Most people tour their first suite and look at the wrong things. The finishes are what catch your eye and the least important. Here is a list worth carrying.
1. Clear height, measured properly
Ask for floor to structure, not floor to the lowest pipe. Those are different numbers and only one of them is honest. Ours is twenty-five feet in most of our suites.
2. The overhead door
Height inside means nothing if the opening is short. Look at the door before you look at the ceiling.
3. What the demising wall is made of
The wall between you and the next suite. Ask whether it is masonry or framing, and whether it goes all the way to the roof or stops above a ceiling. A partition that stops short means you hear everything.
4. The mezzanine load rating
Not whether there is a mezzanine. What it is rated to carry, in pounds per square foot, and whether that number is written down. A loft rated for boxes and a floor rated for a bar and the people standing on it are different products.
5. When the floor gets poured
If the slab is already down, every drain, conduit run and lift anchor has been decided for you by somebody who was not you.
6. What is included versus what is quoted later
Get the list in writing. Electrical service, heat, mezzanine, floors, plumbing stub-in, insulation, windows and doors, internet, water meter. Then price the gaps. A low shell number that finishes high is the oldest trick in this category.
7. Heat, and what kind
Forced air and radiant in-floor behave completely differently in a Minnesota January. Ask which one, and ask whether it is included.
8. Association dues and exactly what they cover
Then ask the harder question: what is not covered that you will be billed for separately.
9. What is behind and beside the building
Ask what can be built on the land around it. A view is only permanent if something on paper makes it permanent.
10. Come back on a weekend
Tour on a Tuesday and you learn about the building. Come back on a Saturday and you learn whether anybody actually uses it. That second visit tells you more than the first one.
Bring the list here
We would rather you asked all ten. Sales offices are open in Unit D14, 5000 Odessa Ave NE, St. Michael. See the suites or book a walkthrough.