Investing in South Florida

The key to successful investment often is choosing the right property, the one that best fits your financial goals and limitations. Use a Realtor with knowledge and connections to find you the perfect property and negotiate the best terms.

Investment Properties

APARTMENT BUILDINGS

Apartments are a basic necessity! Economics, or affordability of housing, forces many to rent. This creates the broadest and most competitive marketplace in the investment field. There are more apartment buildings than all office, retail, and industrial properties combined. Categories are:   

Garden Apartments:
One- and two- story buildings, often a courtyard or single family-type setting, wide range of units.

Walk-Up Apartments:
Three- to five-story buildings, but no elevator; area may be mixed single and multi-family; usually only two or three different types of units.

Mid-Rise Apartments:
Six to ten stories serviced by elevators, usually inner city or dense suburbs, limited range of unit types.

High-Rise Apartments:
In excess of ten story buildings, underground parking and security, full service, standard plan with limited unit types.

OFFICE BUILDINGS

Office buildings range in size from small, owner-occupied properties to multi-building office parks. Categories by size are:

Garden:
One to three stories, usually suburban, generally smaller buildings than other categories. They may be single tenant/owner occupied (law firms, insurance agency, real estate office) or multi-tenant. Two or less elevators.

Low or Mid-Rise:
Usually multi-tenant. Up to six stories, depending on area.

High-Rise:
Usually in urban markets, most often in the central business district CBD. Multiple elevators, depending upon size

Categories by use as medical/dental are sometimes applied because they are unique in physical characteristics (facilities for handicapped, plumbing, etc.) as well as tenant type and rent/cost to build.

RETAIL

Retail properties can range from a single, one-tenant building to over a million square feet of assorted shops that display goods or sell services to the public. There are 3 general categories of retail properties:

Shopping Centers:
A group of stores catering to a trade area, which offer a variety of goods and/or services and on-site parking (the tenant “mix”). Subcategories are:

Super regional center:
3 or more major department stores, is often enclosed (mall), is 750,000 to 1 million square feet, and draws from a large trade area of 12 miles or more.
Regional center:
One or two department stores, a variety of smaller stores, and is larger than 300,000 square feet. It will draw from an 8-mile radius or more.

Community center:
Usually have a supermarket, junior department store, and a variety store, is larger than 100,000 square feet, and draws from a 3-5 mile radius.

Neighborhood center:
Is built around a supermarket and/or drugstore, provides convenience goods and services to a neighborhood, is between 30-100,000 square feet, and draws from a 1-3 mile radius.

Convenience center:
A small cluster of stores along a street, 5 - 40,000 square feet; trade area is immediate neighborhood. May have a convenience market, Laundromat, dry cleaner, etc.

Specialty center:
Often has a theme, usually has no anchor, and generally is local in impact. Examples might be home improvement centers, gift shops, or auto service and sales.

Free standing store:
One commercial building meant to be occupied by a single user. It is typically found near major shopping centers on major routes, and fills a specific need in the area.

Strip commercial:
A string of stores in a commercial area with no central leasing, management, or theme.

INDUSTRIAL

Industrial encompasses a wide variety of properties, uses, and owners. Are flexible, general purpose buildings that can be adapted to a small user’s needs. Categories by use are:

Heavy Industrial:
Manufacturing properties comprise the heavy industrial segment. Auto making, textiles, steel, chemicals, and food processing are typical uses of such properties. Typically zero to five percent office space.

Warehouse/Distribution:
Generally the least intense industrial use, warehouse and distribution facilities often are located in the lowest-priced land in older parts of town or in suburban fringes. Typically, like light industrial/assembly property, office use is limited to management tasks for the distribution or warehouse facility, or about 15 percent of total space.

Light Industrial/Assembly:
Production lines that assemble components produced elsewhere are based in light industrial/assembly facilities. Some light manufacturing requiring limited raw materials and physical changes to the materials also might be conducted in such facilities. Space devoted to offices usually is less than 10 percent.