So you’ve planted your new church in a school, movie theater or office building, been faithfully contacting the community and growing your young congregation.
Now, you’ve come to a crossroads. Your church is outgrowing the current location or what often happens, those faithful volunteers who help you set up and tear down every Sunday morning are getting burned out.
The intention has always been to get your own building, but is it the right time yet? Sometimes, the excitement of having your own building supersedes the realities of building ownership. This is one trap I have noticed some churches fall into in today’s real estate market.
A Great Deal On A Huge Property
This is a very common scenario when a church needs room to grow. Someone within the church has come across the deal of the century, a forty thousand square foot facility you can get for a steal. The church can purchase the building for the same cost as a five thousand square foot facility. This sounds great. The church will have room to grow for years and years to come. There is just a small build out that must be done for it to work for the church setting.
In today’s market, there are more of these “deals” than you would think.
Having more room is fantastic, but the church can quickly become a burden. Even if you’ve purchased the building without debt, or the building has been gifted to the church as a blessing, you may find your church becomes a slave to the building. The costs of upkeep, operating, and insuring the larger property may be too much for your young congregation to handle. To this, I would say, thoroughly research the costs of such a building before you make the seismic move.
Finding out the true operations costs two months into ownership can negate all of the hard work you’ve put into church growth over the past few years.
Do Your Research
- Have a good idea of the real costs of utilities. Sometimes, it’s hard to gauge if a building has sat vacant for an extended period of time, as this can be hard to calculate.
- Conduct a thorough inspection of the property. There may be many hidden costs found in expensive repairs.
- Take into account the increased costs of insuring a building.
If you are preparing to purchase a building and would like to find out what the insurance costs would be, please contact us for a quote.
