Choose your niche and become the expert
First educate yourself on commercial real estate. You need to decide what you want to do and focus on that. There are many shiny objects in commercial real estate and that’s one of the beautiful things about the industry and while diversifying your portfolio is certainly an important aspect in commercial real estate investing, I recommend that you dial in and become the expert on one specific type of investing, first. The most we learn about commercial real estate is actually during and after we have done a deal. Some parts of investing process just can’t be captured in a book or video. However, we need to have a decent understanding and road map for your investing strategy.
There are so many ways we can go about educating ourselves on commercial real estate:

After we are educated about commercial real estate investing, it’s time to choose a property type, and the reason you choose a property type after we have educated ourselves on commercial real estate, is that we don’t know which property type will be right for us before we get started.
There are 5 primary types of commercial real estate that we can invest in:

Just like choosing a property type it’s important for us to find a right strategy that’s right for us. Depending on our goals and interest, we may find ourselves:
1- Land banking
Land banking is where you purchase larger tracts of land that are in the path of development with the hope that they will appreciate in value as the development moves your way.
2- Development
Commercial real estate development is where you take raw land and re-imagine what could be constructed on that property.
3- Fix and Flip
Fix and Flip in commercial real estate investing is the same as it is in residential where you buy a property, make any necessary repairs and upgrades, and then resell it.
4- Wholesaling
This is where you find a good deal, put the property under contract, and sell the contract to another real estate investor or owner-occupant.
5- Owner-Occupied
Owner-Occupied commercial real estate investing is where your purchase a piece of real estate where you plan to run your business.
It is important to learn how to underwrite commercial real estate investments. We need
to know the math inside and out. Get your underwriting tools together.
The next step is to build our A team when we are first getting started in commercial real estate, It’s crucial that we have a team of experts on our side that have a fiduciary responsibility to you. Building this team will ensure that nearly every aspect of a deal will be investigated and it never hurts to have another set of eyes review your deals. Find a broker that specializes in your chosen property type. Get on their mailing list and review every single email or call they make. Underwrite and tour those properties they put in front of you and have a conversation with them about those projects. Ask them what they like about the site, what do they feel about the drawbacks, what do they feel are the capital expenditures that would be necessary to up and running the project.
Next, Hire a commercial real estate attorney. Hiring an attorney that specializes in commercial real estate is an absolute must. Also having a property manager on our side is equally important as he takes care of all the properties you have invested in and manages them.
This is all you need to know before starting investing in commercial real estate.
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