Turning ABANDONED Buildings into GOLD (No Experience Needed)
Most investors drive past abandoned buildings and see a mess. I see money. In this video, I’ll show you how to turn boarded-up, forgotten buildings into serious profit — even if you’ve never done a commercial real estate deal before. Over the past few years, I’ve repositioned more than $75 million in neglected and underperforming properties — from a 12,000 sq. ft. abandoned office building in South Nashville, to a 9-story vacant tower in Chattanooga, to a caved-in roof project here in East Nashville that’s already generated $600K in equity before construction even started. You’ll learn:
Why abandoned buildings are the best-kept secret in commercial real estate
The 3-part framework I use to separate money pits from gold mines
How to find upside using zoning, incentives, and local demand
Real examples of deals I’ve done — including one that went from $400K purchase to over $1M in value without a single tenant
This isn’t about flipping houses or buying turnkey properties. It’s about creating value where others see failure — and building long-term wealth through commercial real estate.
Get commercial real estate coaching, courses, and community to jumpstart your investment journey over at CRE Central: www.crecentral.com
Key Takeaways:
Abandoned buildings offer hidden investment opportunities that most investors overlook
Evaluate potential properties using a three-part framework:
Location-driven demand
Structure adaptability
Zoning and incentives
Steps to get started:
Understand construction costs
Research tenant demand
Learn to creatively reimagine building spaces
Profit potential comes from:
Buying properties at low square footage prices
Transforming them to create income-based value
Potentially generating six to seven-figure profits
Key mindset:
See potential where others see problems
Don't be deterred by lack of current cash flow
Look for buildings others consider too risky or complicated
Practical advice:
Start small
Take action
Build momentum
Learn about your local market
About Your Host:
Tyler Cauble, Founder & President of The Cauble Group, is a commercial real estate broker and investor based in East Nashville. He’s the best selling author of Open for Business: The Insider’s Guide to Leasing Commercial Real Estate and has focused his career on serving commercial real estate investors.
Episode Transcript:
Tyler Cauble 0:00
What if I told you that the ugliest, most forgotten buildings in your city, the ones with the boarded up windows, the cracked sidewalks and roofs caving in, might actually be your biggest opportunity. I'm Tyler Cobble. I'm founder and CEO of crecentral.com and I've repositioned over $75 million in neglected and underperforming real estate, and I'm going to show you exactly how I do it and how you can too, even if you've never done a deal before.
Tyler Cauble 0:33
One of the first buildings that I ever bought was back in 2019 a 12,000 square foot, two story office building in South Nashville. It had been abandoned for years. The previous owner had moved out, and the place just sat empty. It needed a full makeover, but I knew exactly what to do with it. Since then, I've gone on to reposition towers in downtown Chattanooga, an abandoned wool factory in Georgia, and most recently, I bought a 4000 square foot building right here in East Nashville with the roof completely caved in. That's right, no tenants, no roof, no utilities, and already that deal has generated over $600,000 in value for me before I've even started construction. This video isn't about flipping houses or chasing turnkey deals. It's about understanding how to unlock hidden value, and how you can turn abandoned buildings into serious profit without needing a massive track record or a development team behind you. When most people drive past an abandoned building, they see a mess. I see money, and that's the difference. See, when you buy a stabilized property, one that's been renovated and leased up and turned around, you're paying a premium for someone else's work, sure that might feel safer. It also means that your upside is extremely limited. You can't create much value when it's already been created. But when you buy a building that's boarded up, it's sitting vacant, it has zero cash flow, you're buying potential. You can often acquire those buildings on a price per square foot basis, and then once you turn it around, you can sell it, or even just refinance it, do a little commercial bur based on income using a cap rate. See, that's the difference between the square footage price you paid and the income based value that you created. That's where the wealth is built. Many investors don't want to touch these deals. They think they're too risky, they're too complicated. They don't know where to start, especially if they're coming from residential real estate, where you're used to getting clean comps and cash flow from day one, even if it is 100 bucks a month and more conventional financing. But the truth is, these abandoned properties are often the best kept secret in commercial real estate. They're overlooked. They are under priced, and if you have the right strategy, they can generate six, even seven figures of profit with no competition inside. So how do you actually know if an abandoned building is worth chasing? I run every opportunity through a simple three part framework, and this is how I separate a money pit from a gold mine. First, location driven demand. You need to understand what the surrounding neighborhood actually needs. I spend most of my time in East Nashville. I've lived here. I work here. I know the people, and I pay attention to the businesses that are missing. Sometimes it's a