Larger Tenant Needs  We recognize that office users with space requirements in excess of 10,000 square feet, in one or many locations, have multiple needs. As vacancies drop and office markets tighten, the competition for the best office space makes your office broker an essential part of your planning team. Meeting the needs of the larger tenant requires a thorough understanding of the market and the players, and special analytical and research skills and services – all of which will affect your bottom line. Business Spaces has developed these skills and abilities through years of experience, continuing education and service. Years of office tenant representation experience and completing hundreds of transactions each, we know what we are doing and do it well. Among the services we provide or co-ordinate, in addition to locating and negotiating for office space, include that of performing frequent leased property portfolio reviews, market surveys, space measurement audits, lease cost pass-through audits and preparing long range planning recommendations.

Improving Workplace Efficiency We also offer our Agile WorkSpace Saver Program to optimize your office space use that could help reduce your office space needs by 30% – 50%. We do this executing workplace strategies and technologies that improve office space efficiencies. We help streamline a company’s office requirements by helping them implement a more efficient workplace strategy. It is one step above space planning and will not only reduce your office space requirement, but also improve the productivity, retention and work / life balance of employees.

Developing an “Agile Workplace” An agile workplace is one that is constantly changing, adjusting and responding to organizational needs. Agility requires a dynamic relationship between employees, management, work and the workplace as well how work productivity gets measured. Many companies are now finding that in order to attract and retain the best and the brightest, they need to rethink the workplace and how work gets done. A side-effect of this is that office space requirements are usually reduced 30% to 50% from the traditional workplace model with the implementation of an agile workplace strategy and technologies. Want to know more? We can help your workplace become an agile one, please contact us and we will get you started in learning about creating an “Agile Workplace” and then showing you how it might work for your company. A small sampling of the hundreds of larger companies that our members have assisted with their office space requirements include:

Hewlett Packard   Citibank   GE Capital   Yahoo  GTE   Bamboo.com   Network Associates Arthur Andersen Consulting  Lotus Development   Xerox PriceLine.com   Chiat Day Mojo Union Pacific Corporation   General Dynamics   Burlington Northern Railway   Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation(FDIC)   Apple Corporation   MetLife Insurance Company

Specializing in representing office users, we provide a combination of experience, service, exceptional market intelligence, and know-how to customize the best possible office solutions for our clients. – See more at: https://business-spaces.com or contact us at (310)428-9009.

he Truth about Leasing Commissions

One of the discussions many commercial real estate agents don’t like to have with their prospective clients revolves around the subject of fees or commissions. I have often seen brokers in an attempt to secure representation agreements with tenants, that make the claim that their services are free. This is a play on words, what they should be saying is; “the Landlord makes the actual fee payment and you are not required to make a direct payment for my services”.

The Truth about Leasing Commissions

We believe that it is important that the scope of services to be provided by a brokerage firm and the fees associated with these services should be clearly defined with the prospective client. 

In the office leasing arena, it is typical that the broker(s) both the Landlord’s and the Tenant’s representative are paid a fee after the lease is executed between the Landlord and the Tenant. The fact is most costs associated with the lease transaction including the leasing commissions are rolled into the final negotiated terms and paid back to the landlord in the form of rent over the term of the lease, including both the Tenant and Landlord agent’s commission. Building owners typically budget real estate commissions into their pro-forma and any commission that is not paid rarely finds its way back into the tenant’s pocket.

Leasing commissions are not set and are always negotiable, but generally speaking in the Los Angeles office market, the tenant representative will request a four percent (4%) fee of the gross lease value paid by the Landlord the Tenant contracts with. Also, in most cases the Landlord’s agent will receive two percent (2%) of the gross lease value, paid also by the Landlord for leasing his property. Some cities have slightly different percentages or payment arrangements that are typical for that market, but for the most part, this is the general cost of the services provided.

Since commissions are built into the overall building operating expenses, in rent the tenant is not only paying for his broker’s services but also the Landlord’s agents services, which only reinforces the fact; that tenants should have its own professional representation. In most leasing arrangements listing brokers have with building owners, if the leasing agent completes a transaction directly with a tenant who does not have representation, they get a bigger fee (6%) for representing both the Landlord and Tenant. This creates an inherent conflict of interest since their main source of income and fiduciary responsibility is to the Landlord. So under this scenario, the net fee of the tenant representative is 3-4% of the gross lease value. A good tenant representatives services will save you more than this amount or more in occupancy costs over the term of your lease if not much more money, in many cases.

A commercial real estate professional will clearly outline not only his scope of services, but what their fee is, how they get paid and where the money comes from.

Source: The Tenant Advisor