REoptimizer^® Blog

For corporate tenants who only think about commercial real estate when it comes time to search for new office space to rent, the industry may not seem like one that is technologically advanced; however, technology in the world of commercial real estate is being developed at a lightning fast speed and providing a better experience for tenants. Here are just a few of the ways that technology is affecting commercial real estate for tenants.

Choosing the right term for your office lease can be a delicate balancing act. On one side, you probably want to get as much as possible from your landlord in terms of concessions while also maximizing your ability to control your space for as long as you need it. On the other side, you also want to have flexibility and the ability to move out of a space quickly if it stops suiting your needs. Given these conflicting desires, choosing the right term takes careful consideration.

When you're searching for that perfect commercial space to lease and negotiating your contract, it's important to know what features, clauses and terms are must-haves; however, it's equally vital that you know when you should consider walking away from the table. The following are some deal breakers that should make you think more than twice about signing any lease:

Rent escalation clauses are standard parts of most commercial real estate leases. If your company rents space, your rents are probably set up to go up automatically over time. While escalations of a percent or two (or three or four) per year might not necessarily seem like a big deal, they can actually have a large impact on your occupancy cost over the period of time that many leases span.

Your warehouse space is more than just a place for you to store inventory, raw materials, file overflow or equipment. It's an important part of your logistics, operations or record-keeping functions, so you want to make sure that the space you choose is right for your business needs. Your tour of the space is your chance to see for yourself whether or not a particular warehouse location is ideal for your company. Follow these tips to make sure that you make the most of it:

The way your company approaches real estate is an excellent way to also approach your technology portfolio. Odds are that when it comes to real estate, you rent most if not all of what you occupy and, if you own real estate, it is because that property really fits your needs and you are sure that you want to make a long-term commitment to it.

While drones -- also known as unmanned aircraft systems or UAS-- are already revolutionizing the way that the commercial real estate brokerage world markets properties, their benefits extend to tenants and users as well. The ability to get a view of your property and its surroundings from above enables you to manage, maintain and optimize your portfolio in new and exciting ways.

In this final installment of our series on the office space questions you should ask, we turn to the physical space itself. While some of these questions might seem a bit redundant, the idea is to attempt to combine the real-world information that you have gleaned from talking with your team with a more theoretical view gained from thinking about the space from your perspective as an expert (or from the perspective of the experts you are dealing with). Combining what your field people tell you they want with what an expert would see and recommend will arm you with the best possible strategy as you move into locating and negotiating your new office space.