What will make your landlord give you the best deal possible when renewing your lease?   

The best possible deal will be obtained when you can demonstrate to your landlord that you are ready to move.

The Landlord’s Prospective

Put yourself, for a moment, in your landlord’s shoes.  What’s the worst possible scenario? The answer is an empty suite, unit or building.  When space is vacant, the Landlord faces an unknown quantity of time to re-lease the space, an investment of capital to modify the space for a new tenant (architectural & construction), legal fees in drawing up and negotiating a new lease, brokerage fees, and in competitive times such as these, free rent that is given as an incentive to lure a new tenant.

During all this time and capital outlay, the landlord has been, at minimum, paying real estate taxes, maintenance to upkeep the property and mortgage payments.  After all this time and outlay of capital, a new tenant is still an unknown entity!

Your landlord is in business to make a profit, to increase the value of his real estate.  If you or your landlord seek each other out to renew your lease, what leverage are you bringing to the table, especially if you say you’re interested in renewing?

Show That Your Serious About Moving

The best way to impress upon your Landlord that you are serious about moving is to hire a broker.  The broker must prepare a complete list of comparable properties.  You should visit with your broker the best candidates, “as if” you had to move.  After this, your broker should prepare RFPs (Requests for Proposal) for your existing landlord and several of the best available options.  When the responses are in and analyzed, you are finally in a position, through your broker, to arrange a meeting with your landlord.  Prior to the meeting you and your broker should review the objectives:  Rent structure, free time, renovations and other criteria should all be clearly established.  At the meeting, the complete list of comparable properties can be strategically displayed, and smart, leveraged negotiation can begin.

Optimize Your Leverage

Remember that your best negotiation will occur when you have the ability to walk away from the table.  During this process, you may find an alternative with significant enough savings and other attractive benefits to make it worth your while to move.  At minimum however, you will put your current landlord in an equal position as landlord’s with vacant space and hungry to attract you as a tenant.  You will lose this leverage by trying to negotiate directly and not hiring a broker.