Do you lease or own your studio?

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LupineSound
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Do you lease or own your studio?

Post by LupineSound » Thu Jun 05, 2014 5:54 am

I'm considering sinking some money in to creating a proper control room and an acoustically designed live room, but my only caveat is that I don't own the space and the landlord can't/won't sell it. She did offer me a multi-year lease and is a nice, reasonable person.

That leads me to wonder what your situations are. Is it fairly normal to sink a bunch of money in to a place you don't own? Do you have a multi-year lease or some other agreement?

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Gregg Juke
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Post by Gregg Juke » Thu Jun 05, 2014 9:01 am

We rent. I _love_ our current location, and we have made some mods, but mostly cosmetic, or treatments that can be removed if the location changes. I wouldn't spend a lot on making permanent, expensive modifications unless you have an iron-clad, multi-year lease. Do things that don't require remodeling, and do things that are portable...

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JWL
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Post by JWL » Thu Jun 05, 2014 10:41 am

Not to turn this into an ad, but this is one reason a lot of my customers use our products. It's possible to have a great sounding room, AND be able to take everything that makes it sound great with you if/when you move down the road.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu Jun 05, 2014 11:12 am

Take the numbers from a multi year lease, renovations, heat, hydro, taxes, and expenses and make a business plan. Then decide if it's worth doing.

kevin206
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Post by kevin206 » Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:58 am

I live in an area of cheap rent AND cheap land. I used to operate from my attic, but then I rented for several years because it gave me a better location for 24 recording, a bigger space and better HVAC than I could afford at the time. I eventually built a freestanding building for recording and rehearsals. Now I'm back to having an off-the-beaten path studio with crappy HVAC, but it works for me right now.

From a business/investment standpoint you could argue either way. Regardless, I would want to be able to make most of my treatments portable and make my space easily convertible should the need arise.

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Post by cgarges » Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:27 pm

I have a long-term lease and in the interest of maintaining my professional career when I had to move, I took the plunge and went for it. I have an option in my lease and once I get some of my initial debt paid off, I do plan to try to buy the space. But I had a pretty extensive business plan that I was pretty sure could handle my intentions and I was fortunate to find a space that was going to be for sale. That and my landlord's a really cool guy.

If I was going to sink a lot of money into it and I know it was going to work financially, I'd do everything I could to make sure that circumstances beyond my control (like my rent going WAY up after a year or two or the building getting sold to someone else) weren't going to be beyond my control for long.

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Post by drumsound » Thu Sep 04, 2014 1:02 pm

I have a great landlord who has made provisions for me if he should pass away. The space was actually built out by someone else, and everything I've added can be easily removed, including many things from JWL's fine company. I'd love to buy my building and may someday. It has 3 apartments, and 3 business spaces including mine. If I worked the right deal, I could make my space bigger and gather rent from the other spaces.

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Post by TapeOpLarry » Fri Sep 05, 2014 1:19 pm

Lease, wish I could have owned but don't even own a home right now. I love my landlords though!
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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Mon Sep 08, 2014 5:46 pm

lease. the rent is killing me, but such is life in boston, where all real estate is completely !@#$%^&*() ridiculous.

if anyone wants to be a landlord in providence (i don't), here's a sweet-ass building for low dough:

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/18765611 ... idence-RI/

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Mon Sep 08, 2014 7:46 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:lease. the rent is killing me, but such is life in boston, where all real estate is completely !@#$%^&*() ridiculous.

if anyone wants to be a landlord in providence (i don't), here's a sweet-ass building for low dough:

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/18765611 ... idence-RI/
I probably don't know what I'm talking about but I'll put Toronto's completely !@#$%^&*() ridiculous real estate against Boston's completely !@#$%^&*() ridiculous real estate any day. Rent isn't totally unreasonable here but finding space is next to impossible. Anywhere that might possibly be suitable for a studio is about to, or has already become a condo. There are currently 111 condo buildings under construction and that's down 40% from last year.
If you're are lucking enough to have found a rental space you know it's just a matter of time until the place will be a hole in the ground.

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:41 am

that's what's happening here too. there's a ton of condos going up all down my street. and fancy yuppie lofts. 1100 sq ft for $619,000.

me and ms morespace have a bunch of friends who are all like...we can't afford to live here any more. we're all looking to get out of here asap. it's not a bad city but it's just for rich people now.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:53 am

It's feeling the same here. Most spaces usable for artists and musicians in the downtown core (ie: old disused industrial buildings and warehouses) became condos about 10 years ago. The arts moved east and west out of the core. The condos followed and pushed the arts (and folks looking for affordable housing) farther east and west.
Lately lots of musician friends have been leaving town and relocating to Hamilton (about 80KM west of Toronto).

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Tue Sep 09, 2014 9:42 am

cities of the future are gonna be nothing but condos and chain stores. the cool people will all be out in the country.

or maybe we should all just move to portland. larry you don't mind if we crash at the studio for awhile right?

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Tue Sep 09, 2014 10:03 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:cities of the future are gonna be nothing but condos and chain stores. the cool people will all be out in the country.

or maybe we should all just move to portland. larry you don't mind if we crash at the studio for awhile right?
There's lots of empty industrial space in the rust belt from what I hear.

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Tue Sep 09, 2014 10:36 am

there's plenty out in western mass too, but then you're living in a depressing, busted city. i mean, i'm sure we could all afford our own buildings in detroit.....

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