lack of service based retail. Sometimes it's office space or event space, but you only figure that out by being on the ground and talking to the community. Second structure adaptability, not every building is worth saving. Yes, anything can be repurposed, and based on some of the projects I've done, you can definitely see that. But that doesn't mean that it always should be. The question is, how much is it going to cost, and are the returns worth it? You've got to run the numbers if you don't know how to analyze deals yet, I've put together a free deal analysis toolkit with checklists and commercial real estate calculators that walk you through my exact process. That link is in the description below. Third is zoning and incentives. This is one of the biggest advantages that newer investors actually overlook. Zoning tells you what's possible, not just what's there today. If a property is zoned for something better than its current use, you might be sitting on a massive opportunity, and if the city is offering tax incentives or grant money for the redevelopment in that area, even better. Learn how to read your local zoning maps, and you'll see things that other investors completely miss. This is how we find upside and abandoned buildings. We look at demand, we evaluate cost to reposition, and we unlock that potential through the zoning. Now if you're brand new to commercial real estate, and you've never tackled something like this before, here's how I'd recommend you get started, even if all you've done is flip the house or just watch some of my YouTube videos, step number one is to understand your construction costs. Now this doesn't mean that you have to become a Contractor, but you do need to have a sense of what it costs to bring a building back to life, from roofs to HVAC to. Finish out, walk abandoned properties. Go talk to your local contractors. Build a basic cost per square foot model in your area. Step two, get to know tenant demand. Who would actually want to lease space in this neighborhood? What kinds of businesses are thriving nearby? Spend time talking to local shop owners and restaurateurs service providers, if there's unmet demand, that's where the opportunity is. Step three, learn how to creatively lay out and structure a building for maximizing your income. Just because a space was once used as a church or an old office doesn't mean it has to stay that way. One of my favorite things to do is to reimagine how a building could serve the market today. Could it be carved into micro suites, used as a venue, converted to flex or creative office? The biggest mistake that I see new investors make is thinking that these deals are out of reach, that if a building isn't cash flowing, that it's not worth touching. But some of the most profitable deals I've ever done, including an entirely abandoned nine story office tower didn't generate a single dollar in income when I bought them, and that's exactly why they were available. Let me give you a real example of what this looks like in practice. So earlier this year, I bought an abandoned 4000 square foot building here in East Nashville, as I said a minute ago, it wasn't just vacant. The roof is completely caved in. It had some environmental issues. It isn't even close to move in ready. Most people would have walked away, and a lot of people did, because they figured it was just way too much work. But we bought it off market for 400 grand. Now remember, no tenants, no rent roll, no cash flow, but the location was strong, and I had a vision for how to use it. I knew there was a need for event space in that part of town, and the building's layout and zoning gave me the flexibility to make that happen today, just based on cops, that building is already worth over a million dollars. That's a $600,000 lift in equity before we've even swung a hammer. We're working with architects now to reimagine the space, and once we build it out and bring it online, we're expecting it to appraise it well over $2 million that's the power of buying based on square footage and exiting based on the income produced. That's how you turn an abandoned building, one that no one else is touching, into serious profit. So if you're sitting there thinking, Yeah, but I don't have enough experience to do something like that. Let me stop you right there. You don't need experience. You just need exposure. Start walking properties. Start asking questions, start learning how your local market works. The knowledge is out there, and if you're willing to chase it, you'll be miles ahead of everyone else who's still sitting on the sidelines. We've got hundreds of videos on this YouTube channel breaking down commercial real estate step by step. We've got that free deal analysis toolkit. It'll show you how to underwrite opportunities the right way in the description below. And if you're serious about going deeper, we've got a full course, and even a mastermind community designed to help you scale. But the most important thing that you can do right now, take action, start small and just build momentum. From there, drop your city in the comments, I'll tell you exactly what I would be looking for in your market, and don't forget the buildings that everyone else overlooks. Those are the ones with the most potential.
Everyone knows what the wealthy drive and wear — but few know what they buy to build true wealth: Triple Net (and absolute net) properties.
These “boring” commercial real estate deals quietly deliver predictable, passive cash flow month after month, with tenants like CVS, Dollar General, and 7-Eleven paying not just rent but also taxes, insurance, and maintenance.
No clogged toilets. No late-night calls. Just checks in the mail.