It will vary a lot depending on whether you are in a small town or a large one. Most business space leases start out at about 3 years because most of the leasing companies expect to do some modifications for the tenant and want to know the tenant will be around to recoup the costs. however, there are some cases where you can get a single year lease if you look around. Single year tends to be expensive though (all commercial space tends to be overpriced in my opinion...a lot of cash for an essentially empty room). I haven't seen any "month to month" on commercial space but it may exist if you look long enough.
Most commercial space is rented on a "triple net" basis (often called NNN). This means that the tenants of the units share ALL costs for maintenance, water, outside lighting, management fees, etc. This can really add up. For example, if the landlord decides the parking lot needs re-paving or the building painting, you are stuck for you proportion of the costs (even if you don't think it needed to be done).
Currently, my 1536 square foot place costs about 1100 a month (seattle area) and the NNN is another couple of hundred a month. This may give you an idea of the costs of commercial space in a fairly large metropolitan area.
Oh yea...one of the most common lawsuits is broken business leases. Don't expect to back out of a lease early in the commercial end without getting nailed.
I would avoid true commercial space and see if there is someone willing to lease "barn" space or something similar. The other option is to shop around for someone who actually owns the space and uses most for their own business. They may have some surplus space they can rent you with fewer problems.
Koz
AL wrote: