Did you sign a lease only to feel your stomach turn when find out that you left several months of free rent on the
table?
Tenants are understandably intimidated by improving market conditions that have been strengthening for several years without a slowdown. Rents throughout the Los Angeles region have been climbing steadily, especially at industrial properties. In a few submarkets they are
rocketing up. Tenants can be intimidated by pronouncements of landlord rep brokers that “we have offers on the table”, “the space won’t last long”, “the premises are being leased ‘as-is’”, and that “the landlord is not offering any rent concessions.”
Those pesky brokers – are they lying? No – they
are just doing their job; that is, to gain the best advantage of improving market conditions for their clients, the building owners. They are professional salespeople. And the best ones are great salespeople. Most tenants are blinded to the fact that they need an advocate who understands the landlord’s position in the market and who isn’t cowed by the pronouncements of their brokers. Consider: When two professional brokers get down to negotiating a lease,
the sales-y rhetoric evaporates and is replaced with the language of the deal.
I can assure you, in all but the most in-demand neighborhoods, rent concessions are still on the table. Quality tenants are still highly valued. There are many concealed flex points in the economics of the lease that
allow a good tenant rep agent to tailor the deal to your specific needs.
It is just good sense to have an agent who knows whether that building you like is
really as hot as the owner’s broker would like you to believe it is.
