Are we in a recession or not? Is this a tenant's market? The answer to both questions is obviously, "Yes." But you wouldn't know it sometimes by the way some landlords are acting. It's like they think it's still 1999.
I am a Tenant Rep or Corporate Real Estate Advisor so I spend my days talking to landlords on behalf of companies which need to lease office and warehouse buildings in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. But I used to be a landlord agent. So I understand both sides of the table very well. The landlord and its leasing agents are suppose to treat tenants and their tenant rep brokers as the customer and make the transaction as easy and smooth as possible. That should be the case regardless of which party the current market conditions favor.
Now I'm not talking about what the rental rate should be or how much the TI (tenant improvement) allowance should be. Those issues are determined by the market. But I am talking about simple things like sending the lease document out as a Word file which can be edited instead of a pdf file or paper documents. Clients usually have 2 or more people involved in the transaction and they are often in different states. And their attorney may be in a totally different place. Paper and pdf files are not helpful. Send a document as a Word file. The old excuse of wanting to have control of the content of the file is ridiculous with today's software that allows for instant comparisons.
And then there is the leasing agent who offended because we requested some changes to the original lease document and the commission agreement for a tenant who plans to renew in their current warehouse. If this was a new tenant moving into a building, there wouldn't be a question about negotiating the language in both documents. Isn't an existing tenant worth more to a landlord. No down time between tenants. Less TI's. Treat them with every bit of respect and deference that you would for a new prospect.
I want real estate brokers to be viewed as professionals who add value, make the transaction easier, and put their clients' interests before their own. It chaps me when others ruin it for those who are trying to do it right.
Okay, the rant is over.
