Residential vs. Office rental?
We just bought a 3-story victorian house in Ditmas Park and the first floor is a 1700 sq/ft rental–currently a doctor’s office. We plan to continue to rent it out but can’t decide if it’s better to keep it as an office or to turn it into a residential rental (c of o allows for…
We just bought a 3-story victorian house in Ditmas Park and the first floor is a 1700 sq/ft rental–currently a doctor’s office. We plan to continue to rent it out but can’t decide if it’s better to keep it as an office or to turn it into a residential rental (c of o allows for both). The layout could go either way as well–we’d obviously need to do more renovations if we turn it into an office, which were willing to do if it’s worth it.
So any thoughts or experiences with renting out an office versus an apartment would be much appreciated. As would ideas about which make better tenants, overall. Because we’ll be living on the second and third floors, we’re leaning toward an office–more privacy at night, less strain on building, maybe even less expensive to maintain. But we’re novices here.
Any ideas or advice?
Thanks…
Bear in mind that it will probably take you a lot longer to rent out something out as an office than as an apartment.
Thanks for all the advice…you seem to be confirming our sense of things.
It really depends on what you are comfortable with.
If you are leaning towards an office, so that you can enjoy your privacy and home alone at night and on weekends, then I’d go that way. I get that – especially if you are off working during the day when the office is open. That’s what I’d go with, had I the option.
I think the traffic and garbage can be quite minimal. There are lots of doctors offices in ground floors in brownstones in the slope on blocks I’ve lived on, and I’ve never noticed any problems at all.
We have a similar housing set up. We are on second and third floor, rent out 2 BR apt in Ditmas Park for the past two years. We were careful selecting our tenants, and ended up with very quiet and respectful tenants. We charge a little under market from what I’m told ($2000 per month incl gas, cable, internet) in order to have people we’re more comfortable with and it’s worked out great for us. If you are home during the day and the ground floor is an office space, you may have traffic in and out all day, people ringing your buzzer by accident, trash in the yard (?).
You can definitely get more money from an office, but there are lots of potential problems. Strangers hanging out, waiting for the office to open.
If you do decide to go with the office, don’t do the renovating. Leave that to the tenant. They will want a long term lease, in order to get any value out of the work that they do.
I think you could probably get more money and more privacy with an office – also not sure but i think a commercial space has to pay a portion of taxes???