4 Proven Strategies in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Leasing

When you lease a commercial or retail property today, it pays to set some rules to the process so you can correctly match the tenant to the property for the fullest of available advantages.

Investment property leasing is where all the important decisions are made to find the best tenants for the investment performance. Each tenant is different, each landlord can be quite special, and between both of those stakeholders you have a property and its occupancy opportunities.

Establish Your Commercial Property Leasing System

Are you ready to specialize in leasing and investment property performance?

What are the rules you can set for leasing buildings and premises?  Try some of these for starters:

1. Know who you are talking to and always get their contact details first – When an inquiry comes in from a tenant, ensure that you are talking to the right person who you believe is in control of the business. Before you disclose too much about the property, write down the important contact details of the person and the role that they play in property selections and choices.  Don’t be too eager to talk about the property without the fullest of contact details from the person you are engaged with in conversation.
2. What do they really want in leasing new premises? – There will be a main motivator(s) behind a tenant in changing properties. Questions will always get you to a few important points to understand.  Of the few factors of importance in finding new premises to lease, a couple of factors will be high on the tenant’s agenda.  Get to those facts fast and directly.  Delve into location issues, and then improvement requirements in any property to be leased.
3. What can they afford? – Is it a tenant’s market or a landlord’s market in your location currently? There are differences to watch for, and those differences will impact your negotiations with rents and lease terms.  Some tenants have little understanding of the current property market conditions, and the same can be said for the landlords that you serve.  Be prepared to quote real market evidence from recent lease deals to occupancy arrangements, lease negotiations and market rentals.  Tell the tenants and landlords that you work for how they are positioned in the current property market and how realistic their expectations may be in changing property today.
4. What property improvements do they need? – Every business will have challenges of placement when it comes to fitting into a new property. Your job is to bring ends to meet together across the void of a leasing negotiation.  Your client is the priority above everything else.  What are the targets of your client in the lease negotiation?
5. Factors of supply and demand will impact your negotiation – Always track the vacancy factors in your location. Those vacancy factors will be impacted by supply and demand for the location and the property type.  Higher vacancy factors push up lease incentives.  A volatile leasing market will drive greater elements of risk for landlords, and that is where a tenant retention plan will help you with the overall income stability for your clients.  Become a specialist in tenant retention, lease negotiation, tenant sourcing, and lease marketing.  There are plenty of leasing advantages to be had from an active property market with tenants and landlords.

So you can do some good things here with your tenant and landlord interactions.  As the leasing specialist get to fully appreciate market trends and changes and pull those factors into your leasing arrangements.  Position yourself for helping your clients in the best way with all your leasing deals.

(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)