Absolute NNN Properties for Sale

One clause: roof and structure. A standard NNN lease pushes taxes, insurance, and maintenance to the tenant but often leaves the building shell — roof replacement, structural repairs, sometimes parking-lot capital work — with the landlord. An absolute-net lease assigns everything, without exception, to the tenant. If a hurricane takes the roof, the tenant rebuilds it. The distinction is worth 25–50 basis points of cap rate and every hour of landlord time you never spend.

Ground-lease tenants by definition (McDonald's, Chick-fil-A — they own their buildings), c-store operators on corporate paper (7-Eleven, Wawa, Circle K, tanks included), newer Dollar General prototypes, drugstores (Walgreens and CVS legacy leases are famously absolute), and most sale-leaseback paper from car washes and QSR refranchising. When a broker says 'NNN,' ask for the maintenance article; when it says the tenant handles roof, structure, and parking with no landlord obligations whatsoever, it's absolute.

For truly passive investors — out-of-state owners, 1031 buyers replacing management-heavy assets, anyone who never wants a 2 a.m. call — usually yes. The exception is when the premium overprices the actual risk: paying 40 extra basis points to avoid roof exposure on a 3-year-old building with a 20-year warranty is buying insurance you already own. On older buildings, the premium is cheap; on new construction, run the math.

They're the default choice. With no operational duties, distance stops mattering — a Florida absolute-net Wawa owned from California behaves identically to one owned from Miami. That's why exchange buyers dominate this segment: sell an eight-unit apartment building with its tenants and toilets, replace it with mailbox income backed by corporate credit, and the only ongoing work is depositing rent and filing taxes.