Whether leasing, buying or selling corporate real estate, due diligence is a necessary evil. While ensuring due diligence is time-consuming, arduous and expensive, it can also save you from making an even more expensive and long-lasting mistake with your company's property. Here are a few tips to make the process quicker, cost less and lead to better results.
1. Online Due Diligence
In the past, corporate real estate due diligence was a matter of shuffling boxes of paper from place to place. Paper documents can be hard to read, especially when copied and faxed, and arduous to send from place to place. Corporate real estate done through a secure website eliminates copying, sending and shuffling paper, saving a great deal of time and money. It also leads to easier to read documents which can be more easily retained by both parties after the transaction. One option to explore for this could be a secure, web-based commercial real estate software system.
2. Use the Right Advisors for the Right Things
Because due diligence for corporate real estate is such a complicated process, you will want to work with a team of advisors to help you complete it. Ensure that you assign the right tasks to the right people. For example, while an attorney can advise you on legal points, your broker could be a much better source to help you device real estate strategy. As another example, the construction expert who helps you determine the structural soundness of a building is not as qualified as an HVAC contractor to assess the building's climate control systems. Using the right people will help you make better decisions, faster.
3. Get It Done
Finally, get started as quickly as possible. Although many corporate real estate transactions allow weeks or even months for it, the time will go faster than you expect. If you get off to a prompt start, you will have enough time for unforeseen circumstances. This will not only make the due diligence run better, but should also strengthen your negotiating position since you will not need to ask the other party for any extensions.
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