Your commercial property leasing experiences

[LucasArthur]

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Hi All

Ok, so i am full of queries and the likes over the last few days and here is yet another…

If you have or are wanting to lease a commercial property at present, how are you finding the agencies that are handling the properties? Meaning, how are they managing you and are they actually helpful at all?

Over the last little while we have been trying to engage several agents in the area re a warehouse we are seeking and have come across nothing but agents that wish to brush us off. Although we express a keen interest in properties, it appears that either a: the landlord has little interest in working with potential tenants in order to get the property to the desired level or b: the agent is putting up irrelevant barriers to allow the lease to continue.

Examples would be:

For a landlord issue things like not allowing partition walls to be built (by our tradies) or imposing ridiculous costs to building walls by their own tradies (4 or 5 times higher than expected costs) even if we offer to return the building back to its original form

And regarding agents issues, whenever you ask questions issues are imposed or the conversation turns to ‘sign the lease with conditions’ to get it looked at. Just a blatant unwillingness to try and understand our position and ridge the gap between us/them and the landlord. Things like a few properties we have looked at were listed as having showers, and yet no showers present. We were made to feel at odds by querying this when it was their listing incorrectly listed..

Just curious to see how everyone else has gone in this area and working with agents in the commercial space and if one has any advice on how to better manage this process?

Regards
Jason

Jason Ramage | Lucas Arthur Pty Ltd | E: [email protected]   P: 61 3 8324 0344    M: 61 412 244 888

[MD Clean]

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Hi Jason,

I worked with our property guy in the smallest way in a previous life and the experience was hugely different – just like you describe – to working with people in housing RE.

It may be worthwhile just trying to find a good agent and work it that way – there is normally a go-to agent in each agency and if you find a good one, they will put time into meeting your needs.

Good luck.

[Kate Ayana]

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Hey Lucas, many thanks for sharing your experience with us. As per my experience, getting lease a commercial property is really a headache.

[Edited to remove link]

[arrowwise]

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Jason maybe not the most relevant response, but here is a short shorty.

In the past we had had commercial lease and didn’t wish to renew / alter the term of renewal the managing agent come down onto us like a tonne of bricks. We then just called the Landlord directly. He was local and small business operator himself and was totally understanding and that solved it all. Obviously this approach isn’t recommended and would never work if the Landlord is a large corporation.

Generally large commercial property managers seem to play hard ball over everything even when you do everything right. I guess this is how they need operate to minimise things going pear shaped and rent defaults etc.

[LucasArthur]

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arrowwise, post: 232437, member: 54026 wrote:

Jason maybe not the most relevant response, but here is a short shorty.

In the past we had had commercial lease and didn’t wish to renew / alter the term of renewal the managing agent come down onto us like a tonne of bricks. We then just called the Landlord directly. He was local and small business operator himself and was totally understanding and that solved it all. Obviously this approach isn’t recommended and would never work if the Landlord is a large corporation.

Generally large commercial property managers seem to play hard ball over everything even when you do everything right. I guess this is how they need operate to minimise things going pear shaped and rent defaults etc.

Hey Steve

Good timing to refresh this post.. just met with a guy (commercial agent) an hour ago.. Seriously, the entire process is just tiring.. Rehashing a little, although the lack of follow up, insight, assistance, guidance, honesty and the likes is just awful..

Please note, the person i met with was nice and easy to chat to (although didnt actually listen to my questions and just answered what i thought i had asked) although just uninformative with what matters – like cost, outgoings, what body corporate allows, whats the process from here, is landlord flexible and what is he realistically asking for – and i even gave them comps per sqm for other locations in the same estate – that ranged from $84.8 through to $134 per sqm – theres is somewhere in the middle…

Anyways, just venting again – but thanks for insight mate..

J

Jason Ramage | Lucas Arthur Pty Ltd | E: [email protected]   P: 61 3 8324 0344    M: 61 412 244 888

[PRO]

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For some reason so many commercial agents are terrible. There are some good ones and they thrive. The service of commercial agents has just not kept up.

[bluepenguin]

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I could be very wrong, but from my experiences, I get the feeling that dealing with rental properties is just not worth the effort for the agents and it seems they do it only to look after the landlords with the long-term hope that it will result in them buying and selling through them.

For my little space I had for a few years, I worked out the agent was probably getting less than $50 a month in commission. When he could go out and sell a premises and instantly make tens of thousands instead, as horrible as it sounds, it’s understandable from a business sense that he didn’t really give a hoot about my office.

If you can give an agent a belief that you’re going to stay out of their hair and make everything easy for them, they often warm up a bit.

Residential rentals tend to be a bit different as they’re usually assigned to the work experience kid who’s trying as hard as he/she can to impress the boss, keep everyone happy, and get promoted out of that pit of despair…

[Paul – FS Concierge]

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Hi Laura Sh

Perhaps you could Google real estate brokers Australia?

Cheers

[TereeClare Property]

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Hi Jason, I’ve just come across your post and thought I’d put my two cents in… (sorry it’s so late! I have recently started a business as a Tenant rep for this exact reason. An agent never has the Tenant’s interests at heart because they don’t pay the bills… An agent receives their commission from the Landlord, so their client is the Landlord. The more rent the Tenant ends up paying, the higher the commission for the Agent. There is generally no help for the Tenant to make sure they are getting a fair deal and to help them negotiate acceptable terms and conditions. If you ever need any property advice, (i.e. I saw your previous post about retail lease vs. commercial and I can respond directly to that) feel free to contact me at anytime… I find it quite amazing there isn’t more help for Tenants out there, hence why I’ve decided to start this business. My issue is that no one knows I exist or that of my services anyway! As I said, feel free to get in touch for any property advice you might need, happy to help out and spread the knowledge! Cheers, Teree

[Paul – FS Concierge]

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Hi and welcome to the Forums Teree!

I hear you but 5 years ago there wasn’t really much of a market for buyer agents and 15 years ago for mortgage brokers.

And look at them now!

I’d say disaster stories and their careful placement might be your best friend.

Your business would also lend itself to P.R too – the press seem to run a lot of stories around how the little guy got burnt.

Thanks for joining and I look forward to your contributions!

[TereeClare Property]

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Hi Paul, thanks for the welcome and I had just about all but given up to be honest, but you’re right, I think I need to focus on getting some PR advice now that I’ve had another burst of motivation to get this up and running!
Cheers, Teree

[Paul – FS Concierge]

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Hi Teree,

Thanks so much for the kind words – you’ve made my day!

It must be very hard to try and build a market that doesn’t exist.

I have done some digging and recalled this article which might give you a bit of an idea of what kinds of stories journos will run with.

http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/finance/my-20000-mistake-20140417-36u7a.htmlhttp://www.smh.com.au/small-business/finance/my-20000-mistake-20140417-36u7a.html

If you want, I can organise a FB and Twitter shout out to find some PR members for you, you could start a thread asking for advice or you can Google, something like how to pitch a story to a journalist or similar.

Let me know if you need any help and good luck!

[Author]

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