One of my good friends bought a huge two story building, they only use about 1/3rd of the second floor and about 1/4th of the first floor, he has owned it for about 15 years now and has raised rent on his tenants each year, and the building only had a 15 year mortgage, meaning it is already paid for! Great for him, no rent and 20k+ a month coming, that is why his computer store is still around while most of us others are gone. He is now the largest and most well known local computer store.

Right now many of the companies I know that rent are going under while large shopping malls are almost empty, the landlords are really hurting themselves. I don’t understand why you would kick someone out instead of letting them stay when you have ton’s of other openings in your building, it simply makes no logical sense to me.

1. The tenants pay your ‘rent’ – I’m not sure where the b/e point is here … I will need to explore some numbers and see if we have a new Rule of Thumb here, but sounds great.

2. Room for growth … I moved offices twice in 2 years thinking each time that I “couldn’t possibly outgrow” the space that I already had!

Whether you buy something just the ‘right’ size (see 2. above) or something bigger as you suggest, buying my own office was the best financial decision that I ever made.

It was a huge stretch at the time, but tax-deductble payments on the mortgage and the leases for all he fixtures (i.e. renovations) and fittings (i.e. furniture) etc. made it a lot easier, and helped to ensure that I netted almost $1 Mill. when I eventually sold only 5 or 6 years later.

Great post and great advice, Jason!