Every listing broker in every building you tour works for the landlord. Their legal duty is to the owner's income, and they are good at their jobs. Tenant representation exists to put someone with the same market knowledge, comp data, and negotiating experience on your side of the table exclusively. I never represent landlords against my tenant clients, so there is no quiet conflict behind the advice.
The scope is broader than finding space. Renewals, relocations, expansions, contractions, subleases, and early terminations all run through the same discipline: know the market better than the other side expects you to, and make your alternatives real. Most of my tenant engagements end in a renewal, on economics the tenant could not have gotten alone, because the landlord watched the market compete for them.
What you actually get: a complete market survey including off-market intelligence from my sourcing systems, a financial comparison model that puts every alternative on one page in real dollars (rent, escalations, free rent, TI, operating expenses, moving costs), a structured proposal process that keeps landlords bidding in parallel, negotiation of the full business terms, and coordination with your counsel through signature. After the deal, I stay on the file: critical dates like option notices go in my tracking system, so the next negotiation starts on time whether you remember it or not.
The economics are the strangest part for first-time clients: this costs you nothing. Commissions are built into every deal by the landlord, and they get paid whether you have representation or not. The only question is whether anyone at the table is earning them for you.
A lease negotiation is won before it starts. Here's the exact sequence from first meeting to signed deal.
Define what the right outcome looks like: size, location, budget, growth, exit flexibility. Understand your strengths and constraints before the market does.
A complete picture of your alternatives: on-market space, off-market intel from my sourcing systems, and real economics on each option. Then we tour the shortlist.
Proposals from multiple landlords, including your current one, all competing in parallel. Your landlord's renewal number changes when they know the market is bidding.
Rent, free rent, TI dollars, operating expense protections, options, and flexibility rights, negotiated together so no concession gets traded away cheap.
Lease documents with your counsel, buildout coordination, and a clean handoff into your new (or newly renegotiated) space.
No. The landlord pays the commission in nearly all cases, the same way they pay their own listing broker. Going unrepresented saves the landlord money, not you.
12 to 18 months before expiration. Leverage comes from credible alternatives, and alternatives need runway. At 90 days you sign what's put in front of you.
Run the process anyway. Renewal terms improve dramatically when your landlord knows the market competed for your tenancy. Staying is often the right answer, on much better economics.
Nothing. If the numbers say stay and do nothing, that's the advice you'll get. The process exists to price your options, not to force a move.
Tell me what you're working on: a lease coming up, a building to buy or sell, or a market question you want a straight answer to. I'll respond within one business day.