Duplex with 1 studio apt & 1 commercial office

[Aaron Rowzee]

Hypothetical: let's say you've got a deal for a home and garage apartment on the property. The home needs renovation but the second building is move-in ready. One caveat: the upstairs of building 2 is a great looking studio apartment, but the bottom floor is a very basic office space.

My guess is both will rent for the same. So do I keep the office space how it is and market to businesses, or renovate the bottom for another apartment?

[Andrew Johnson]

Aaron R. I don't have an answer for you but you should look at parking. Is there enough for a business (employees + customers)? Is there easy on-street parking for business customers? You could get into car counts, etc. but parking usually tells you when kinds of businesses would (or wouldn't) have interest in the space. You can also drive around a 1/2 mile radius and look for "like" business fronts, for rent signs, etc.

For what it's worth, start with parking because you can't really "make more" of it so it becomes a huge limiting factor (or asset).