Early this year, I had pulled my back and had to go see my chiropractor. When I called, there was an odd message about being temporarily relocated. Turns out the fire suppression failed in his office and went off one night, ruining everything they had. He found a friend who allowed him to use his space for just a few months while they got new space. (He was on a month to month lease in the original space so he just moved out).

One of his clients had a new system for working out so they thought together they could find a great space. When I asked why he hadn’t at least called me for advice, he didn’t really have an explanation other than the new partner wanted to do it on his own. The good news is they found a location with a professional landlord. Going with the theme of doing it themselves they decided not to pay the landlord for the buildout because they would do it by themselves cheaper. Never mind that the professional landlord’s staff knew how to pull permits and get things approved in that city. Would they have made a profit on this construction? Yes I’m sure they would have made a little money. Unfortunately the partners didn’t see it that way. The brothers in laws were a bit clueless on working in a commercial space. So they had to redo several things. Since it wasn’t their primarily business something that should have taken 60 days tops took 300 days.

If the landlord had done the work the tenants wouldn’t have had to pay rent until the space was delivered with an occupancy permit. Having done several deals in that complex I also knew that they should have been given money for tenant improvements, but alas the partners didn’t know so they paid for the build out themselves. Luckily the Partners had some free rent that helped out for the first few months but afterwards the rent came out of the partner’s pockets. Meanwhile the Doc was still paying for space at his other location. It was over a year before the new space was ready.

Another Do it yourself project gone wrong.