If you’re in the business of buying or selling commercial property, and especially if you are the property manager of commercial property, you are no doubt aware that there are some common problems that seem to occur time and time again and may be harming your business. The vacancy rate of commercial property in the US right now is around 20%, so fixing some of these issues as they appear is of utmost importance.
Five Common Commercial Property Complaints
- Maintenance Issues
- Bad Communication
- No Privacy
- Pests and Vermin
- Problems With The Neighborhood
Maintenance issues are the number one complaint because they can make or break your business. If the toilets are backed up, that’s an emergency and it needs to be handled, regardless if it’s 3 am on a Sunday. Make sure you have appropriate, responsive vendors to handle these issues.
Communication issues arise under the best of circumstances, so the best policy is to have multiple ways for people to contact you. Email, text, and phone are necessary. Follow up verbal communication with written communication about what was said and what the action plan is. This way, you also have a paper trail, should you need it.
If you rent commercial property, make sure you give businesses the same respect you’d give home tenants – at least twenty four hours notice that you’re coming for an inspection, etc., unless there’s an emergency. Put this in writing, again, so that you have a record that this occurs. It’s bad business for the landlord to come barging into a business during business hours and start an inspection – bad for your renters and bad for you.
Pest and vermin plague everyone, and commercial property is not excluded. It may be even more of an issue if your commercial property houses places where food is prepared. You need to have contracts with termite and roach control companies, handle any other issues that arise such as wasps nests, reports of snake skins being found, etc., and handle it pronto. The possibilities of lawsuits are limitless. Yikes!
Problems with the neighborhood are not within your control, and nobody thinks you are able to fix all the problems of the world, but it is your problem to be responsible and proactive about the area. If you know that it’s a major drug-trafficking area, it makes sense to hire security, have gated entrances, well-lighted parking lots, etc. The same is true regarding weather-related issues – you can’t control the weather, but if there’s areas of the parking lot prone to severe flooding and terrible potholes, that is your responsibility to be proactive about.
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