Why Negotiating Your Own Lease Is Too Expensive

Many business owners in need of warehouse space believe they’ll save time and money managing the search and negotiations themselves. If you boil down the process to its most basic steps, it involves searching online, maybe driving in your desired neighborhood, finding a property that looks suitable, contacting the listing agent, and negotiating your own terms.

Easy enough, right?

Actually, no. There are many, many variables that make a straightforward search for a warehouse – and the ensuing negotiations – a job best left to someone experienced and knowledge in that very industry.

Just to start, here’s what you should know before you begin browsing online listings:

1. How much space you need, factoring for likelihood in the future and the chances of expansions or downsizing.

2. The lease term you’re considering. It’s prudent to reference trending market prices, and you’ll need to be very clear on your short and long-term needs.

3. Whether you need a Class A, B or C warehouse. You’ll need to understand the differences between the classes, and why they matter.

4. The best part of town for your warehouse. Beyond details like freeway access and truck terminals, be sure to factor for areas that are flood-prone and those with sub-par data communication infrastructures. This can take time to research, so bear that in mind.

5. How to quickly and easily conduct an extensive search for suitable properties in the right part of town. It’s wise to narrow down your options by factoring for details like docks, office size, eave height, drive-in doors, fire sprinkler capacity, rail service, column space, asking rents, zoning, available power, and other specifics. Compiling the results in a spreadsheet will make things much easier.

After all of this, you’ll need to contact the landlord or the listing agent. That will jump-start another series of steps:

1. Arranging property tours. Follow our tips to avoid costly mistakes.

2. Evaluating the properties you viewed, and considering each in terms of the landlord’s portfolio vacancy, his negotiating tendencies compared to his asking rates, how many offers are on the table, the overall submarket vacancy, and other critical factors. Get our downloadable guide to avoid fatal missteps at this point.

Now, the busy work can begin:

1. Make an offer or assemble and submit an RFP.

2. Evaluate the responses and finalize your negotiations. Proceed carefully here – you can save both time and money if you handle this right.

3. Review the 50+ lease document pages and submit your revisions. Review REIT leases to do this properly.

There are many variables to the process, and if you believe that you can handle this effectively – saving yourself time and money – will still effectively running your business, we invite you to visit our Resources page for valuable downloads and free information, including our 13-Step Lease Process Guide, our Warehouse Guide, Six Fatal Errors in the Leasing Process and our Property Tour Guidelines.

If you’re realizing that this is better left to an experienced, knowledgeable agent who will work on your behalf – with services that come at no cost to you – we’re happy to offer some insight into how we can really save you time and money. Contact us today.