Commercial Properties can be subdivided further into Micro Properties.
If you’ve ever wondered, “Is there commercial property for sale near me?”, then look not further than existing commercial properties. You might say, “But they’re not for sale!”…Well, that may be true, but there are millions of micro-properties on existing commercial properties near you that are ready and waiting to produce semi-passive income for you.
Semi-Passive Income
You see, electric vehicle (EV) chargers and vending machines are two of many small pieces of machinery or equipment that can be placed to generate sales from people passing by and a way to increase the value of your commercial property.
So, while there may not be an office building for sale near you, I assure you that there is an office building that will need more EV chargers when their workforce returns to the office, or a mechanic’s shop with an old forgotten vending machine that could be replaced to generate sales for the owner (and the mechanic’s shop could take a cut of the sales).
Similarly, hotels need to have many EV chargers to meet demand in surge months, and the travel boom will start this summer before decreasing rapidly in the fall and winter.
The interesting thing about micro real estate is that it pulls together several inter-related large markets under one roof. If you own or manage a commercial property, then there are many additional revenue streams to generate from micro real estate.
An Example: EV Chargers
For instance, one large and growing market is electric vehicle (EV) charging. There are 500,000 EV chargers that the US government wants to place in the US to make owning a EV more manageable for consumers. But, there are 91,000 hotels and motels in the US, so each hotel/motel would only have 5 EV chargers.
That’s not enough. There are over 9 million actual hotel rooms in the US, so given the EV adoption rate of about 1%, and an average number of 313 rooms per upscale hotel and 75 per economy hotel, you’d need ~3 chargers per upscale hotel and 1 per economy hotel to meet current demand. So, when EV adoption hits 10% in 2027, there will need to be 10x more chargers than there are today.
This is where the real opportunity lies, since the most chargers I’ve seen at a single hotel is 15, and that is a rarity. So, 30 to 50 chargers per 300 room hotel by 2027 seem like ample room for growth.
A typical level 2 EV charger cost between $1,000 to $5,000, so the investment you would need to make to own an installed EV charger on a commercial property is certainly much less than trying to own an office building or similar sized commercial property.
Lots of small lots on larger lots
So, next time you ask, “Is there commercial property for sale near me?”, just know that there are micro commercial real estate opportunities right under your nose. Whether you’re looking to invest in micro properties, looking to invest in Proptech companies, or looking to facilitate transactions like a real estate agent, there is certainly an aspect of micro real estate where you can apply your skills and generate additional income for yourself and your partners.
