Hubby and I were discussing office workers working online from home. We are hearing they like it and don't want to go back to working in the office. Businesses are saying it's working and they can reduce office space. UPS husband says alot of the downtown Milwaukee office buildings are ghostlike without many working in them. How will commercial owners fill their buildings like the brick and mortar stores that moved to online sales.

Will that solve some of the housing needs in the future?

Most of our residents are now working from home indefinetly so need more home space to do so. The 2 bedroom units with 2 working at home are moving to 3 bedroom units to each have an office plus a bedroom to sleep in. The 1 bedroom units that work at home want a two bedroom so they have an office to work in and one to sleep in. Businesses are shifting expenses onto workers in the form of home office space, home internet and the utilities to pay for them. Now businesses pay less as they fly fewer people to meetings and less entertainment and meal expenses.

Any creative thoughts on how we can work this to our advantage without government control? i.e. renting "office space" with living quarters instead of living quarters with office space.

Work from home is here to stay...for some. The type of work, as well as the type of individual determine whether an office is required to get the work done. Some people require constant supervision.

Another thought is that for work from home to be viable, employees must want to retain the job. It must be a job with compensation that is as high as the employee thinks he can land elsewhere. Additionally, a person with chaotic home life won’t likely work from home for long.

I suspect that over the next 5 years that office buildings/retail buildings being repurposed into residential buildings will boost the supply of apartments pressuring rent rates.

People with good jobs working from home will likely disperse across the globe. They will become increasingly difficult to market to.

My personal and informal poll of people working at home yields this: those without kids love it/those with kids hate it; those who are introverts love it/extraverts hate it.

A relative's visiting nurse is in a tough spot - hubby works from home as I.T. support, often 10 hour days, and really can't deal with toddler at the same time while nurse mom is out working. Older kids are in school two days, home three. So when nurse mom works, she has to cobble together daycare for 1-3 children, AND make sure that older two children's schooling is done. She loves doing home care, but just finished her Bachelor's degree online so that she can get a job at the local hospital and do second or third shift, eliminating the child care need.

Re-purposing sounds like a very wise and practical approach - that is until you get the government involved. The government is her to help you with health and safety.

After you start completing the daunting task of dealing with zoning, building codes, use and planning, special assessments and ordinances - I believe you will find more places torn down than rebuilt.

Here's an idea:

Buy an older travel trailer that needs some work. Many are available for under $1000. Rip out the kitchen, bath, bedroom area and convert it into a moveable office. A little wiring modification and leave a small wet bar in it for coffee, etc. Plenty of room for an office setup. Maybe you're into it for $2000 or so after modifications. Make it available to those who want it, Park it in their driveway or beside the house.

Thing is, some people are are saying that this work from home thing will become permanent. I think that's a "Maybe".

Anyway, if they move or work from home is not permanent, you can move your rolling office.

Maybe rent it to the company they work for to get extra income. If you're into it for $2000-$3000, even if you get $200 a month/$2400 a year, that's a huge percentage return on an investment (near 100 percent a year).

I have been working from home 5 days a week since the middle of 2012. I will never go back to a "cube farm" unless I have no other choice, and I'm working to exit this set up in the next 2-3 years via replacing my day job income with real estate. I might stick around since it's not bad work (I.T. - Software Engineer), but I don't like being on call one week a month. Still, it's a steady check. Might stay on as a 2-3 day per week contractor. We have quite a few folks who have done this, and the company is happy to retain their vast system knowledge but not have to pay for bennies and be able to flex their payroll if needed (i.e. easier to lay off contractors vs. employees).

All that said: this environment is NOT for everyone. I'm not an introvert, but neither do I require constant day-to-day face time. I can work 3 days in a row without getting a phone call and be happy. I enjoy seeing my wife and kids more. The commute is awesome. The coffee is incomparable to the office swill. And.... as you've probably figured out...my schedule is flexible enough that I can fire off a testing process and spend a few minutes catching up with Mr. LL whereas in the old days I would just be sitting at a screen waiting for a huge data query to return results. Tick, tock, tick, tock....

I think somewhere between 20-50% of people working at home today will continue to do so. The benefits to the businesses cannot be overstated. Also, people don't have to move any more, so look for folks who live in less expensive areas to underbid those who want to live in expensive states when negotiating salaries. I live in a very low cost of living area: my salary would have to be about double what it is now to live in California or the New England states. I have the competitive advantage of needing less salary to live well vs. those who live in high cost of living cities. As long as I have good internet access, I can do just as much work as someone in L.A. or New York. For smaller companies and start ups, access to a vast, cheaper pool of available talent will be a game changer. Older companies are gradually adapting, as usual, but will probably always have some degree of corporate office buildings.

