Leasing Office Space – Part 13 of 23 Due Diligence

Online

In most cases, the information from the services will adequately address the issue of criminal activity near the office space you're considering. However, the most current and contextual data you'll be able to obtain is from tenants at the property and local police officers.

Speak to Tenants

Tenants at the property where you're considering leasing office space can be a wonderful resource. They can provide information regarding crime in the area, problems with traffic, problems with ingress and egress, problems with parking, and other issues in the office building.

Letter of Intent (LOI)

Office space negotiations are complicated and time-consuming. Once you have located the office space that is ideal for your business, the next step is to negotiate an agreement that protects you and is acceptable to the landlord. Industry practice for office space is to negotiate a letter of intent before negotiating the lease.

Use an Attorney!

Engage an attorney to assist in the letter of intent negotiation. It probably seems that the letter of intent is informal and can easily be negotiated without an attorney. However, there are issues you should address in the letter of intent which may not be obvious if you have not previously negotiated letters of intent for office space.

Wow! This is Complicated

Common factors for a office space letter of intent include: defining the parties (lessor and lessee aka landlord and tenant), defining the space, defining the rent, the initial term, any renewal options, rent for renewal option period(s), the day when lease payments commence, the date of occupancy, the condition of the space when the landlord provides it to the tenant, tenant improvement allowances provided by the landlord, who performs the tenant improvements, whether union labor required for tenant improvements, whether the tenant required to use a general contractor for tenant improvements (TI), who pays for the cost of the ADA compliance, who maintains what (i.e. roof, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, etc), who pays which expenses, calculating the payment for expense escalations, free rent, and identification of the broker and payment of the brokerage fee.

The Market Research and Consulting division of O’Connor & Associates provides information necessary to make decision to commercial real estate professionals. Occupancy and Rental Data, ownership and management information are routinely gathered for four major land uses – multifamily, office, retail and industrial. This information allows investors to compare competitive properties, facilitate business decisions and track market and submarket performance. In addition the data is useful to brokers who for example continually monitor Houston retail space leasing, Houston office space leasing, Houston industrial space leasing, Houston apartments, Dallas apartments, Ft. Worth apartments, Austin apartments, and San Antonio apartments.

This capacity to research, analyze and interpret market trends and the impact of specific transactions is a major reason for why developers and acquisition experts rely on O’Connor & Associates for market study, real estate market research, feasibility studies, rent studies, tax credit studies, project design guidance, property performance evaluation and lease audits. O’Connor & Associates is an acknowledged source of trends in real estate investing and market activity.