Some brokers tell tenants one of three things: the landlord will not grant better concessions, the terms are “market,” or the request is “unreasonable.” Any of those answers is a sign a tenant may need better representation.

That is the premise behind the free lease review from Keyser, a COO Alliance Strategic Partner. Keyser opened in Scottsdale in 2013 and represents tenants only.

Everything Is Negotiable

A tenant can negotiate every term in a lease and should expect its broker to try. A good negotiator starts with yes and looks for a way to make the unreasonable possible.

In lease negotiations, tenants lose ground when nobody at the table works only for them. For a COO who oversees facilities, a lease is a multiyear cost and a legal commitment, and the person who negotiated it may no longer be at the company.

What A Lease Review Covers

A review looks for four things:

• Savings over the life of the lease
• More flexibility
• Less legal exposure
• Lower risk

It is also the moment to test any claim that the terms are standard. If a broker calls them “market,” a lease review tests whether that holds.

Why Conflict-Free Matters

Keyser represents occupiers only, never landlords or developers, so its advice has no landlord clients to answer to. Its services cover leasing, purchasing, constructing, and disposing of facilities, for clients from retail franchise brands to specialty healthcare clinics.

The landlord typically pays Keyser’s fee, which sits inside the rental rate. Senior advocates run each transaction, and the team a client meets is the team that does the work.

Bottom Line

A lease commits a company for years, and the terms a tenant accepts at signing set the cost and the flexibility that follow. For a COO who oversees facilities, the useful question is a plain one: is this term market, or does the broker only say so?

Request Keyser’s free lease review here.