Buy an empty building and you own a bill. Sign the lease first and you own an income stream — one the bank will size a loan against, whatever your tax returns look like.
Nothing about the building changed. The lease is what created the value — which is exactly why it comes first.
So they lease — deliberately, on their CFO's instruction. Somebody still has to own that building. Almost nobody competes for the job, because most investors are busy chasing houses.
You find something on the market, stretch for the down payment, and close.
Mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities. All of it, every month, out of your pocket.
Now you're negotiating from need. Every empty month costs you and they can feel it.
Whoever shows up, at whatever rent. The building set your terms instead of you.
You bought a liability and went looking for income.
A company with real credit that needs space. You own nothing yet, so you risk nothing.
Contingent on you acquiring the building. Now you hold contracted income, not a hope.
Unleased, at a price that reflects it being empty — because for the seller, it is.
Against the tenant's credit and the signed lease. Your résumé is the third question.
You created the income first, then bought the asset underneath it.
That gap is the entire business, and it's a real one — not a loophole that closes.
A company needing space sees what's listed for lease. So does the broker they hired. In most markets that's a fraction of the buildings standing.
Every building that's for sale is available to you — including the retiring owner-occupier who has no interest in becoming somebody's landlord.
Give me the spec, I'll find it, buy it, and lease it back at a number you can pay. Their team is thin. That's help, not a pitch.
You're not another landlord competing for attention. You're the only one offering buildings they structurally cannot reach.
Newest first. Tap any row for what it actually taught me — including the one that cost $12,000.
The seller financed the entire purchase — no cash at closing. He said yes because I already had a signed lease, so he wasn't carrying paper on an empty building. He was holding a secured note against contracted income. The tenant is funding $150,000+ of renovation on top.
The tenant paid half rent through construction. On a build this size you're carrying debt for months with no income against it — that gap is where these projects die. I asked, and they agreed, because the timeline mattered more to them than the money.
Nothing clever happened here, which is why it's the one I teach from. Found the tenant, got their spec, found a building that matched, signed the lease contingent on acquisition. Then took three documents to a bank and let the arithmetic do the work.
I skipped the $1,500 environmental report. It had been a gas station. We found out after closing, which meant no leverage, no renegotiation, no walking away — the current owner is liable regardless of who put the fuel in the ground. Nobody hid it. We just never looked.
That's a completely fine outcome and honestly how I'd like this to work. No email, no gate, no expiry.
Both loan ceilings, real coverage, stabilized value and a six-year projection. Prints a summary you can hand a lender.
Run a deal →Five phases, start to finish, with the reasoning behind each step — not just the what, the why.
Read the method →Actual prices, rents and structures. Including the one bought with no cash to the seller at closing.
See the numbers →What skipping a $1,500 report cost me, and the checklist that stops it happening to you.
Read it →Six books, two working models, both of my contracts, and an interactive guide that builds the documents for you.
Digital download, delivered immediately. All sales final — which is exactly why so much of it is free to read first.