We have all heard this saying before.  You think all of the important work is done.  The search for the right real estate for your company is finally over.  You and your broker have sweated the negotiations of the business terms of the lease and finessed the lease documentation until everything is as good as you can get it.  The landlord has agreed to remodel the office space to the configuration you want and the layout is right there as an exhibit to the contract.  All that is left to do is move in.

 

Not quite.  Like the design of any home, or product, the details make all of the difference.   You have the new offices you asked the landlord to build but are the power and data outlets where you want to put your desk?  Are window blinds going to be installed on the new interior windows?  You are getting the kitchen area you wish you had in your old space but is a water line stubbed out of the wall for your refrigerator ice maker?  Is the dishwasher opening the right size for the appliance you have picked out?  These details get revealed in the design stage between the space plan and the many-page architectural drawings that get plan checked by the city. 

 

That critical link is called the “pricing plan.”   The landlord has to do it anyway and a good tenant rep broker knows that securing a meeting with the architect, a landlord representative, and the tenant to walk and talk through these details should happen before the lease is signed.  An experienced tenant rep knows enough about construction to ask the right questions about technical details the tenant isn’t tuned in to like HVAC and lighting.  There may be details the tenant wants that the landlord sees as above base building standards and that they expect the tenant to pay for.  As the tenant, wouldn’t you want to know up front what if any costs you will be responsible for?  When you work these things before the lease is signed, you still have a little bit of negotiating leverage.  After the lease is signed, you are just begging.

 

That exhibit to your lease should be a pricing plan, not a space plan.  Then, without any further involvement, you will end up with exactly what you bargained for.