Plano Office Space Lease Negotiations: Be a Survivor!

For small businesses without the ability to purchase a Plano office space, leasing is a perfect alternative. There’s a myriad of benefits from leasing an office space such as the flexibility to relocate to a better and competitPlano_Office_Spaceive location. Leasing also reduces the amount of responsibilities business owners have to deal with such as property taxes, maintenance, security, etc. Before any company can take advantage of these benefits, they first have to face the difficulty of negotiating a lease with the owner.

Negotiating a lease contract is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome to find great office space for a company. The owner, or their representative, of the property has the authority to determine many items to be included on a lease. Naturally, the wording on that contract would tend to be favorable to the owner. As an aspiring tenant, negotiating with the owner to make a contract more favorable to a tenant’s business structure is certainly very possible. There are many negotiable items in a commercial lease: the cost of the lease; the amount of a security deposit; and more specific terms of the lease to name a few.

It is important as a tenant to learn how to effectively negotiate a lease contract. Most of the negotiable items depend on what is stated in the contract. To come out of such bargaining with a contract that is at least not detrimental to the tenant is going to require an effective negotiations strategy in order to increase the odds of that favorable outcome.

Four Crucial Plano Office Space Negotiations Steps

A good negotiations strategy can be summarized into four crucial steps:

  1. Learn Common Leasing Terms – Going to an owner without first learning the language of the profession would not be the best step to take. Asking the owner to explain the terms of the contract would expose inexperience that is too easily exploited. Aside from learning the language, make some inquiries about similar commercial properties to get an overall evaluation of the leasing trends of the area and use that data as a negotiations tool.
  2. Identify Company Needs – Identifying the needs of a company will provide a goal during the bargaining process. This allows the tenant to focus on areas of the contract that are essential to business operations. Without that focus, the property owner can tailor-fit the contract for the owner’s needs and not the requirements of the leasing company.
  3. Be Attentive to Contract Discussions – During the actual bargaining process, the tenant must be attentive to whatever is being discussed. The particular requirements and needs of the tenant’s business must be presented as understandably as possible. This is the only effective way to convey the importance of those needs and gain a positive response from the property owner.
  4. Avoid Hasty Negotiations – It is important for a negotiating tenant to always appear to be cooperative and by all means avoid any hasty negotiations. It is wise to be professional while maintaining a friendly attitude. All requests should be reasonable and rational ones.

Whatever the outcome of the negotiations, a tenant who truly wants that Plano office space must be prepared to accept the property owner’s decisions. If it doesn’t work out well, then another piece of property can always be found. Hopefully, the outcome of the bargaining process will be favorable and congratulations are in order for having successfully survived the bargaining process of a commercial lease contract!