As a tenant rep, my job is to “Put Businesses in Their Place.” I find value for my clients by negotiating the best deal on the ideal space. I outlined my entire 9-step process back in 2024. The playbook hasn’t changed much, but the tools have. By applying my experience, working harder and more importantly, working smarter, I provide my clients a clear advantage.
Today, I want to focus on step 3 of the process – the review. Before Zoom, Teams, and my preferred platform, Google Meet, narrowing a property search was a much heavier lift. It often meant meeting in person or on the phone to review large piles of property reports, to reduce the initial search down to a manageable tour itinerary. There is still no substitute for seeing, touching and feeling the properties. But we can efficiently eliminate a lot of choices in an online review. It also helps me to get inside the head of my clients to understand how they think and identify their hot-button issues. I can also educate the client on hidden factors they may not have considered that that can materially impact their long-term success. It is crucial for both my client and myself that we are aligned on what works and what does not. With that understanding, the whole process moves more smoothly. Then, the biggest problem becomes picking the winner from too many good options. But we can all live with that.
Reviewing alternative floorplans on Google Meet with the client’s team. We found one with a break room like Sam wanted, but couldn’t find one with a fire hydrant for Barkley.
So here are my 5 P’s of the Preliminary Tour (hey that makes 6)
- Pricing
- Pictures
- Places/Proximity
- Plans
- Possession Date
Pricing
Pricing may be the most misunderstood factor in commercial real estate decision making. When you walk into a store, a $20 price tag means $20. But a $20 rent can be Triple Net (NNN), Gross (G) Modified Gross (MG) Industrial Gross (IG) Full Service (FS). That $20 may be $20, but it may be $45 or even more depending on how expenses are calculated. Then, some landlords will bill separately for electric, janitorial, water and trash. And many tenants may not understand that there is a wide variation on how landlords measure their spaces – all square feet are not created equal. My job in the preliminary tour is to boil all the rates down to a monthly rent total – like a car payment – that can be compared apples to apples across all alternative properties.
Pictures
A picture is certainly worth a thousand words and with the rise of AI and needlessly long property descriptions, that may have increased to 2,000. You can’t pick out your ideal space from only a picture, and pictures can be deceiving. But you can usually eliminate a few choices to save some time.
Place/Proximity
The 3 most important factors in real estate are still Location, Location and Location, but that doesn’t start with a P. Add to that internet mapping, satellite views, traffic counts and demographics, and that all helps the client to hone in on what works best.
Plans
Sure, you can build out a space however you need. But there are two problems; time and money. A key part of my search process is to find spaces that can work with as few changes as possible. Construction costs continue to increase. To gut and rebuild a space can cost well in excess of $100 per square foot. On a 5-year lease term that adds $20 per foot annually to the landlord’s cost. They do budget some of that cost into the deal, but the better the fit, the lower the cost and that can be passed through to the tenant. In addition, permitting and construction time can run 6 months or longer, further impacting landlord’s costs. So a key part of my preliminary tour is to review floor plans to find the most likely spaces to minimize construction costs.
We are somewhat at the mercy of the leasing agents on this matter. Most of the top commercial brokers provide plans online. A note to Landlords- if your agent isn’t providing floorplans online or asking you to have them drawn, you may want to consider another agent.
Possession Date
I’ve had tenants contact me a year before lease expiration and others a few days or weeks before. It can easily take 6 months or more from initial survey to move-in. But I did one deal a few years back when I got a call in the afternoon and the moving trucks arrived the next day. It is very important to know the timeline as we begin the search process. If we need to do a full buildout, we need to get started nine months to a year before lease expiration. A lot of landlords and agents will not know what spaces will be coming available six to nine months down the road, which can make this a difficult task. That is why it is important to have good relationships with the owners and their agents.
In other cases, it may turn into a fire drill. It becomes a process of knowing how quickly a landlord can turn over a space and knowing which landlords you can count on. This March, I had a tenant who needed to move within two weeks. I had a good working relationship with a landlord. He told me to send my client over to Home Depot to pick out flooring and he could have the place painted with new laminate floors in 10 working days. I got the tenant a great deal and she was thrilled to get into the space on time.
Parting Thoughts
The preliminary virtual tour does not replace the in-person tour — it makes it smarter. By reviewing pricing, pictures, place, plans and possession date up front, we can eliminate the wrong spaces, focus on the right ones and avoid wasting time chasing properties that look good until the details get in the way. The goal is not just to find available space; it is to find the best fit, the best value and the smoothest path to occupancy. When that work is done correctly, the final tour becomes less of a scavenger hunt and more of a victory lap.
