Thursday, October 22, 2015

Do-It-Yourselfers. You think you're getting a savings but it's really costing you more. Let me explain.

I just read a SF Business Times article about Social Print Studio who tried to sublease their commercial space in San Francisco on Airbnb.  Unless this is just a ploy for attention or something else, they just committed violations on several different levels.
These do-it-yourselfers don't seem to have a commercial real estate broker and don't seem to have an attorney overseeing them as both would have advised them differently from day 1 which would have spared them the black eye of this mini scandal.
No competent commercial real estate broker would have advised this company to break zoning laws by signing a lease in this industrial building in the first place which is mistake #1.  Bringing a sublease to market without engaging aforementioned broker for advice was mistake #2.  The broker would have referred the client to their lease and saved them the embarrassment of all this.  Mistake #3 is living in the property - a big no-no per Planning.  Mistake #4 is using Airbnb.  Sheesh - this shows how clueless these business executives are and could have ALL BEEN AVOIDED.
Do yourself a favor and seek out the advice of your trusted commercial real estate broker, counsel, and accountant.  You may think you're saving a few bucks by handling you real estate, legal, and accounting matters yourself but in essence, you're costing your company, employees, and investors so much more.

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