What to Know About Commercial Real Estate Leasing

Commercial real estate leasing today is a specialised process.  It requires planning and deliberate focus.  When you have a vacancy to lease, there are many factors to consider as part of resolving the problem.

It is interesting to note that many landlords will try to lease their vacant property or tenancy themselves.  That is generally a waste of time given that they do not have the market coverage or the resources to tap into the active tenants in the market today.   A good leasing agent has many tenant connections as part of their database.

So what do you need to know about commercial real estate leasing today?  There are quite a number of things to relate to and understand.  Here are some of the main ones:

1. Every property will have a target market of tenants.  In defining that segment, you can focus all of your direct prospecting efforts, and your general advertising material.
2. If the landlord has provided you with an exclusive listing, then you can spend more time in finding the required tenants to inspect.  It directly follows that you should focus on leasing the better properties in the quality locations.  Second rate and below standard properties will not give you the leasing fees to sustain a reasonable income.
3. Track the types of leasing enquiries that are coming to your brokerage today.  You will soon see the patterns that relate to rentals, improvements, locations, and property types.  Focus on what the tenants are looking for.
4. The levels of market rental will change throughout the year based on the levels of supply and demand locally.  Market rental will be influenced by vacancy factors, and levels of incentive.
5. Understand the vacancy rates that apply within your property zone and town or city.  Those vacancy rates will change throughout the year and place pressure on landlords or tenants as the case may be.  As the leasing agent, you are the facilitator of the deal.  It is your job to serve the client in leasing but also match the client to the realities of the market today.
6. Some vacant tenancies will stay on the market for a very long time.  In that case, there will usually be reasons for lack of enquiry or failure to lease.  Understand the signs and processes that apply to attracting tenants and encouraging inspections.  Make sure that the lease marketing process and rental package encourages negotiations.
7. The marketing process to apply to every exclusive listing should be carefully planned and structured.  As a general rule, the exclusive listing should continue for a reasonable period of time and typically in excess of 90 days.  When that is the case, you can focus your efforts directly and personally into connecting with local businesses franchise groups, and tenants.  Some of the enquiry that you generate will also come from the Internet or newspaper advertising.  A signboard on the property will also help the marketing process.  The marketing process is therefore an extra strategies and activities.

In saying all of this, I go back to the point that the direct marketing approach will be quite important when you are looking to fill a vacancy and convert more leasing fees.  On that basis, you should get involved in personally connecting with local businesses and tenants.  Go through your database to find the right people to connect with as an additional strategy of direct marketing.