What Building Owners Need to Know to Score Good Tenants

Written by Gregory Schenk@tenantrep17 years ago

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Vacancies vary greatly across the country, but landlords of every property type need to stay sharp to ensure they are getting good tenants.

What do landlords need to look at to review a tenant’s background?

1. Credit of the tenant.
2. Size of the tenant.
3. Length of the lease the tenant will sign.
4. Cost of build out of the space the tenant will be leasing.

A good marketing package today is more important than ever.

I am not talking about fancy slick glossies, but fully-detailed information about the property that is easily accessible on buildings and websites, and shared with your listing agent.

Include the following important information:

• Site plan
• Building plan
• Foor plans including as-builts (if second generation space, this is very important)
• Amenities in the building location
• Map
• Local amenities
• Ease of ingress
• Proximity to owner, employees, clients, customers, etc.

Make a good first impression on a prospective tenant.

The location needs to be clean with a well-lit parking lot and lobby, a well-lit elevator if the building is multi-level, and handicap accessibility for both parking ingress and egress.

It is also beneficial to provide easily divisible floor plans for average size tenants. From the tenant’s perspective, knowing how much space they need before they tour is paramount. Share a generic space plan with the applicants to ensure they know how much space they will need at your location. Don’t waste time and resources looking at spaces that don’t fit the tenants and their budgets.

Be sure to invest in visible and helpful signage for tenants on the buildings and in the lobby, very clean restrooms with no visible trash, smoking area outside enclosed, and no smoking in the building.

Be a green, eco-friendly facility.

Recycling has become a bigger issue both for paper and bottles, and overall “green buildings” are becoming more popular. As tenants become more aware of waste, building owners will have to design new buildings with green initiatives in mind including recycling and bike racks.

Tenants complain more about those two items than they complain about high rent or poor management and maintenance of a facility.

Don’t forget about word-of-mouth.

Building owners who don’t take pride in their properties will be behind the eight ball for even showing the property, as word gets around quick which building owners serve their tenants well and which owners are squeezing every nickel out of the property without regard to the tenants wishes and needs.

What can tenants expect?

For tenants it’s a great time to put together a strategic plan with historically low interest rates and decreasing vacancies in many areas. Tenant incentives, like free rent, decreased rent, increased improvement allowances, moving allowances, abatement from taxes, capping controllable operating expenses, and others are decreasing.

Remember — having a strategic plan is key, and surrounding yourself with experts in each area to ensure your goals are met whether you’re a building owner or tenant.

For more information, visit our website or call us for a review of your goals and situation.

Gregory P. Schenk is President of the Schenk Company, Inc., Central Ohio’s exclusive tenant advisory brokerage and consultation firm. Greg is an award winning advisor and consultant with 31 years of experience including Site Selection, Lease Negotiations and representing tenants, investment acquisitions projects, 1031 exchanges, lease buy outs, and more. His expertise is in the area of site selection and “win-win” negotiation strategies. He is one of a very select few active advisors who owns property nationwide and speaks nationwide!