Fully Automating Your Client Services in Commercial Real Estate Leasing

As a commercial real estate leasing specialist you can bring some high quality services to your clients.  Those services could be likened to a ‘toolbox’ approach, where you are providing a comprehensive set of leasing solutions and information relative to your local property market.  The landlords and owners of high quality buildings deserve and expect that approach from the agents and brokers that they work with.

Through this ‘toolbox’ approach, you are positioning yourself as the ‘industry leasing expert’ who can see through rent and tenant issues to shorten up the vacancy period.  In a building with a lot of tenants and potentially a continual vacancy factor, anything that you can do to shorten the rent and outgoings downtime created in a vacancy, the better it is for your client.

Here are some concepts that you can add to your professional services in leasing office, retail, or industrial properties:

1. Property Services and Amenities – Given that the demands of tenants are becoming more refined and tuned to ‘property capability’, every vacancy should be assessed for the level of services and amenities provided.  Just how does the building compare to others in the same location or building category nearby?  What will the tenant get by way of convenience and quality for the rent paid?  How does that rent compare to other buildings with similar services and amenities?
2. Lease Documentation – The quality of lease documentation in an investment property will support the landlord with their investment targets.  Every good quality building should have a standard lease that supports the landlord given the design and improvements in the property.  The lease document will also help the landlord when it comes to rental, outgoings, risk management, and building code compliance.  You can assess the complexity and standards required in a lease document for your landlord client.
3. Tenant Mix – The tenancy mix in a property will require monitoring and tuning.  That is certainly the case when it comes to rent reviews, upcoming options, leasing strategies, and permitted use.  You can provide a specialised tenancy mix service for high quality properties of suitable size and complexity.
4. Vacancy Profiles – Every lease will eventually come to an end and at that point a renegotiation or a new lease will occur.  In a building with multiple tenants in occupancy you can track the upcoming lease expiry dates and expected tenancy vacancies.  It is not unusual to track those items 18 months away from the critical date.  That then allows you to create a leasing strategy and or a marketing strategy to find the right tenants at the right time.
5. Relocation Benefits – Some tenants can be moved around within the building and relocated.  With the older properties that can be a strategic advantage to revitalise occupancy.  Any negotiated lease document in an older property should allow for the provisions of relocation and renovation where that need is expected.  Given that leases apply for a number of years, you really do need to be forward looking when it comes to implementing the strategy.
6. Market Rental – It is the case that market rentals will change throughout the year subject to the supply and demand for premises locally.  New property developments in your area will also impact the asking rents, incentives, and lease strategies in the general location.  On a quarterly basis you can undertake a market rental assessment for your clients with a focus on particular property types.
7. Incentive Solutions – When the vacancy factor for the property type is relatively high in the local area, the incentives offered to a new tenant should be part of your lease marketing strategy.  The incentives are a cost to the landlord in any new lease, and should be factored into the overall lease negotiation and the resultant cash flow.  Understand what other incentives are being offered in the market today in other local properties, and how your landlord clients can position themselves for an advantage when it comes to offering lease incentives.
8. Outgoings Assessments – The outgoings for any property will impact the rental strategy.  The rental chosen for a property will be either net or gross with the outgoings having an impact on both rental types.  Understand the acceptable levels of outgoings that apply to the property type in your location; a regular market rental assessment will help you understand outgoings activity and benchmarks for the property type.  Some of those outgoings will be controllable whilst others will be uncontrollable.  A well-managed property will reflect outgoings that are within the averages for the property type in the location.  Tenants are very conscious of occupancy costs today and will generally short list their properties of interest on that basis.  Every landlord should be concerned about the issue, so that their property remains an attractive occupancy alternative for any new tenants in the market.  Every landlord should be focused on levels of outgoings and expenditure.  You can provide the landlords locally with regular updates on outgoings.
9. Best Marketing Solutions – When it comes to leasing a property, certain marketing strategies should apply relative to the location, current market rentals, the levels of vacancy in the property, and the levels of competition.  We have many alternatives available when it comes to marketing a vacancy, and you can have a selection of specialized lease marketing packages to suit property types and factors of urgency.

From these nine points, you can see how easy it is to provide a specialized investment property leasing service in your local area.  The landlords in the market today like to work with the best agents that really understand the alternatives and the opportunities of property leasing.