Whether dealing with an existing lease or looking to enter a new lease, the key to negotiating a better lease is to find other office space for lease. What I mean is that you have to be willing to take the time and effort to shop the market for alternative spaces. You have to know what other options are available to you and what the rates, sizes, amenities, access and availability are.

Many tenants fall into the trap of believing that since they have signed a long term lease they are locked in. Let me tell you if you haven’t already heard, everything is negotiable, especially in this market we are experiencing now. Landlords are desperate for tenants and they’ll do anything to keep from loosing an existing one.

As consumers we are all well aware of “comparison shopping”. That is where we spend hours online or going form store to store trying to figure out which vendor offers the absolute best price on the exact product or item we are wanting to purchase. This is the process that puts so much pressure on vendors to keep their prices low and to offer the best value for your business. With out it, pricing would run a muck. Obviously this process works to our advantage as consumers, otherwise why would vendors be offering price match guarantees on purchases if you find a better price? This is exactly what you are going to have to do with your office space lease if you want to negotiate a better deal.

You’re going to have to use other office spaces as leverage to reason with the landlord that he needs to give you a better deal otherwise you are going to have to move or sign a new deal with another building leaving him empty handed. Now obviously if you like the space you’re hoping that the landlord will concede to your wishes, but in order to truly get the best deal you’re going to have to stick to your guns and be willing to move or accept your second choice if the landlord baulks at your request.

The other key to negotiating a better office space lease is getting a middle man to represent you. These people are typically local real estate professionals specializing in tenant representation. A tenant representative is going to help you in a number of ways but the best part of the whole deal is that these people will typically work for you absolutely free! That’s because typically in most cases it is the landlord who pays the commissions to the rep, yet the rep absolutely represents your best interest and not the landlord who is paying him.

So here are a couple things you can expect a tenant rep will do for you. First, he’s going to help you identify and locate suitable spaces. The difficulty with finding office space for lease is there is no such thing as an apples to apples comparison. Each and every office space is unique, unlike the digital camera that you spent hours and hours comparison shopping for. Therefore the inside knowledge of someone who spends all of their working time looking at office space for lease is going to save you a whole lot of time and effort trying to identify acceptable alternatives.

Second, never represent yourself in your own office space lease negotiations. Always use someone else to do your bidding. A tenant representative does this for you. Landlords constantly deal with tenants and lease negotiations and I can assure you they will have a professional representative representing them.

One benefit in using a middle man is that you are not directly in contact with the other parties. When negotiating directly you always run the risk of exposing insecurities, doubts and fears through emotions, voice inflection and body language that might weaken your position.

Another benefit in allowing a tenant representative do your negotiating is the ability to have a good relationship with the landlord after the negotiations are through. After all, once a lease is successfully negotiated you are going to have to interact and deal with your landlord for a long time to come. Your tenant representative can play hard ball with the landlord and it won’t matter whether the landlord develops ill feelings toward him. However, if you deal directly in your negotiations you run the chance of both sides developing negative feelings that remain for the rest of the relationship.

Another beautiful thing is the tenant rep can negotiate solid terms for you with out the authority to commit to anything in return. In other words, if the landlord says he’ll do something then you can hold the him to it, however if the tenant rep says he can do something there will always be an underlying disclaimer attached that says ‘assuming my client approves’. After all, he can’t actually promise anything to the landlord with out your approval because he doesn’t have the authority to do so. The tenant rep can only say “I will check with my client”.

A final reason to always use a tenant rep is because they do lease negotiations every day and know how to play the game. Yes, there is a game and the more familiar you are with it the better you’ll be. How often do you negotiate leases? Once every three, five or ten years? Even if you’re an incredibly good negotiator, your bound to be a little rusty due to lack of repetition.

The strategies and tactics are the same if you are looking to find a new office space for lease or renegotiate an existing lease and I hope these tips prove to be beneficial in helping you negotiate a better office space lease.

By: Taylor Snede

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More information on how to find office space for lease. More information on finding local tenant representation for lease negotiations.