Recommendations On How To Locate & Rent Warehouse Real Estate

Before you start searching for an excellent warehouse space for rent for your startup company, you need to get informed about the commercial warehouse leasing procedure. Being prepared will help prevent you from making foolish decisions and costly mistakes you will come to regret in the future. Below are some insider tips to help make an informed choice when renting a commercial warehouse space your company

Start the process of hunting for commercial space at least 6-12 months before your current lease expires or until your perfect move-in-date. Locating the correct space and negotiating the deal will take 1-2 months depending on the size area and current market conditions. In most cases the spaces you like will need some type of improvements which the time required will depend on the scope of work.

completely examine your business’s current and future needs. Consult with the various department heads for input as well as some key employees.

Get familiar with the commercial property terms and meanings. Various landlords state and quote things otherwise. If you’re in doubt about what they mean do not be afraid to ask them to supply more information.

If you’re not knowledgeable about the commercial rental process or the current market conditions then consider engaging the help of a tenant representative. Their services do not cost anything because building owners pay all the rental commissions. The landlord rep will have an knowledgable listing agent helping them so it would be a great idea for you to have one also.

Personally tour all the properties that meet your requirements so you can make a short list. Bear in mind that the designs can be reconfigured so don’t get stuck on that. Ask the landlord agents a lot of questions regarding who owns the property, property amenities, required lease term length, how much the landlord is willing to give in tenant construction allowances, etc..

Do not settle for the first commercial properties you think is acceptable for your requirements: continue looking until you have at least two to 3 alternative choices. These extra options will work to your advantage because you will know what to expect throughout the lease negotiations and you’ll gain more leverage with numerous building owners competing for your business. They also give you something to fall back to if the negotiations to your first choice go silent.

Send out proposals to your top three to five choices. These aren’t legally binding. You don’t ever want to take a landlord agent’s verbal note. Everything should be in writing.

To help you decide what property is best suited for your company, prepare a spreadsheet to do an apples to apples comparison of every property. Some of the things you need to consider include the dimensions of this space, the asking base rental rates, the necessary lease duration, and the incremental costs (taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc). It is also possible to take note about the advantages and disadvantages of each property. If you’re budget conscious then you can quickly narrow down the list by simply calculating the monthly base rents for each property then eliminating those which are way over your budget. The monthly base rent is calculated by multiplying the industrial space square feet from the asking base rate plus any operating expenses then dividing by 12.

If some of the commercial spaces need tenant improvements then it is important that you determine what improvements you want on each and get preliminary bids. That way if the landlord is offering a tenant improvement allowance you will learn just how much out of pocket you’ll need to pay over and beyond what the landlord is willing to give.

Carefully analyze and compare the terms of each proposal. Consider whether it is logical to go back to every landlord to negotiate additional concessions. Make certain you fully understand the total expenses you’re expected to cover. Do not get emotionally attached to a specific property until the negotiations are over. Emotional attachment might lead to you signing a contract your business cannot live up to.

After negotiations are finalized and you’ve made your selection now it is time to have the landlord offer you the first draft of this commercial rental contract.

Now it is time to reassess the commercial rental contract. It would be advisable for you to hire an attorney to review the lease. If you have a tenant representative then they could review the lease with you also. Commercial lease language could be negotiated. If you do not like certain lease items or would like to propose new language now is the time to do so.

Once the end of rental contract negotiations has finished the landlord will supply you a draft of the lease to sign.

There are many more things to think about when leasing commercial space however these ideas will help get you going. If you’re a new company leasing commercial property for the first time or an current company who has only rented one or two spaces then consider getting help from a tenant rep. Their services do not cost you anything and you’ll save a lot of money and time.