Q: Our company is a thirty-year-old engineering and production company and we definitely need to expand in the next couple of years. As we consider our real estate needs, we are also trying to understand all the economic programs that may be available to us.  Can you give us some guidance? A:...

Q:   We have found the right office space and will be receiving a proposed lease from the landlord.  Obviously, we will have attorney review the lease.  Is there anything else we should do to negotiate the lease? A:   If you are a tenant, any proposed lease needs to...

Q: We are placing our industrial building on the market shortly. What are some of the ways we make our building stand out and get top dollar? A:  Not many owners of available commercial real estate take the time to evaluate their competition, but that is precisely the way to create a...

Q:  A real estate broker wants to represent our company exclusively, but we are nervous that we may not see all of the available properties if we limit ourselves to one broker. It seems that we may have a better chance of finding the right space if we “play the field” with several brokers. Is...

Q:  What is the best way to allow space expansion capability in our lease negotiations? A:  Probably the most common lament that I hear one year after a tenant has occupied new space is that they are already contending with cramped quarters. Many tenants take too little space because of...

Q: Our company needs to expand out of a 20,000 square foot building we have owned for the last seven years. Do you have any recommendations on whether we should buy or lease larger quarters? Should we sell our present building? A: Let me start by issuing a caveat: Your circumstances are individual...

Q: Our firm will need to relocate within the next year, and we are ready to start looking at prospective sites. Do you have any recommendations for physically inspecting properties with our broker? A: The real purpose of physically inspecting property is to winnow thousands of available...

Q: We are looking for space to lease for our company. What is absolutely the best way to get a great deal? A: In an open market, great deals generally result from a transaction with a highly motivated landlord or a tenant who is anxious to sublease their space. Subleases are analogous to the...

Q: We will be placing an industrial building on the market shortly. What is the best way to establish the right selling price? A: Setting an asking price is more art than science, but certainly the first step is to establish the market value of the property. The real estate appraisal process...

Q: We will be closing on a building within a month. It has a parking lot that is beginning to show its age, probably about 20 years old. What sort of preventative maintenance is appropriate for parking lots? A: The average life of a parking lot is generally from 20 to 30 years, but that...