It will be many years before you have to undertake such a project again, and in some cases you may never, either by default or design.The message here is mastery and control over all elements, rendering you never to be subordinate or reactive to the elements, as so often is the case in office leasing and in real estate.Your employees will be affected by this, even your spouse will notice possible stress as you undertake an office relocation or renewal.These tips will enable you to avoid all stress relative to this undertaking.If you do become stressed out, read this website again or the relative section.State to your team members the same thing and give them a copy of this website to keep handy.
Also, don’t negotiate all things at once.Plan which items you should stage along the line.Office leases are substantial financial instruments, even if you are a smaller tenant.Don’t spill your jellybeans in the lobby.If you know that you will be seeking a large concession from the landlord or asking for his acceptance of a particularly thorny element, then negotiate to agreement on some items and hold back others until the landlord has sufficiently invested the amount of time, energy and money to think you are nearly at the alter.Do this with your present landlord as well if you intend to renew, but don’t let him think you intend to remain.If you need some time or more leverage to keep the landlord on the hook, nothing gets a landlord quite so pregnant like asking him for a large photograph, rendering of the building or an aerial photo to share with employees and customers. Or, ask the landlord for a draft lease document for initial review.Whether you are sincere or not about your real intent, this type of request produces endorphins and serotonin in all landlords.
Turn the negotiations around.Instead of submitting an RFP (Request for Proposal) from the landlord, to whom you would then be reactive in the negotiation, submit an Offer to Lease proposal of your own in the form of a Summary of Salient Terms.A letter of intent, while not binding, certainly creates the stage that you intend to do something.But you may not.You may be just negotiating for better terms with one landlord, or at another building altogether, or even to re-lease where you are.Use the media if you need to.It hurts no one if the paper “discovers” you are considering the county location, when it is the terms with the city location you are actually seeking to improve.
Above all, enjoy this process, because it is multi-faceted and brings a large pool of personalities and talented people into the scene.And, let’s be honest. No one ever died from leasing office space. But everyone that does is participating in the great industrial, capitalist machine: to be better, healthier, wealthier and wiser tomorrow than today.
