The Playbook: Perfecting the lease process

It's Apr-2025, and I've transacted in 24 states/regions and 3 different countries just in the last 12-months. Whether you are in Toronto, CAN or Dallas, TX, I've assembled the most streamlined steps for what I consider to be the "perfect playbook".

The playbook is a step-by-step process of how to hedge your bets, and make sure you are getting the best deal possible without letting anything slip through the cracks--EVEN if it's your first time doing this. Remember, this is the same process I utilize when guiding multi-billion dollar corporations with their many leaseholds. 

Contents:

1. Kick-off Requirement
2. Survey the Market (yes, even if you want to renew, you need to leverage alt. options against your current LL)
3. Tour of Options
4. LOI Negotiations
5. Lease Review
6. Closing
7. Move-in Process

 

Probably more simple than you thought. If so, GOOD. It's meant to be! 

If it's NOT more simple than you thought, just reach out to me in the "Contact Tom" page and I can answer any questions or even run this process for you.

 

Let's dive in-->

Firstly, make sure that you have at least a 9-month runway until you need to be in your space. Any longer than that, and Landlords will be slow to give you the best deal. But any shorter than that, you will be pressed for time, and likely forced into accepting less-than-ideal lease terms. If you do not have at least 9-months to procure & negotiate: contact me immediately because chances are you are way behind the 8-ball and need to move FAST.

Before anything else, you have to know what you want. 

The worst thing a client can tell me, when I'm running this Playbook for them, is "find me an office in New York". 

My friend, there are 285 million square feet of office space in Manhattan alone. That's like asking me to "find you an apartment" in New York. BE SPECIFIC. 

A lot of times you don't know what you're looking for. That's okay, it's about asking the right questions. 

Ask yourself the following:

• Geographic Parameters:
  • [if you had to draw a polygon  around where you wanted your office space, where would it be?]
• Size:
  
  • [How many full-time/hybrid employees multiplied by your SF/Emp. ratio. Remember to account for conservative growth]
  • Ex. I have a client that doesn't count employees who come in less than 3 days per week. Of the "full-time" employees, they multiply that headcount by 250 SF. So if they have 13 employees that are in +3 days per week, they multiply 13x250 and the result is a size requirement of 3,250 SF +/- 15%.
• Class Budget:
  • You'll need to define a budget, but it's difficult as the market dictates rates for different asset classes, and every market is different. For these reasons, I would define a "Class Budget". Do you want to be in the nicest quality buildings? If so Dallas offers spaces at about $80-100/SF, but New York can be $150-200/SF.
  • Ex. Do you want a decent, but modest building? If you're a B-Class office company, I'd say you're looking at $25-35/SF. And if you're budget-only focused, you can find flex/office space for $12-20/SF. 
  • Decide what works with your company's brand, and go with that. 

• Features:
  • While your class budget will dictate the building's amenities, the in-office features can be found in any space OR can be negotiated for any space. Make sure you are searching with these in-mind, because depending on your business, they could be a deal-breaker.
  • Ex. Kitchenette, In-suite restroom, Reception Desk/NO Reception (to save on SF), Bullpen, Office-dense, etc.
• Other:
  • There are a few business-specific items that you might have to keep an eye out for. I am placing those in the "Other" category as you are likely the only person who knows that's a deal-breaker.
  • Ex. I have an environmental consulting client who needed to wash tools off when coming back from testing in the field. They needed a faucet in the garage to be accessible by Tenants. This is a very client-specific request...

 

And that's the meat &  potatoes of it. If you can answer those 5-questions, you are going to be able to hone-in on the top 10-15 properties in your desired market, and put together an effective Survey to analyze those properties effectively. 

Now you have to put together that survey...

A lot of times goes into this on my part, the Broker, but seeing as you are running this yourself, I would cut a few corners. Regardless, I'll define what I do, and label some items as "(optional)" so you don't waste time and energy on pointless customer service efforts to yourself. 

 

Survey Building Process:

1. Get a CoStar license. If you don't have one, they aren't that expensive and if you're going through the effort of doing this yourself then you might as well go the full distance! If you absolutely don't want to get a CoStar license, try LoopNet. It's got considerably less data/options, as it's the free version, but it's better than nothing!
2. Filter options with the Q&As defined in the previous "Kick-off Requirement" step.
3. Go through each option and reach out to the Leasing Agent/Landlord of the building to inquire on the following:
   • Rates
   • Floorplan
   • Features
   • Condition of Space
   • Building Amenities
   • Parking ratios & costs
   • Business-specific requests you need to ask about
4. Compile the data into an excel sheet so that you can review the data in an apples-to-apples manner.
5. (optional) Format the data into a high-quality PDF Survey of Options Book, so that you can review with clients/employees/executives/board members and showcase the various surveyed options.
6. Cut all but 4-6 Options. These will now be called your "Tour Options".
   • Don't allow yourself to select more than 6 options. Any more than 6, and they start blending together.
   • Also don't allow yourself to select less than 4 options (if you can help it). You'll want to ensure you have enough simultaneous negotiations to leverage them against one another. More on that in Step 4.

 

You've gotten through the grueling part of the process. Now it's onto the more fun stuff->Touring and Negotiating!

At this point, you have 4-6 options that check most/all of your Kick-off Check boxes, and you're ready to go see them in person. 

This is a mandatory step as everything looks better on paper. 

You'll want to knock all of these out in one day, so reach out to the Leasing agents who provided you with the building/space information in Step 2, and let them know you want to tour. 

Don't ask them when they are available. That's a rookie mistake, and they will make their calendars available for you to tour. 

This is what the email you send them should look like--

Header:

"Tour Request | Dominion Plaza, Plano, TX"

Body:

"Brad,

Thank you for the information you sent. Upon reviewing with the team, we'd like to tour Dominion Plaza, Suites 300 & 425 on November the 3rd from 9:00AM-9:30AM. If you, or someone on your team is able to showcase the space and the building, that would be great. Otherwise, we'd appreciate if Security knows we are touring that day and you can make the space unlocked and available for us to self-tour.

Best,

-TL"

 

There are a few reasons why this is important:

1. Email organization is super important when working with multiple buildings, hence the header format.
2. Specific times are important because you'll have to send up to 6 of these emails, spanning across multiple hours.

 

Once you have confirmation from the building, send one calendar invite to the leasing agent (even if they just have the space unlocked), and send one calendar invite to your team. Don't send one to both, because if you add the CEO to the same invite as the Leasing Agent, the Leasing agent now has the option to start pestering the CEO and pissing him off--and the fault will be yours. If you are the CEO, do whatever you want!

 

At this point, everything is set up, and you're ready to show up to each of the buildings and tour through all of the suites. Onto what follows->Negotiations.

You've defined what you're looking for, you've surveyed the market, you've toured some options. Now it's time to negotiate. 

Upon touring, you've had some time to view and compare the different spaces. To that extent, I would rank the different options and list out what the pro's and con's are for each of the options. 

Cut all but 3. 

If you are looking at more than 3, chances are that options #4, #5, and #6 you're just stringing along and you've already ruled them out in your head. Don't waste energy negotiating options you KNOW you won't be going to. 

No that you have your top-3 options, send a "Request for Proposal" to the Landlord. 

Chances are you don't know what a RFP word document looks like. If you need me to do this for you or you need an example document, shoot me a message on my Contact Tom page. Assuming you're proceeding forward, just send the following email to the leasing agents of your top-3 buildings.

Header:

"RFP/Proposals | Dominion Plaza, Plano, TX"

Body:

"Dave,

Thank you for showcasing Dominion Plaza last Tuesday. After discussing with the Team, we'd like to request a Proposal from ownership to lease Suite 325.

