San Antonio · Purchase
For a practice with stable providers, owning the building can beat renting it. We run both sets of numbers before you decide, and represent you on the purchase.
Check your lease free Talk to usOwning is not automatically better, and the honest answer depends on how long the practice will stay, how specialized the build-out is, and whether the down payment is better spent on the practice itself. What makes it worth checking is that the comparison is rarely close: either the numbers clearly favor owning, or they clearly do not.
An owner-user practice buying its own building can often do it with far less money down than a conventional commercial purchase requires, because the SBA-504 program exists for exactly this case. It has rules, including how much of the building you must occupy, and it takes longer to close. It also turns rent into equity in a building you control.
Find the candidates, including buildings that are not formally listed, price them against real comparable sales, and negotiate the contract. Buyer representation is typically paid out of the sale commission, so it generally costs a buyer nothing directly.
Both sets of numbers over the same holding period, including down payment, debt service, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and what the rent alternative would have cost over the same years.
The SBA-504 structure, occupancy requirements, timing, and what lenders will want from the practice's financials.
San Antonio has real inventory of small medical buildings and condo suites that suit a single practice, including near the South Texas Medical Center and along the Huebner corridor.
For practices that cannot find the right building, a pad site or small tract with a build-to-suit. Longer, more expensive, and occasionally the only answer that works.
Common Questions
It depends mostly on how long you will stay. Ownership tends to win for practices with a stable provider group and a long horizon, and lose for practices that might outgrow the space or change hands within a few years. We run both, and we will tell you when leasing wins.
Far less through an SBA-504 owner-user loan than through a conventional commercial mortgage, which is the main reason practices are able to buy at all. The exact figure depends on the lender, the building, and the practice's financials, so it is worth a conversation with a lender early rather than assuming the conventional number.
Sometimes. Landlords sell for their own reasons, and a sitting tenant with a good payment history is an easy buyer. Your lease may also contain a right of first refusal you have forgotten. It costs nothing to ask.
Both. Buyer representation is typically paid out of the sale commission.
Part Of A National Healthcare Practice
In July 2026 Partners Real Estate added Crown Tenant Advisors, an Atlanta firm that has represented only healthcare tenants and buyers since 2009, and launched Partners Healthcare Services: a practice built specifically for medical, dental, and veterinary clients. We are the San Antonio and South Texas arm of it.
That matters when your practice grows past one market. Partners was founded in 1997, has more than 300 professionals, and serves 55 U.S. markets from offices in San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Nashville. The healthcare team is licensed across Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama.
And where we do not have an office, we do not hand you to a junior broker in a branch. We bring in the best broker in that market, whatever firm they work for, and run the assignment with them. One relationship covers your second location, whether it is across 1604 or across the country.
We will run buy versus lease on your actual numbers and tell you which side wins.
Call (210) 384-2342 Email the team