Tenant lease information, including lease expirations, are now fairly public and available through online databases. Also, lead generators from places like officebroker.comand officefinder.com place thousands of calls per month to spin off leads to brokers across the globe. Real estate brokerage companies also compile this information as part of their everyday deal-making and property management activity. Real estate brokers depend heavily on lease expiration information to rifle-approach their marketing activity for leasing representations and or prospecting for their own listings.
Think about this in your business. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could know exactly when a "buying decision" was REQUIRED to be made for your product or service? And you could focus solely on those HOT PROSPECTS which may consider your product or service? In real estate, and in particular office leasing, the tenant lease expiration is a major financial juncture where you will be obligating in one way or another to a commitment to lease office space - either short-term, long-term, relocation, expansion or contraction. Even if you believe remaining at your present location is likely, all the brokers will work to have you hire them to handle the transaction as well. Other buildings eager for new tenants will send in their real estate agents to steal you away from your present landlord.
So, like it or not, they are just starting long before you want to. With the leasing process taking a year to complete, and with renewal option language sometimes requiring 6-9 months prior notice, you actually HAVE TO deal with the leasing decision long before you THINK you must. Brokers do this every day of the year. You do it once in a blue moon. This is why all the contact by brokers appears to be overwhelming. But, you can convert the fire-hose of contacts into extremely valuable information and leverage for you.
The only thing missing is YOUR ability to screen and qualify the professionals from the pack; the experts from the B-Players; the high-value tenant reps from the generalists; the highest level of services from the agents who "just do deals"; the specialists who represent just tenants from the agents who represent landlords; and agencies which also represent landlords and developers of industrial and retail estate while representing tenants.
Here is a good check list to use to scrub all the input, calls and material you receive from real estate brokers. Then, select the one firm which passes muster in all categories - separating the wheat from the chaff. There are just too many generalists and conflicts. Your job is to select the specialist with the most services, with zero conflicts of interest, at no cost to you - to hire the best in class.
BROKER SCRUB SYSTEM
Collect all the information from all the real estate agents, including their marketing material and details from their website. As you work you way down the Broker Scrub List, those brokers that do not meet that specific Scrub Item, set that broker aside for future evaluation, retaining the brokers that do meet that Scrub item.
Agent AND THEIR COMPANY must be Subject Matter Experts in Office Tenant
Representation
Must not take listings or presently representing a landlord's building (either in general or specifically for me as their tenant)
Must not have an ownership in or close
relationship with a developer of any kind of real estate
Must have no other conflicts of interest
Must have, in-house, full capacity to develop workplace efficiency
Must have, in-house, full capacity to develop space planning, test fits and construction drawings
Must have, in-house, the ability to fully vet building technical differences
Must have, in-house, full capacity to develop preliminary construction cost estimating, at no cost to me.
Must have, in-house, full capacity for evaluation and execution of move management needs
Must not simultaneously work in multiple, disassociated disciplines like land sales, industrial and retail real estate
Of course, not every company or agent will make it through the gamut of the above Scrub List. Tenant representation, which is now governed by Buyers Agency laws in most states - meaning you as the tenant are owed the highest and best service and fiduciary - is becoming a highly-specialized discipline. It is heart or brain surgery requiring that you best set aside the generalist.
Companies and agents will market themselves as the perfect choice. This would be true - but it is in THEIR mind. What you need is the perfect choice based on what is in YOUR mind, supported by your ability to scrub all the possibilities through the above list.
Nothing contained herein is to be considered legal advice. Always seek legal advice when evaluating any legal document
