Thank you so much for checking out the Real Estate Today podcast. Now we’re going to discuss office space.
Bob Nelson: I’m Bob Nelson, real estate investment broker with Pacwest Real Estate Investments.
Marsha Edwards: I’m Marsha Edwards, residential broker with Windermere Real Estate. We’ve been talking about the commercial market specific to industrial and retail. Let’s talk about the other opportunities and investment for folks in the commercial market, specific to office space. That seems like a nice, clean representation of investment real estate I’d kind of like.
Bob Nelson: It is an interest process. It also is being impacted much like industrial because with the Internet and extremely high-speed connectivity, a person doesn’t have to be sitting at a desk cube or a cube in a building someplace to be “working.” They could be working out of a den in their home and be potentially as productive, and if you are compensated in accordance with productivity that you have, it’s up to you. Are you productive or not? You can be productive at home or in an office environment. It’s a tough situation if you are trying to compete with kids and so forth for noise at home, but that could happen.
As that does occur, the need for large office space is diminishing. There are some spaces that were created to be huge occupiers of space that no longer need to be there. It is an interesting market. You need to be concerned. Do you have high-speed connectivity? Do you have the type of space that’s required of that business? If you have customers coming to your office, it needs to be attractive. It needs to be up to date. If you’re customers don’t need that, I guess you could do whatever you wanted. There are some big changes in the office market.
Marsha Edwards: That influences the home, the residential, because that means if they’re not in the office, they’re in the home, which is a different dynamic for the residential real estate market and the Internet linkage in residential areas is becoming more and more critical.
Bob Nelson: Yes, absolutely.
Marsha Edwards: What about the medical market? That seems intuitively strong.
Bob Nelson: Yes, and it’s a good investment. I’ve owned medical buildings before and I own one now, but you got a problem. With a turnover, it’s not uncommon for a new doctor or a new medically oriented practitioner to require new carpet, new this, new lighting, and so forth. The cost of turnover can be just gigantic. You need to be aware of that.
Marsha Edwards: I’m Marsha Edwards, Windermere Real Estate.
Bob Nelson: I’m Bob Nelson, real estate investment broker with Pacwest Real Estate Investments.
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