In this article, you'll learn:

• Dual roles in commercial real estate brokerages often lead to conflicts of interest.
• Why tenants often get less favorable deals when brokers also represent landlords.
• Legal cases that highlight conflicts of interest in commercial real estate.

When you hear, see, or read the name “commercial real estate brokerages,” what comes to mind?
Someone who works to finds tenants the best deal? Or, someone who works for landlords to find them tenants?
What your answer is will depend on what end of the spectrum you are, but if you are a tenant, you should hopefully see that the two points above can’t exist in the same broker. That is an apparent conflict of interest. Why then do commercial real estate corporate service firms play both sides of the coin like this?
Major commercial real estate firms have made their empires by representing both tenants and landlords. But while they benefit in this arrangement, the tenant consistently is at the short end of the stick. This means that tenants need to be hyper-aware of the professional they choose to represent their real estate transactions and their portfolio. Let’s discuss the conflict, why corporate tenants usually are at the disadvantage, and the evolving legal landscape surrounding the process.