A commercial lease transaction is a lengthy and complicated process. Once you've gotten buy-in from your corporate team on finding a space and been through the site selection process to identify a lease, you still have to get it negotiated and signed. Here are a few strategies that can help manage the process more efficiently so that you can get your lease done and move on to your next one with fewer headaches and inconveniences.
Pre-Configure Teams
Get everyone you need for the lease transaction on board before you begin the process. While you'll be able to make time for everything, if your architect, contractor, environmental site assessor or any other part of your extended corporate real estate team isn't free, you'll run into a roadblock.
Distribute Documents Electronically
While this should go without saying in this day and age, there are still holdouts using FedEx and fax machines. Distributing documents electronically doesn't just save delivery time. When you distribute word processing documents with "Track Changes" enabled, you can also allow every party to the lease transaction to work on the documents while still creating a paper trail of the changes that they made.
Separate Business Terms and Legal Terms
Draft a document that puts all of the dates, terms, and other specific negotiated business points in a separate document from the lease. This lets your attorneys negotiate and approve a legal document while also giving the business teams on both sides of the lease transaction the ability to work with their part of the document. It also makes the document easier to abstract and to work with on a day to day basis.
Negotiate to Win-Win
If you reach an impasse in your lease transaction negotiation, look for areas where you can painlessly give something up. Offering your landlord something as a trade-off can help him to both save face and justify compromising with you. If you can find issues that are important to him but unimportant to you, you'll be able to gain good will and, hopefully, concessions without giving up anything that you care about. Being able to choose your battles will also help to keep the lease transaction process moving forward.
Build and Comply With Timelines
While the construction process is typically controlled by a timeline, the lease negotiation process can also follow one. Work with the other side to figure out what dates they can meet and draw up a timeline for the LOI and for preparation of draft and final lease documents. Circulate the timeline and, if possible, hold weekly meetings to ensure compliance.
With proper time and process management, lease transaction management doesn't have to be a nightmare or even a major commitment of time for any one person. Setting forward some basic goals and complying with them will give you a good start. Using modern technology and getting everyone on the same page will also help to ensure a successful and on-time execution.
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