Your commercial building is a major investment that will undoubtedly require a decent amount of upkeep and maintenance over the life of your commercial endeavors. When it comes to making sure your building will facilitate all your operational needs, it is important to identify and eliminate any deficiencies that may become a hindrance to your daily operations. Failure to do this can quickly become a nightmare for a business owner that did not take the time to be concerned with the physical condition of a commercial building before making a purchase offer and acquiring the property. The following are some deficiencies that you should be on the lookout for to ensure your commercial building is fit for use.

Primary Deficiencies

In general, a commercial building will tend to harbor three types of primary deficiencies. These deficiencies are typically referred to as MEP deficiencies. MEP refers to mechanical, electrical and plumbing issues associated with your commercial building. Components and systems involving these three types of processes need regular upkeep to ensure that the systems involved in such processes do not become deficiencies within your commercial building. Maintaining the systems involved in these areas of your commercial building’s daily operation will contribute to the comfort of employees who work in your commercial building and also those clients who visit your building to do business. These measures will also help to ensure that your commercial building is a safe place to work and do business.

A Property Condition Assessment

A property condition assessment (PCA), is an evaluation of the total physical condition of a commercial property. The review of such a property begins with an assessment of any available property documentation. Next, there is an on-site evaluation of physical components and systems. The evaluation continues with a rundown of cost schedules. There is also a segment of this assessment that concerns itself with the regulatory issues associated with the physical state of a commercial property. The final report should expose any life safety issues that need to be addressed. Again, safety for employees and clients should be one of your primary concerns when providing access to others into your commercial building. The last thing you want to face is a totally avoidable lawsuit for failing to have a comprehensive view of what the physical condition of your commercial building happens to be and not taking the time to address underlying deficiencies you did not know were a clear and present danger.

Concerns About the Roof

Every commercial building has a roof, and a roof will often need to undergo some type of quantitative audit. The goal of such an audit is to do a walkthrough of the roof and determine any structural or material problems that produce deficiencies that need to be addressed. Since this can be an expensive problem to have to deal with, a roof inspector should be able to provide you with options that are both sound and cost-effective. It may not be necessary to completely reconstruct an entire roof for your commercial building. An auto CAD assessment of your commercial building’s roof may be useful when trying to precisely identify only those regions of the building’s roof that exhibit deficiencies.

Do Your Due Diligence

When it comes to purchasing a commercial building, you must first know the physical condition of the building before you can even make a value-based offer. Without knowing the inherent deficiencies, you cannot be certain if your offer price is reasonable. Nor will you know how much of a financial problem you are making for yourself down the road. You may not know if the concrete has settled too much and is starting to crack. You would not be aware of how serious the electrical problems in a commercial building are either. So, assessments of the physical condition of a building comprises your due diligence for locating deficiencies before getting in over your head with a commercial building that is more trouble than it is worth. Just as you would not want to buy a property site unseen, you would not want to buy a commercial property where the physical condition of the property and the building are not well documented for your review. Such information is critical when negotiating—especially if your goal is to bring up reasons to lower your purchase price offer to preserve more of your capital for other investment interests.