Considerations re: commercial RE lease/sale/business sale . . .
Background:
My husband and I own a 5 acre parcel of commercial land. It houses our business, but that building & parking, etc. only take up maybe half an acre to one acre total.
The rest is pretty much just sitting there. It's in a fairly good commercial location, and would be reasonable to develop more intensely into some sort of commercial use someday. (There is also a mobile home on part of the acreage that we rent out . . . not the most profitable use of the commercial land, of course, but it was already there when we bought it, and it's better than nothing. We can/would get rid of the mobile home if/when we come up with a better way to use the land.)
We have a corporation that is interested in buying our business, and then leasing the building and just the necessary part of the land for the parking/etc for business, so the parking lot (so less than an acre). I have no idea if we're actually going to proceed with the sale of our business, but I do want to get whatever numbers I can so we can make an intelligent decision.
We'd be free to sell and/or develop the remaining land (so about 4 acres) immediately . . . or later . . .
We're pretty much complete newbies at this sort of negotiations, and I need to understand our options with the real estate before responding to the sale of the business. I'm hoping y'all can help me figure out at least how to begin this evaluation. Any isights/suggestions you can offer to help me know where to start and how assess things would be awesome.
Basics:
*All* of the commercial RE, along with the modest but functional building that houses our business, is valued at somewhere around 600k total. Most of that value is the land itself, which is at about 100k per acre. So, we'd have about 4 acres, or about 400k in land-only value, to use/develop immediately if desired, and we could do that right away, or we can let it sit. Value is probably going to continue to increase over the coming years, as our town has a strong economy and our location is pretty good.
We've got a good lawyer who has handled our real estate and business stuff for many years. We've also got a nice and competent CPA. I can/will ask them specifics, and they'll represent us/advise us on any formal negotiations. However, I don't know that they are terribly savvy on THIS sort of thing. Who on earth does one consult for advice on a commercial RE negotiation? Should I ask our lawyer for his insights and/or referral?
Here are some more questions . . . please ask for clarifications/etc as needed, as I realize I'm totally a novice when it comes to this stuff.
+ The corporation's initial offer requests a 20 year lease (5 year lease with three 5 year options to renew), with 2% annual rent increases. The rent they suggested is alright I think (could be higher, but not bad), but the 2% seems rather low to me. Everything is negotiable, and we've already broached 3% . . . or whatever. If we did sell the business and signed such a long lease with 2% increases, how im/possible is it going to be to actually SELL that part of the commercial real estate should we want to do that? What is the norm on these sorts of sales? Is 2% crazy low? How does one even find out what is the norm? Would that pretty much lock us into holding on to that part of the RE for 20 years?
+ If we do sell our business and lease out the related RE, I'd think it'd likely make sense to liquidate/get value out of the OTHER land at some point in the next few years. How does one sell empty commercial RE like that? Who do I contact? Are there brokers or agents who specialize in commercial RE? Who should I ask for referrals? How do I get a value on the land?
+ If we do sell the business (now or later!), is it generally better to just list the land for sale and liquidate it? Or to somehow partner with a developer/builder to develop it? Or just develop it ourselves? Pros/cons/options?
+ Where should we start?
Oh my word, I'm feeling rather overwhelmed. Thanks so much for any insights or guidance y'all can offer.