Chapter 3: Purchasing a real estate with the support of BIM

In my previous two posts I've spoken about how much savings is achievable with Operational?BIM in renovation and in the energy crisis. Let's see another important topic, buying a new commercial property.

When buying a property, two key factors are where Operational BIM can provide a significant value generation, the two highest one: the value of the property and how fast it can be brought?into "production". Issuing a condition survey with OrthoGraph is very rapid. Goes up to 2000sqm a day per surveyor, and there is no limit on the number of surveyors. This means that even for large properties it can be done within days or weeks. Even when the building is in its?full use, maybe processed by own, trained employees with low-cost tools. What's the result?

Clear knowledge about the:

• building, room and built-in asset conditions
• current layout of the building - 3D parameterized BIM, not only a floor plan
• rentable area, cleaning area
• painting, cladding, baseboard and flooring?surfaces broken down to material types
• detailed asset inventory of all built-in or to be purchased assets

The planning of the new functionalities can be started even during the buying procedure saving time and improving the buyer position. Actually what we learned from the market, it's even a big value for the sellers as they loose a visible % of the buying price, without having a proper building documentation.

What we also learned there are companies doing as-built surveys by their own architects with traditional methods consuming months right after a purchase of a building. For the buyer saving months of surveys, thus bringing the "production" period?months earlier saves a lot. Building owners, property managers obviously plan with how much rental fees or production they can achieve with a commercial building each month - once it's properly prepared for being used. Now just multiply it with the months saved with surveying and tendering for demolition of current building parts as all data is already in your hands. This is a high multiplication of savings compared to all surveying costs.

There is even more: if the condition survey brings out that already a part of a building?can be utilized (e.g. shops can be operated on the ground floor of a multi-story building), then not only cost reduction, but already revenue generation can be planned even for the months of refurbishment.

What can you do with an Operational?BIM in a buying procedure? You can:

• base the purchasing agreement on real-life, valid data thus minimizing risks at purchase
• start planning the new layout of the building to measure what efficiency it can provide (usable area / services area). This is the highest revenue generation for the owner if it is done well.
• start the calculation or even the tendering of demolition of refurbished parts
• collect the valuable assets to be reused or sold that will be removed during reconstruction
• plan the order of building refurbishment phases to minimize downtime
• save months by doing the surveys and planning during the buying procedure and not only after that.
• use the BIM for planning, designing the new layouts. In some situations, this might require additional laser scanning of some building parts for supporting the architects with even more detailed data, but for most cases Operational BIM is good to go.
• a great sales tool to start selling out the functions of the property to the tenants or to own departments too

Once you did the purchase, then the renovation work will already?be supported by the same BIM, please read the corresponding article to it here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/chapter-1-role-operational-bim-renovation-refurbishment-/

As you could see from these trivial examples having Operational BIM is not only saving time and money, but highly reduces risks when buying a property. Looking at the numbers, the value achievable with data is always definitely high, independently of the building's condition and the given situation.

If you like the topic, if you find this useful or interesting, then please repost it, so it can reach more people in our profession. Comments, questions and missing topics are also very welcome.

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