Carlson: “Everyone knows the saying when it comes to real estate: location, location, location. Do your research on what the commute is like for your staff and your patients. You can look at where the concentration of patients are and where you can potentially pull more patients from. People also like locations where there are other amenities: banks, restaurants, hotels, shopping. When they’re taking time out of their day, they like to think about how they can kill two birds with one stone in a convenient location.”

Carlson: “How easy is it to get to a practice is something dentists need to consider. Not everybody uses GPS on their phone, so a convenient location helps with being able to easily provide directions. How many turns is it off an exit or a major interstate? It’s easy for dentists to get caught up and think, ‘This is great, it’s only a 10-minute drive from my house.’ That would be great, but what is that worth in any potential lost revenue.”

Carlson: “There are a few factors we encourage people to consider when we say visibility. There’s signage, visibility from the road, the view of the building. Monument signage of how to get to the space is helpful. A lot of healthcare facilities or buildings where a practice could be are located on a campus or in a business park. But is it easy to see the addresses or suite numbers on a building? If it’s on a campus or in a business park, you need to consider ease of seeing it, and the signage is an important aspect of that.”

Carlson: “The functionality of a space and its existing conditions is important, because if there’s a lot of required work that needs to be done – demolishing, rebuilding – that’s going to potentially drive up the cost of your lease rate. Also, a building’s functionality largely depends on a practice’s plans. If a dentist has plans to expand, you would want to look to expansion opportunities – it’s important to know if there’s a space nearby that could be expanded into, or if a space is landlocked. While touring spaces and looking at offices, if you have a large-scale national tenant next to you, it’s probably not as likely they’ll be moving out anytime soon.”

Carlson: “The first four criteria all work together to factor into overall cost, but there are other impacts on costs as well. The length of the lease term, the amount of money the landlord is spending to improve the space, and whether or not those construction costs built into the rental rate or separate from the rental rate, all factor in to the overall cost. In densely populated areas, parking costs can also factor in.”

Contact your Patterson Dental territory representative or equipment specialist to learn more.