Welcome to this first portion of a three-part series about income property. In this first segment we will be discussing financing options for commercial income properties as well as upside (and downside) of owning this type of property.

If you're interested in getting into income property business, chances are you'll need financial assistance from your local bank or private lending institution. You'll soon discover that making sense of many different options available can be confusing if not down right frustrating. If you're new to income property market you may be unfamiliar with some of terminology you'll hear. The purpose of this article is to assist novice in getting a good start in this potentially lucrative industry.

There are many different options available to you depending on type of income property you're interested in investing in. Most lenders will recognize three separate and distinct types of property, each with it's own financing requirements. These properties include commercial, residential, and industrial income property.

Commercial Income Property

If you plan to invest in a commercial income property, you're probably planning to rent building to retail businesses for use as office or warehouse space. As a commercial income property owner you can benefit from a perk not usually available to residential or industrial income property owners; you have option to charge a percentage of your tenants monthly income in addition to a set monthly rent.

This percentage is usually based on gross monthly sales revenue of your tenant. For example, rental contract may include a $5000 per month base rent amount plus 5% of tenant's gross sales for month. If you're tenant brought in $20,000 of revenue last month, you get an additional $1000 on top of $5000 base. You may be unfamiliar with this type of arrangement, but it is actually quite common.

After all, real estate is such a significant purchase for most people that you’d think people would be only too ready to think twice and long and hard before committing to purchase – especially when buying abroad where rules and customs differ greatly to what we may be used to.

But it seems that so many people are seduced by sunshine in Spain and by aggressive and slick agents and developers that they are willing to purchase unseen, to buy off-plan or even remotely via internet and to basically purchase without slightest clue about just what it is they’re getting for their money.

People are buying Spanish property without completion of surveys, without employing independent legal advice, without considering long term investment potential of their property and without considering practicalities of owning a second home in an overseas location…and what’s more worrying is fact that due to Spain’s universal appeal more and more people are doing so every year.

So, time has come to promote idea of applying a cautious approach to buying property in Spain starting with - don’t leave your brain on plane…

When you arrive in Spain you will undoubtedly be seduced by surroundings of your chosen destination, you will be able to immerse yourself in dream of owning a home in idyllic location and living a holiday-like lifestyle all year round should you so choose…and these feelings will leave you elated but vulnerable to traps and pitfalls that are there at every stage of property buying process. Remember, those traps and pitfalls exist in every country in world and do not change just because you’ve change country!