rates are built, and three questions to ask before trusting one.
Before you sell: what a commercial broker opinion of value covers
What a BOV includes, how it differs from an appraisal, and how owners use it to decide whether to sell, refinance or hold.
Sale-leaseback for business owners: cash out and stay put
How a sale-leaseback works for an owner-occupied building, what buyers look at, and the trade-offs against a refinance.