What will happen to the office space that is left behind? Around here people are turning a lot of empty retail space into climate controlled self-storage. Retired men with cars are renting office space for the shop they've always wanted so they can tinker with cars. I've thought about getting some office space and carving it up into mini-man caves / she sheds....places for people to socialize and hang out. Just so long as they don't live there, anyone can set up a "hobby shop" or whatever.

Bring in fiber and include Gigabit Internet with your multi-unit rentals. Push this hard in advertising. Up your rents. Hire an outside MSP to manage it if necessary. You'll still bring in better money even paying someone to manage, IMO.

Get those work-at-home people. They'll pay the premium.

- John...

The percentage of people who will be productive at home without supervision is quite small. The work from home situation can't go on very very long.

Our large company did a survey of managers and all reported high if not INCREASED production.

I am most productive at home. I can manage my home, prep meals if desired, I save on upkeep maintenance such as clothes, hair etc.

I save a TON on gas and am very happy about the car mileage (and oil changes, tire rotations) I save which enhances my car value.

My work day is shorter, no need to get up 3 hours before work for business casual dressing and commuting. I can replace the commute time for a quick bike ride or walk.

Often, I don't take a lunch, maybe a couple of 15 minute breaks but sometimes just restroom break all day if we are busy.

I accessible to my kids should they ever want to pop over for a quick hello since they work 2nd shift and I work first.

My mental and physical are improved since I don't have to worry about worrying for all the terrible accidents I see almost every day or evening and no long commutes in bad weather and no speeding ticket concerns. Don't have to worry about leaving in the dark during daylight savings time or coming home in the dark.

I get to see and feel the the sunshine, step outside or open the door or window, instead of being in a maze of cubes that are all facing AWAY from the windows with loud coughing and sneezing and coworkers constantly asking what you did for the weekend or showing all their kids pictures again.

No annoying loud chewing, constant jabbering from other departments and no going floor to floor searching for a decent restroom.

This has improved my quality of life and finances. If I had a leased car I would never go over miles as I live in a high walk score area and walk a lot for entertainment, food and exercise. My car stays parked for days.

Our large company did a survey of managers and all reported high if not INCREASED production.

I am most productive at home. I can manage my home, prep meals if desired, I save on upkeep maintenance such as clothes, hair etc.

I save a TON on gas and am very happy about the car mileage (and oil changes, tire rotations) I save which enhances my car value.

My work day is shorter, no need to get up 3 hours before work for business casual dressing and commuting. I can replace the commute time for a quick bike ride or walk.

Often, I don't take a lunch, maybe a couple of 15 minute breaks but sometimes just restroom break all day if we are busy.

I accessible to my kids should they ever want to pop over for a quick hello since they work 2nd shift and I work first.

My mental and physical are improved since I don't have to worry about worrying for all the terrible accidents I see almost every day or evening and no long commutes in bad weather and no speeding ticket concerns. Don't have to worry about leaving in the dark during daylight savings time or coming home in the dark.

I get to see and feel the the sunshine, step outside or open the door or window, instead of being in a maze of cubes that are all facing AWAY from the windows with loud coughing and sneezing and coworkers constantly asking what you did for the weekend or showing all their kids pictures again.

No annoying loud chewing, constant jabbering from other departments and no going floor to floor searching for a decent restroom.

This has improved my quality of life and finances. If I had a leased car I would never go over miles as I live in a high walk score area and walk a lot for entertainment, food and exercise. My car stays parked for days.

Mainly angers her "friends" and gets banned now and then. You know -- the usual.

;)

I would expect that all the posters on this forum would be self starters.

The part that you are all missing is that most people don't put in a "sold day's work" while working from WORK either.

There are stats showing that the average person in an 8 hour workday actually does something like under 3 hours of work...

- John...

Typo: I mean "solid day's work" not "sold". :)

- John...

EVERYONE I knew who worked from home back in the day was more productive than those who were forced into an office, with watercooler discussions and endless meetings and interruptions by co-workers, etc. EVEN IF THEY WORKED FEWER THAN the so-called "8 hour day."

My son was sure he would not like working from home, and my DIL wasn't sure either. They are both loving it - and DIL got a promotion and Son got a raise, so their productivity hasn't suffered.

I remember they put me in a cube once and for some reason people stopped by my desk every morning to chat. At different times. I never got my day going until 10 am! So finally I brought in a shower curtain and tension rod and blocked off my cube so people would stop bothering me. It worked.