Tenant Representation

Working with our tenant representation broker will help you find the right property and negotiate the most favorable deal terms that support and align with your long-term business goals. Our tenant representation services include:

• Market analysis
• Property identification and evaluation
• Property tours
• Financial analysis
• Proposal, counter proposal, and LOI negotiation
• Lease and purchase-option negotiation
• Project closeout

Additionally, our tenant representation brokers can connect you with experts offering a variety of services including employer tax incentives, commercial real estate law, commuting optimization, change-management, project management, space planning, interior design, tenant improvement construction process, IT services, furniture solutions, and business relocation.

Works For You – And Only You

Tenant representatives are solely there to protect the tenant’s interests. They help you avoid leases that work great for your landlord but leave you stuck with a less-than-ideal contract.

If you decide to go at it alone, landlord representatives are incentivized to negotiate a lease that benefits their client but may include terms that are bad for you. These may include hidden fees, above-market pricing, detrimental lease language and space specifications that don’t fully align with your business needs.

As a tenant, you are typically only considering a property relocation or lease renewal every five, seven, or ten years. When that time rolls around, you can trust that your best interest will be supported by our industry-leading tenant representation broker. If your business has outgrown your current lease space or your lease is expiring in the next 18 months, contact WorkLife|CRE today to learn more about our tenant representation services.

Negotiates To Save You Thousands

Everyone’s financial plans and situations are different, and that is why it is important to get expert guidance that’s personalized to you. Saving just a dime per square foot on a 5,000 square foot facility puts over $25,000 in your company’s pocket for a five-year lease. Direct savings like this can be the outcome of your tenant representative’s market research. This gives you valuable leverage in the form of alternative leasing options. A qualified tenant representative can, and should, be brought to the negotiation table to get you the best deal.

Just as importantly, your advocate understands all the hidden costs of leases, such as:

• Overage Fees if building operating expenses exceed the projected building budget
• Load Factor Fees for areas that don’t actually meet the criteria for rentable square footage
• Excess Administration Fees that are often tacked on to Common Area Maintenance (CAM) fees
• Tenant Improvement Dollars This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, issues facing tenants in the leasing process and can result in exorbitant costs and headaches in the process

The above are just a few of the pitfalls a tenant should be cognizant of while negotiating leases. Tenant representation informs you of all your lease obligations so you don’t have any surprise expenses. Whether you’re interested in relocating, expanding, downsizing or renewing, or just taking advantage of your current lease options, having an advocate negotiating on your behalf is invaluable.

Provides Expert Space Needs Analysis

More often than not, tenants miss the mark when assessing their actual space needs, both for current and future needs. They fail to apply deep analytics of business processes, staffing, clients, and future plans. A tenant representative will use interviews, company data, and software tools to look at:

• How your company functions
• Expansion or contraction plans
• Your workforce
• Your customers
• Space criteria you have
• Your location criteria

This space needs analysis provides a much more sound strategy and foundation for moving forward in finding an ideal property for your business and negotiating the best lease agreement.

Research The Entire Market

The space where you build and grow your products, services, sales, and systems is an integral part of what keeps productivity at peak performance. A good tenant representative understands this dynamic, and, when engaged on your behalf, thoroughly search and vet the options that fit your particular criteria.

This should include presenting multiple properties that meet your business needs. They then perform side-by-side comparisons using a detailed spreadsheet to help rule out spaces that aren’t ideal, such as those that are above market value or less than desirable terms. Providing you with similar options is also a key way to optimize negotiations in your favor.  This is also a process that should be implemented when renewing as well as finding new space. It will give you the strength and confidence to negotiate renewal terms favorable to you, not the landlord.

Offers Industry Expertise

Perhaps the most valuable skill tenant representatives offer is their industry knowledge. Navigating the world of leasing types, options, amenities, space configurations, build out costs, hidden fees, terms, and market trends can be overwhelming. Here are a few ways a tenant representative helps give you peace of mind during this process.

Guidance On Lease Types

Rent is one of, if not the biggest expenses many businesses face each month. Managing this recurring financial obligation can be helped along by the right type of lease and comparing them apples-to-apples. For instance, while a full-service lease provides the most tenant protection by bundling all costs into one payment, you may find paying operating expenses separate from rent has its advantages. Our comparisons will show you how the economics of each building breaks down so you can make an informed decision.

Guidance On Lease Process

Often, tenants wait too long and lose any leverage for upcoming lease negotiations. Our tenant representatives typically recommends you begin looking at your lease renewal, as well as your alternative lease options a minimum of 12 to 18 months before your lease expires. Without sufficient lead time, your current landlord can take advantage of the situation by mandating an agreement that is not in the best interest of your business. Landlords know, from experience, that it takes time to negotiate a lease, complete necessary tenant improvement construction, and relocate your entire business but without ample lead time, you simply cannot relocate elsewhere.

It is said in the commercial real estate space that your lease expiration does not run concurrently with your business cycles, a fact we are sure to mention to all tenants who engage WorkLife|CRE. What many tenants don’t know is the flexibility that can often be negotiated into a lease agreement when working with industry experts. You may not necessarily be locked into a long-term lease for a space your business has outgrown. With an experienced tenant representative working on your behalf, you can often achieve flexible lease terms,  as outlined below, to ensure that your real estate solutions are aligned with your business cycles, not the other way around. These different elements which a tenant may require offer flexibility due to the unpredictable nature of business. Some of these include the options to:

• Renew
• Extend
• Expand or contract
• Purchase
• Terminate

The space needs analysis that your tenant representative performs is a great tool to guide you through the options you’d like to include in your commercial lease.

Guidance On Local CRE Trends

Trends in regional CRE can have a big impact on the price you pay for properties. For example, tenants looking for office space who are willing to sublease can do particularly well due to the large number of corporate tenants looking to dispose of unwanted space. But, on the other hand, there are many limitations for subtenants that don’t exist for tenants.