Finding the right office in the best location could have a significant impact on the way you run your business office for rent. On average, commercial property leases last between 5 and 10 years, which is why you must ensure that the office for rent you choose will work for you for the next couple of years. Besides, you do not want to be stuck in an office that compromises your business for even a month, leave alone several years. While finding the perfect rental office may seem like a daunting task, you can easily do this when you know the right questions to ask from the very beginning.
It is important to keep your employees and clients in mind when choosing the best location for an office for rent. An inaccessible office not only makes it difficult for your employees to commute from their homes, it also discourages clients for seeking you out. Clients may easily opt for a competitor that they feel is more accessible. If you are working in London, for instance, you should consider the closest underground stations as well as alternative stations in case of closures. In addition, if the office is far from your target market, your sales team may be forced to spend more time on the road than they do with clients.
If your staff or clients will be driving to the office, the local traffic patterns must be considered carefully. For instance, it is important to take note of the busiest traffic times and how this will affect the people who will be coming to your office. A notoriously congested area could prove costly to your business. A good way to determine the traffic patterns is to take a test drive to and from the office for rent during rush hour.
Every business area has its own reputation and this will have a significant impact on the way potential clients view your business. If your staff and visitors do not feel safe coming to the office, this could easily translate to losses for you. Apart from the security of the area, it is also important to take note of the neighbors surrounding the office premises. A nightclub next door, for instance, could easily create the wrong impression for potential clients.
If the nature of your business requires clients or staff to take regular trips to and from your office, there should be reliable transport options available. You might consider forming a relationship with a local taxi company that offers quality services. You may also want to consider that nearby courier companies, especially if the office for rent is outside the city.
While you do not expect any accidents to occur in your office, it is still important to think about your proximity to emergency services like hospitals, fire stations and police stations. If you or your clients have a global presence, an office for rent located far from the airport could mean a lot of wasted time. You should also ensure that there are enough places to eat nearby as this will affect the amount of time that your staff will take during lunch breaksCounsel: Think of your broker as your own private counselor. Just as you have confidentiality when speaking with your doctor or attorney, your broker will not release information to any outside parties unless you give the go-ahead. That being said, you should expect your broker to be honest with you, and you with her. You and your counselor may be spending countless hours on the phone, driving to see properties, or constructing offers over cold coffee.
Resources: The commercial real estate world is more specialized than residential arena and, as a result, is sometimes harder to deal with. There is no central Multiple listing service (MLS) in the commercial real estate industry. Each commercial firm uses different systems to find properties, and every broker has a different system. A good broker should have a developed system for gathering the intelligence you need for finding spaces. Some of those resources may be ones you do not have access to.
Saving you Money: A good broker knows prevailing market rates and might be able to negotiate a better deal for you. I’ve seen too many small (and even a couple large) businesses, new to the leasing process, who thought they could do everything themselves. They find a location they like, get in contact with the listing agent, and give the landlord everything he wants. A broker will raise a red flag if anything pops up which is out of the ordinary (such as a hyper-inflated rate, exorbitant common-area maintenance fees, or lease clauses which may negatively affect your business)If you are a business owner, it is likely that you will at some point become a tenant. Tenants take office for rent from a landlord in order to conduct their day-today business activities. A tenant may be a two-man accounting team that leases five hundred square feet in a small office building. Another is an international shipping company leasing five hundred thousand square feet of bulk space. The business activities of tenants vary, but the process of finding and keeping space is similar.