The Myth of "No Free Rent"

Did you ever sign a lease only to feel your stomach turn when find out that you left two months of free rent on the table?

Tenants are understandably intimidated by improving market conditions.  Space is actually getting leased up again.  Rents are slowly climbing out of the doldrums of the recent deep recession.   In some  submarkets they are rocketing up.  Tenants succumb to pronouncements of landlord rep brokers that “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.

Let me tell you: in all but the most in-demand micro-markets and neighborhoods, rent concessions are still on the table.  It helps to have an agent who knows whether that building you really like is really as hot as the owner’s broker would like you to believe it is.  Quality tenants are highly valued.  There are flex points in the economics of the lease that will allow a good agent to tailor the deal to your specific needs.  Believe me. 

Aaron Weiner, CCIM, CPM, LEED AP
aaron.weiner@weinerproperty.com