Have you recently bought your own business premises and stopped renting? Looking for a case study to feature in the Australian Financial Review. Must be willing to pose for a photo and talk about the how and why of their investment.

Contact me at larry.schlesinger@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Hi Larry, happy to answer this question for you. I have been self employed in the finance business for 15 years, renting a shop front for 9 years and then renting office space within a Financial Planning business for 4 years. About 16 months ago, the company I was sharing the office with wanted to expand and needed the extra office space back. They were lovely people and went about it in a nice way, but the end result was disruption to my own business and having to locate a suitable office space in a reasonable time frame at an affordable price is never easy.

Fortunately we decided to think outside the square and purchased an almost brand new factory in the same suburb. After recently diversifying our finance business to include commercial and equipment finance, it actually seemed like a smart thing to do - move our business into the area where we were hoping to expand into. A few small changes to the office area of the factory were all that were needed to make it a nice new office. We then located some tenants who were happy to share the entry point, but had access to the warehouse area and their own office area upstairs. We found ourselves as Masters of our own Destiny again without the stress of having landlords who controlled what we did or having to sign a long term lease.

Our net out of pocket expense for the factory is less than what we would have paid in rent and we now also have an appreciating asset to help with our retirement strategy in the future.

From a lending point of view, Commercial Lenders have a credit appetite for owner occupied Commercial Properties and with interest rates not far from standard variable home loan rates, it is a option many self employed business owners should start to consider.