User Decision Analysis — Lease vs. Own
The most-overlooked skill in CRE: when a business should buy its real estate
The topic most free CRE content skips entirely. Business owners constantly ask: should we lease this space or buy it? The answer is a quantifiable cost-of-occupancy comparison, and a broker who can run it becomes indispensable. This course teaches the full framework.
Download the User Decision Analysis — Lease vs. Own Workbook
Printable PDF with exercises, worksheets, and fill-in notes designed to go alongside every lesson in this course.
What you'll learn
- Build a lease-vs-own cost-of-occupancy model over a 10-year hold
- Factor in SBA 504 financing advantages for owner-users
- Explain after-tax cash flow differences between leasing and owning
- Advise business-owner clients on the true economics of their space decisions
- Position yourself as a tenant rep or owner-user specialist
Lessons
- 01
The Two Perspectives — Why Businesses Lease, Why Businesses Own
The strategic and financial drivers of the lease vs. own decision for commercial real estate, and why most business owners get the analysis wrong.
11 min - 02
The Cost of Occupancy Framework
How to formally compare leasing and owning by computing the all-in annual cost of occupying a space — what to include, what to exclude, and how to make the apples-to-apples comparison.
12 min - 03
SBA 504 — The Owner-User Superpower
How the SBA 504 loan program lets small business owners buy commercial real estate with just 10% down at below-market interest rates — the financing tool that makes owner-user deals pencil.
12 min - 04
Building the Lease-vs-Own Model in Excel
A step-by-step walkthrough of constructing a 10-year lease-vs-own cost-of-occupancy comparison in Excel, complete with NPV and breakeven analysis.
14 min - 05
After-Tax Analysis and the Power of Depreciation
How depreciation, cost segregation, and interest deductions transform the owner-user math — the tax mechanics that make commercial ownership dramatically cheaper than the pre-tax numbers suggest.
12 min - 06
Advising the Business Owner — Turning Analysis Into Action
How to translate a lease-vs-own model into a recommendation a business owner can act on, the soft skills of advising a non-real-estate person, and how to position yourself as their long-term real estate advisor.
12 min
Up next — Course 08
Investment Analysis & Risk
Quantify risk, stress-test deals, and forecast performance