Lease Fee Opportunities for Commercial Real Estate Brokers

Leasing is a lucrative part of the commercial real estate brokerage market.  There are always vacant premises to lease and landlords to serve.  The leasing agent with the largest database of tenants will usually make more in commission income than those agents that do not have a good database.

It should always be remembered that a good lease opportunity today that is converted to a successful transaction will quite likely move towards a sale opportunity in the future.  It stands to reason that your personal leasing services and specialisation will help you with growing market share in a number of different ways.  When you get to know a number of landlords, you build the levels of trust and the key relationships that are required for sales opportunity.

The fees for leasing a vacant property or tenancy will reflect the size and the quality of the premises.  On that basis you should concentrate your leasing efforts on the better properties and the larger tenancies.  In that way you will achieve better inbound enquiries and inspection conversions.  Low quality listings are just as much work if not more than the better quality properties.

In considering the commission and fee opportunities from a landlord or a property, understand the following factors:

• Lease rent review fees
• Lease renewal opportunities
• Assignment and subletting requirements
• Vacancy management and leasing
• Vacancy marketing
• Project leasing
• Tenant relocation
• Tenant mix advice
• Lease renegotiation as part of a refurbishment
• Franchise leasing opportunities
• Tenant advocacy work

So there are a good number of ways for leasing brokers to attract fee opportunities from professional leasing services.  Local area specialisation and leasing knowledge will help you achieve the momentum required.  I go back to the point that the size of your database will be critical to the market activity and commissions that you generate.  As a leasing specialist, you do need to know a lot of tenants and a good number of high quality landlords.  That is where your database will help you greatly.  Every day it needs to be nurtured and grown through ongoing contact.

So let’s look at some strategies and that you can implement in your professional leasing services.  Here are some of the important things to understand and implement.  You can add to this list other factors relating to location and property type:

1. Review the history of the area as it relates to business change and opportunity.  There will be certain properties and locations that are more popular than others.  Understand the locations that will create the best levels of interest when it comes to property occupancy.
2. Check out the market rentals that apply to your property type.  Give due regard to the variables across suburbs, towns, and cities.  Those market rentals will vary greatly and have a lot to do with property condition, ease of access, services, and improvements.
3. Lease incentives will vary subject to the factors of supply and demand for lettable space.  Watch the number of new property developments coming into the area that could change the balance of occupancy.  They will also have an impact on incentive size and availability.

With this basic information, you can focus your efforts when it comes to property leasing opportunities.  Every day you should take further steps into building strong tenant and landlord relationships.