Is It Time for a Bigger Office Space?

Your colleagues have to breathe in to squeeze past your desk. Your chair bumps almost every piece of furniture when you stand up.

There are twice as many people in the office as there used to be, but the space hasn't grown with your business. Is it time for a change of location?

When you're shopping for a new office space for your business, you come up against several vital questions that will stop you in your tracks if you don't have the answers.

Do You Know What You're Doing?

Do you have experience and knowledge of real estate transactions and laws in your state? Because if you don't, it would be unproductive to do this on your own. Consider hiring a real estate agent to carry out your business property search and negotiations for you instead.

A real estate agent isn't always necessary, though. If you're confident and well-prepared for the task, you can make all the arrangements yourself.

What Space Does Your Business Need?

Some businesses benefit by buying a larger office space than they need to begin with, then leasing out the unused space until their own business expands to fill it.

If you're expecting rapid growth for your business, this could be a logical way to avoid the disruption of repeated location changes--otherwise you'll wind up moving to new offices every few months when your company experiences a growth spurt.

If your business development is in a holding pattern and you don't anticipate a big change in your future office space requirements, it's probably more economical to buy just the amount of space you need for the next few years. There's no guarantee that property values will hold, so you may not want to burden yourself with an office that's bigger than you need.

There are two numbers you need to know before you can choose the right office size:

* How many employees does your company have in the office on a daily basis?

* How many people visit the office on a less frequent basis? Don't forget to include contractors and stakeholders in this head count, too.

Insuring Your Investment

Make sure you know what insurance products your business needs to protect its property investment.

Title insurance isn't legally required, but it's a popular option when you're buying commercial property. The point of this insurance is that it protects you from existing problems with the property title you're about to buy: things like liens, fraud, or errors in the documentation.

It's a two-stage process: first a title search must be done to check for any problems in the property's past; then an underwriter has to approve the title insurance.

You may find that lenders won't give you financing for your property purchase without a lender's title insurance policy; to protect your own interests as well as the lender's, you can buy an owner's policy that covers you for the lifetime of the property.

Choosing a Location

It's tempting to choose a cool location at the center of everything, but bear in mind that things can change once you've made your purchase. The trendy business district of today may be very different in 5 years' time, so make your choice with care.