As a corporate tenant, you may have a lot to worry about. From managing your existing leases to negotiating for the best terms in a new space, the responsibilities never end.
The bad news? Your CRE tasks will just keep coming regardless of how busy you already are.
The good news? You never have to carry the weight of CRE responsibilities on just your shoulders.
As Tenant Reps, we take the pain out of corporate real estate. 30+ years of duty with our corporate clients have given us invaluable insight into exactly where and how tenants could use assistance.
So, if you’re responsible for your company’s CRE, read. We’ll outline the problems you have (or maybe didn’t even know were problems) that a Tenant Rep can solve.
3. You're Losing Money on Wasted Space
4. You’re Not Sure What Terms are in Your Best Interest
5. You're Managing Multiple Leases
6. You’re Feeling Outmatched by Your Landlord & Their Broker
1. You’re Overpaying for Rent
You have the freedom to adapt your CRE to your company’s evolving needs. This is especially true if you are several years into an existing lease.
The market may look completely different from the day you signed your lease. If it began a few years ago, you’re probably paying through the nose for an expensive base rent and compounding yearly escalations. This can be especially true when the overall economy tanks. As seen below.
What could have been a great deal at the time is actively losing you money now as the market prices of neighboring properties are plummeting. If this is true for you, don’t get frustrated. Just because you signed a lease doesn’t mean that you don’t have the ability to renegotiate.
Think of it like this: the worst possible scenario for landlords is vacant space. Once you know this, you can understand how truly valuable your tenancy is. Your landlord wants to take as few risks as possible with their budget and properties. This often means doing whatever they can to keep you in their spaces, especially if you have a reputation as a reliable tenant. Keeping you ensures they can rely on an established, trustworthy monetary commitment.
So, if you’re overpaying for rent and don’t know how to reset your payments to the current market value, a Tenant Rep can. Tenant Reps know that landlords may bend over backward for the right tenant (and yes, this means reducing your rent)
2. You Want to Relocate (But Don’t Know Where to Start)
You quite literally have the world at your fingertips if you’re looking to relocate your company. Whether you are looking to move down the block, into the suburbs, or across the country, you have countless options. But, it can be impossible to know where to start without guidance.
Maybe you don’t know the best area for you to move to. Luckily, Tenant Reps are experts in market research. Their ability to find the best state, city, region, or address ensures that you get the most out of your CRE $ and the terms that match your needs.
Florida has quickly become one of corporate America's hottest spots
Tenant Reps don’t only keep an eye on trends like where Americans are moving and where the best states for business are, they also conduct a thorough cost analysis of how each prospective region will affect your bottom line.
With 30+ years of experience helping clients successfully relocate, as Tenant Reps, we have broken down the process of finding new office space into a science, well, more like a course. A free course you can take right now!
Once you find a new property, Tenant Reps will ensure that its terms are in your best interest, its price saves you money, and their efficiency saves you time.
3. You’re Losing Money on Wasted Space
The thing on every CRE professional’s mind right now is wasted space. With so many mainstream organizations cutting down on their corporate footprints, others are wondering how to do the same. Tenant Reps can solve wasted space concerns by first tracking your spatial utilization through a process known as Right-sizing.
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Right-sizing begins with measuring where there are opportunities to improve your space disposition and capitalizing on them. |
Right-sizing works because landlords may be willing to reduce your footprint if you sign on for a longer term. Again, the most valuable thing to them is securing a long-term tenant. Use this to your advantage.
If you’re unrepresented and find that you have underutilized space, you may not even know where to start to rectify the issue and get your money back. Tenant Reps will negotiate with your landlord to improve the likelihood of successful renegotiation.
Even if your landlord won't concede to cut your footprint, a Tenant Rep can help you sublease. Whether this means renegotiating with your landlord to strengthen your ability to sublease or finding a subtenant, a Tenant Rep can take the weight off your shoulders.
4. You’re Not Sure What Terms are in Your Best Interest
Corporate leases are often 80+ pages. So we don’t blame you if you ever feel daunted by the prospect of diving into this legal document, which is jam-packed with dangerous clauses and terms.
Imagine you’re a transaction manager working on six deals at a time- each with 80-page leases drafted by sophisticated attorneys (if you're reading this article, maybe you don't have to imagine.) You will want to rely on your legal team and Tenant Rep, who has no conflicts of interest and will go through the leases with a fine tooth comb. They will point out - as they inevitably always do where the lease differs from the agreed business terms and what is accepted in the local marketplace.
But if the same transaction manager was using a conflicted broker, do you think the broker, whose company has a relationship with that same landlord, will point out the gotchas?
Leases are drafted by your landlord’s broker and legal team. So, what way do you think the document is going to lean? Ever heard of a home team advantage? Don’t just play defense to the terms already outlined. You may be even more at risk of losing your rights (or money) based on what isn’t included.
Have a Tenant Rep go on the offense.
They will thoroughly analyze the terms in the lease (and what may have been conveniently omitted). Then, they will submit a new draft to your landlord’s team. If need be, they will do this process again and again until the lease is drafted in your best interest.
5. You’re Managing Multiple Leases
If you’re managing the entirety of your company's corporate real estate portfolio, you have a lot on your plate. (But we don’t need to tell you that!)
It can be an overwhelming, nearly impossible task. If you’re in this position, you could very well be juggling 10,20,30+ properties, when they renew, when they expire, when their rent escalates, etc.
So, ditch the CRE excel sheet with infinite tabs and hand your troubles to your friendly neighborhood Tenant Rep.
Not only do they assist corporate tenants in managing everything from important dates to opportunities for renegotiation, but they may have sophisticated software to do so- (maybe not all, but we certainly do!)
Essentially, you don’t have to stress over constantly finding the right solution for every active corporate lease. Consider the time and energy (and hair lost to stress) this would save.
6. You’re Feeling Outmatched by Your Landlord & Their Broker
When corporate tenants go it alone, they’re leaving themselves vulnerable to the combined power of the sophisticated landlord and broker. Luckily, there is no need to ever feel unarmed regarding your CRE.
Tenant Reps level the playing field.
Landlords and their brokers conduct deals in the corporate real estate world daily. Think about how their market intelligence would stack up against a tenant who enters the market every five years ago when a lease expires. It is truly a disaster waiting to happen.
While almost anyone can learn to negotiate, experience helps. Most tenants that go it alone might be great negotiators, but they aren't the best commercial lease negotiator at the table.
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Given the complexity of commercial real estate negotiations, specific experience in the industry is crucial. |
Tenant Reps know the best methods to leverage your tenancy. They create competition for your valuable business and put the landlord’s broker attempting to back you into a corner in their place.
We don’t have anything against landlord brokers- we just know that they have a legal fiduciary to get your landlord the best deal. Don’t you want someone who can do the same for you?
Working With a Tenant Rep Broker
As you understand, a Tenant Rep can be an invaluable asset for your corporate properties. Getting the most bang for your CRE buck is critical because real estate is typically an organization’s second highest cost. So, savings (and price gauges) here go a long way to influencing your entire bottom line.
At iOptimize Realty®, we are Tenant Reps who act as your ad hoc special CRE department. We have 30 years of experience ensuring that our clients get the lowest prices, the best properties, and the most optimal terms and features. We stop problems before they happen.
Ready to have solutions to your CRE problems now? Schedule a meeting with a rep who has the answers.
Want to work with a Tenant Rep, but aren't sure where to start? Learn more about finding the right rep for your business with The Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Tenant Rep.
Wondering where to begin?
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