Whether you are moving your office across the street or across the globe, the relocation process is filled with opportunities to make mistakes. Here are five common ones -- and how to avoid them.

Not Understanding Your Current Situation

Once you've decided that it is time to move your office, the first step is to make sure that you know whether or not you're able to actually execute on your plan. Unless you have extremely deep pockets and can afford to cover occupancy costs for two spaces concurrently, carefully review your current lease to find the optimal window for making a move so that you won't get stuck paying for two spaces at once for too long.

Getting a Late Start on Your Relocation

The whole relocation process is extremely complicated and lengthy. You have to

1. Find a general area to which to relocate
2. Find a space
3. Negotiate a letter of intent (LOI)
4. Negotiate a lease
5. Complete your build-out
6. Adjust your business processes for the new location
7. Move in. (Finally!)

While it's possible to complete this process in less than a year, the best strategy is to start your initial assessments 18 to 24 months prior to your actual move. This is especially important if you are doing a major move to a new market as opposed to a move to a building in the same area.

Incorrectly Assessing Your Space Needs

As an early part of your relocation process, carefully consider what your needs will be both at the time of the move and throughout the length of your next lease or your planned period of ownership. After all, when you aren't going to move for at least 18 or 24 months, you don't want to lease space that works today.

In addition to projecting your space needs for the life of your occupancy, overlay the expectations that come with your new space. For instance, if you are moving from a location in Midtown Manhattan to suburban Minneapolis, you might find that workers in that location expect a lot more personal space in their office than people in New York. Some markets have very flat space distributions between workers and lead executives, while others have large differentials in space tied to rank. those cultural and local expectations will impact your space needs in your relocated office.

Failing to Research Every Market Detail

Relocating within the same submarket of the same community might not need a great deal of research, but bigger moves usually do. Opening offices in different markets means subjecting yourself to new rules, regulations and cultures. A simple move from a suburb to the wrong city could subject all of your employees to city income tax. Different jurisdictions can have insurance requirements, different minimum wages and other regulatory quirks. These changes are in addition to zoning issues and use requirements. Without understanding everything that a given location requires, your relocation could end up being much more expensive than you expect.

Going It Alone

When you decide to go through a relocation, it makes sense to get all of the help that you can. An expert tenant representative can either share his local market knowledge with you or use his network of local representatives to obtain that local know-how for you. Given that a tenant rep's service is free to you, going it alone is the worst mistake that you can make as a part of your next relocation.

Here are a few other articles to check out:

Five Office Metrics That Still Matter

5 Things to Keep in Mind When Relocating Your Office

Thinking About Moving? 4 Reasons To Keep Your Office Lease

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