Business

MOMpreneur®, Where Two Passions Meet... Business Articles Regardless of the size of your company, your courage, your finesse and your situation will determine how effectively you implement the ideas you garner here.  You know your business best; you know where your business needs help and where the opportunities are.  You also know how quickly you want to grow.   We're here to make sure that between the information and the contextural situations we provide that you have a number of parameters and perspectives to help you make the appropriate decision at the right time.  The future is, indeed, bright for Mompreneurs!

6 Ways a Stellar Broker Can Save You Money!

January 2009

When corporations decide to buy or lease commercial real estate, there is the misconception that hiring a broker will
only increase out-of-pocket expenses. Often corporations do not realize that a savvy, aggressive real estate broker can help analyze and negotiate a deal that saves you money.

Lori Brown, President of Brown Real Estate Advisors in Chicago, IL, offers the following checklist of terms that an experienced broker negotiates to set up the competitive environment for a company’s lease to leverage their tenancy and drive costs down.

1. Termination option – Termination options create flexibility which is crucial for companies. They allow for a flexible exit strategy or renegotiation of a lease.  Landlords usually detest this concession but will provide it if it’s critical to making the deal.

2. Lease expansion terms – Many tenants believe that expanding a lease is a simple transaction. On the contrary, extracting a market deal on an expansion or renewal of a lease requires more finesse. Landlords often hold tenants’ lease agreements fixed so the incorporation of lease expansion terms keeps tenants in control.

3. Tenant improvements allowance – Many companies may decide to buy or lease a building with the intention of undertaking construction and improvements to the space. Landlords will offer improvement dollars, but it is imperative that tenants have control over where the money is spent. Negotiate to include build-out costs to cover out-of-pockets expenses such as technology, phones and wiring, or money for rent abatement.

4. Furniture – If there’s furniture in the space, the landlord may provide it at no cost to the tenant. It costs more to move the furniture out of the space than for a landlord to include the furniture in the lease.

5. Union issues – Make sure to investigate if the building is unionized. If yes, a union building will highly impact costs of future construction and moving, so make sure to include union costs in the budget.

You don’t pay for the broker, the landlord does! Sometimes corporations question the value added and additional costs of a broker. In reality, the landlord pays the broker’s commission, not the tenant. The value of the tenant’s cash flow from the deal is invaluable to the landlord so he/she agrees to pay the commission

Lori G. Brown has over 20 years of experience as a prominent commercial real estate tenant representative. She has launched a new woman-owned and led company, Brown Real Estate Advisors, which provides real estate brokerage and advisory services to mid-cap companies. For more information, visit www.brownrealestateadvisors.com.

 Return to Business Articles


Don't have our magazine yet?
The MOMpreneur® magazine is a Canadian magazine for women who are balancing the role of motherhood with being an entrepreneur. We create an environment of sharing, support and encouragement to our members through our magazine, our seminars and webinars, and our online forums. Purchase our 6 issues per year to get connected with this exciting women's network!

Click here to order your MOMpreneur® Magazine NOW.