Please let me know if you have any questions/comments, and I look forward to receiving an LOI from you.

Best,

-TL"

 

The landlord will send you a Proposal with a series of business points that are typically negotiated. They WILL omit certain language to later insert into the Lease Documentation in the hopes that you do not bring it up and accept without question. Don't fall for that. 

Regardless of the proposal terms, ensure that the following business points are included (in this order if possible):

1. Tenant
2. Use
3. Building
4. Landlord
5. Premises
6. Lease commencement Date
7. Lease Term
8. Beneficial Occupancy
9. Base Rent
10. Abated Rent
11. Operating Expenses
12. Test Fit Allownace
13. Tenant Improvement Allowance
14. Right of First Refusal
15. Termination Right
16. Renewal Option
17. Sublet & Assigment
18. Holdover
19. Surrender of Premises
20. No Relocation
21. Sighnage
22. Compliance
23. Parking
24. Security Deposit
25. Confidentiality
26. Brokerage (likely not applicable if you are negotiating directly)

 

I won't dive into each of these negotiation points, as each warrant an entire blog post. But effectively, these are the BIG points I would include in every lease negotiation.

The Landlord will provide you with a Proposal, you will add the missing business points and counter that Proposal, the landlord will counter, and so on and so forth. 

Note: I would include a Side-by-Side analysis to ensure that on every counter, you are comparing your options evenly. SBS Analysis would also constitute of a full blog post... but reach out to me if you need help on this.

 

Overall the process should be as follows:

1. You send your RFPs

2. You receive all Proposals

3. You compare all proposals side-by-side

4. You counter all proposals

5. You wait on Landlord respones

6. You compare all proposals side-by-side

7. etc. etc. etc.

 

BUILDOUT: 

If the spaces you are looking at need work, cosmetic or change in layout, then you'll want to ensure that is part of Business Point 13. "Tenant Improvement Allowance" and you'll either want the space to be in "Turnkey Condition based on a mutually agreeable space plan between landlord and tenant" or you'll want to make sure you have enough of a TI Allowance to cover the buidout costs. Reach out to me in the "Contact Tom" page if you need help here, as this is a full blog post by itself.

 

You do this until you have a clear, #1 option that you are happy to move forward with. When you have found that #1 contender,then you know it's time to request a lease.

You've done it. 90% of the Lease Procurement/Negotiation process is complete. But the marathon isn't over until you cross the finish line. It's time to engage legal counsel and review the lease document. 

More than anything, this is where Landlords will be sneaky and insert language to protect the Landlord and hold the Tenant liable for all sort of things. 

As a broker who sees more leases in a week than you'll (likely) see in your entire life, I feel confident I could review a lease effectively. However, I don't proport to be an attorney and never will, and if I were my client, I would get a second set of eyes on the documentation. a LEGAL set of eyes from someone who does proport to be an attorney. 

Let the attorney take a stab, see the Landlord's attorney's redlines, counter, and counter again. 

The #1 downfall I see in this stage of the process is when my clients allow the attorneys to redline indefinitely. Attorneys get paid by the hour in most cases, and they will spend as many hours as you let them negotiating. This is not a bad thing--just the nature of their business.

After the third redline, it's time you take a look at any outstanding disagreements and make a business decision as to whether the language is something you can live with or the language is not something you can live with. 

9/10 times, at this point, the language is okay. 

If you are experiencing that 1/10 where you see something harmful to your business in the lease documentation, and the landlord is unwilling to budge on it... that's when you need to threaten to pull the plug and walk. 

Be willing to walk away. It's excruciating to go through this process again... I know. But it's much better to have an acceptable agreement than to hurt your business for the next 5-years, all because you didn't have the energy to go back and engage another building. The good news here, is that if you had 3-options you were negotiating LOIs with, you won't go back to square one, but you'll just engage your #2 pick and go from there. 

Now, assuming you are good to go and all lease terms are acceptable, it's time to move on to closing.