Site visits may be the most powerful real estate portfolio management tool that you have in your arsenal. Whether you're taking care of existing spaces or looking at new ones, there is a lot to be learned on the ground. Here are three stories (all true) of what unfortunate truths can be revealed when you do a site visit.
What's That Smell?
In June 2011, Automobile magazine penned a review of the new iteration of the Volkswagen Passat. Built for the first time in the US, the Passat was produced in VW's new plant located in the mid-south. Unfortunately, the article had relatively little to say about the Passat, but a lot to say about the odor of sewage that permeated the town. Evidently, the community in which the plant is located has an overtaxed early 20th century sewer system that emits unpleasant odors when the community goes too long without rain.
While it's likely that VW did site visits and chose to disregard this issue, infrastructure and aesthetic issues are real problems at many locations. Given that most landlords won't go out of their way to find them, a site visit is the best choice.
Rules? We Don't Need No Steenking Rules
As a part of your real estate portfolio management duties, you typically have to keep track of the rules of the buildings you occupy in addition to the terms of your lease. Building rules are usually reasonable - don't plug in space heaters, keep your property out of the common areas, use the building's parking reasonably, and the like.
One common rule that periodically gets broken is the rule against bringing pets to work. It's one thing to allow someone to sneak FiFi the toy poodle in, but what if someone has an alternative pet? One office building in the Central Valley of California was so lax in its rule enforcement that it allowed one tenant to bring in his pet. Unfortunately, his pet was a semi-tamed mountain lion that he kept on a chain.
Whether it's a mountain lion in the adjacent suite or a fire hazard from another tenant letting half of his staff bring in their own space heaters, rule violations are serious business. While landlords will tell you what their rules are, they usually won't tell you if they're getting broken. To find that out, you'll have to be on-site.
Where, Exactly, Are the Property Lines?
Sometimes, the property you consider is very different on the ground than what you find in the descriptions. After all, real estate portfolio management can be challenging when you don't know what you're leasing or buying. One land developer marketed a large development in the foothills of a desert area. Based on the marketing material, it was an already subdivided vacation paradise with water and roads, ready for a major developer to come in and turn it into a timeshare or resort.
On the ground, the reality was very different. The water system was a pond with a small pump. While the community had a few dirt road spurs, the one main road was also dirt and was almost impassable in a four-wheel drive vehicle, even in perfect conditions. Further inspection at the local county showed that the site was never subdivided and that the owner had been gradually, and illegally, selling off plots.
Whether you're looking for a space or you're managing existing spaces, site visits are indispensable. Getting boots on the ground lets you see (or smell) what is really going on so that you can make better real estate portfolio management decisions.
While nothing can replace the value of personal site visits, REoptimizer® can help with the strategic decisions that save your company thousands. Click for a free demo and see how:
