What Things To Look For In A Commercial Deal

I am newbie to the commercial investment, I am quite familiar with the calculations, Cap rates and other math related stuff. My question is what else to look for before buying a commercial deal apart from the numbers,
I see lot of people mention about demographics, Traffic counts, area information and more.
How can i get this information and how to do i decide its a ideal place to buy(especially if its a new place and i have not idea about it). Please post your thoughts here except those numbers like NOI, Cap Rates stuff. Thanks in advance.

it sounds like you need to pick an area that excites you,

fits into your short/long term goals , and is

in an area of growth to ensure viability and success.

multi-family(5 units or more ) is the most common

place investors enter the commercial realm. through

you have eight other genres to choose from as well as

special interest properties which include nine specific

subsets. i like your questions and your approach. you

seem quite intelligent.

Thanks for reply, I am mostly interested in retail, Strip malls are one which i am most interested in. I see that building age, risk associated with managing it and other property maintainance will increase the cap rate associated to that property, What other demograhical criteria i should be looking at and how do i get a this information. Most of the brokers will try to sell the property but dont seem to share the negative points of that area. Thanks

If you want to see whether or not the area is growing along with demographics you can either go to the county/state gov or US census bureau to pull that kind of data. The chamber of commerce can probably tell you why it's growing..I.E. what companies are coming to the area to bring jobs etc. Hope this helps and good luck.

I look at the demographics and how that relates to tenant mix. For example, if you have a Check into Cash tenant when the Average income is over 100k, they will probably not last. Same is true if you have a up scale Furniture store and average income is 35K.

And traffic count is always a factor.

I could consult with you on this. I am a former appraiser and did acquisitions for a large buyer - I probably bought $75m worth of retail. Stuart Haxton see CapRates net or message back.