lease negotiation advice, fees

[geograv]

Hello,

I'm negotiating rent with a landlord, and I'm curious if anyone has any tips. Right now we've almost come an agreement on rent, and the improvement allowance, but I just noticed there are also CAM charges (on top of NNN and rent). Are these ever negotiable? Any other advice will be appreciated.

Thanks.

[dslackman]

Short answer- everything is negotiable. You need to find some rates for comparable properties. Take a look at Loopnet.com

[Bodge4]

It is true everything is negotiable however when you have three types of charges (Triple Net, CAM, and Rent) I find it is best to agree to Triple Net, CAM, and negotiate rent. The triple net and CAM charges are actual expenses the owner has to pay. By paying these charges for the owner you are basically allowing the rent to be mostly profit. If rent is $5,000 and you want to pay $4,000 offer $2,000. When I negotiate in real estate leases I alway offer half of what I want to pay. It works 98% of the time. I just leased a space in the mall. They wanted $5,000 a month. I was willing to pay $4,000 so I offered $2,000 they came back to me with $3,000. I won!

Also I owned a property management business for several years so I am not just making up a story for you. I have actually done this hundreds of times. I have leased space to people and have leased space from people.

If you have any other questions let me know.

[VanHost]

Somewhat on the same topic, Bodge4, do you have any advice for renegoiating terms in the middle of a lease?

[Bodge4]

Somewhat on the same topic, Bodge4, do you have any advice for renegoiating terms in the middle of a lease?

That is not as simple. Each case needs to be looked at on its own. I assume you want to lower your lease. Are you willing to prove to the owner you can't afford the lease but need to stay? Are you will to pay less now but more later? Can you risk threating to leave and not leaving or really leaving?

[VanHost]

What we'd like to do is actually reduce our term from 3 years to 2 years (or less). This would mean our expiration date of our lease would be August 2010 instead of 2011. There are actually a few reasons, that (believe are not) have finance near the bottom of the list - though it is on there.

I have no problems leaving, apart from not really understanding what the ramifications are of such a move.

[Bodge4]

Every state is different when it comes to enforcing leases. I would just talk to the landlord and tell him you want to leave and why. Tell him in advance so he has time to fill the vacancy. I have had many tenants come and go in my commercial building. I have never enforced a lease when someone left early.