You Need to Plan 6-12 months to Find Office Space.

Give Yourself 6-12 Months to Find and Negotiate For Office Space  

One of the biggest mistakes we repeatedly see tenants make is waiting too long to start looking for office space and then boxing themselves in to make crucial decisions in a time crunch. We get it – looking for office space is a tricky and often a lengthy process – and who wants more of that in an already tricky (and seemingly never-ending?) year. 

We recently had a conversation with a client who let us know of their plans to open in Spring of 2021 and said he would reach back out in 2021 to get started. We gave him this message, and the conversation inspired us to provide you with all the same one: finding the right space and making the right deal takes time, especially in this current climate where tenants are in the driver’s seat and with the proper strategic negotiation can leverage the market for years to come. 

We tell our clients to plan for 6-12 months, depending on specifics. As a reminder, we do not get paid more the longer it takes for a client to find the right space, and you do not pay us. The landlord ultimately pays us whether it takes you three months to sign a lease or one year. The longer time to find the right space is to benefit you, the tenant. Our goal is to set our clients up for long-term success even if it takes us a year to help you find that perfect office space. 

Whether you’re looking to sign a new lease in 2021, planning to extend your lease beyond a lease expiration in 2021, or have several years left on your lease but want to renegotiate, giving yourself more time to negotiate and become aquatinted to the market can better position you and your business for long-term success. More than just the many months it takes to find and negotiate the right space, starting now successfully means you lock-in and leverage significant discounts in this current COVID-19 market. Additionally, planning a new office space today, with social distancing guidelines and new ways of conducting day-to-day business, takes extra time. New technology, design, and ventilation to protect you and your employees can take some time to adapt. You can see here for more detail on specific scenarios and savings percentages we’ve negotiated.