The Best Real Estate Brokerage Firm for a First Office: What Best Should Mean

For a founder leasing a first office, the best real estate brokerage firm is not a name on a list. It is the firm that passes three tests you can run yourself: on your search it works for you and not for the building, it has recently placed companies of your size, and it explains every term and every cost in plain words before you commit. Lists order firms by how much space they lease, which shows who serves the largest tenants. A ten-person company needs a broker who knows small floors, short terms and first-time credit.

Rather have a broker answer it for your team?Tell us team size and timing. A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours.

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Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

Three tests a first-time founder can run in one meeting

Whose side. Ask who the firm is working for on your search, and whether it leases any building it might show you on the owner's behalf. A straight answer in writing is a pass.
Your size. Ask for leases it closed in the past two years for teams near yours. A firm that mostly places 200-person tenants knows different buildings and different owners.
Plain language. Ask it to walk you through one past deal, naming every cost. If you come away understanding the deposit, the escalations and the guarantee, the firm can teach, which a beginner needs most.

The longer guide to choosing a broker adds the checks that come after these three.

From the brief to the keys: the job a founder is hiring for

Most of a broker's job is paperwork and arithmetic, not opening doors. Your broker turns a headcount and a date into a written requirement, searches listed and unlisted space, books the tours, asks the landlords of your favorite floors for proposals, puts those proposals on one footing, negotiates the letter of intent, and works beside your attorney until the lease is signed and the keys are yours.

In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, and the lease terms settle it deal by deal, so ask each firm how it is paid on yours.

For a first-time tenant: your broker and the listing agent are different jobs

Every building has a listing agent, hired by the owner to fill it on the owner's best terms. That agent can show you the space and answer questions, and is not working for you. Your own broker weighs that building against every other floor that fits and negotiates with the listing agent on your behalf. Both jobs are proper ones. The beginner's mistake is taking advice from the first without noticing who hired them.

What to send first, and what a founder gets back

One short note starts a search. Say how many people you are and how many you expect to be in 12 to 18 months, when you want to move in, what you can spend each month, which neighborhoods you would consider, and anything the office must have.

At Nomad, a broker reaches out within the hour during business hours, and a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours, with a size and an asking rent beside each floor. The brokerage page lays out the stages that follow.

Does a team of ten need its own floor yet?

Maybe not, and a good firm will tell you so. Coworking usually costs less below about 15 people, because you rent desks and the furniture, internet and cleaning arrive with them. A private floor usually costs less per person once a team is past about 20, and in between the particular deals decide. If your hiring plan passes 15 within the year, look at both. Coworking, sublease or a private HQ sets the options side by side, and the block below shows floors sized for about ten people.

Floors that fit a team of 10

Live from our listings · smallest first

A team of 10 plans on about 1,750 square feet at 175 a person. 5 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 1,750 to 3,150 square feet, asking $44 to $92 per square foot per year.

Floors: 5
Sizes: 2,500-2,978 sq ft
Asking rent: $44-$92 / sq ft

Every available floor, filterable by size →

The full guide

This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:

I have never hired a broker. What does one cost a founder?

Usually nothing out of pocket. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee under its own agreement with the brokers, and the lease terms decide it on each deal. Ask about the exceptions up front; on a sublease, for one, the company giving up the space usually pays. Ask too what each firm, ours included, would have a first-time founder sign before any touring starts.

What does a founder need to know before the first call?

Very little: roughly how many people, when, and how much a month. Explaining the rest is the broker's job. Expect questions about funding and financial statements later, because a landlord sizes the security deposit and any guarantee to the company's finances. When a term is new to you, say so; the leasing glossary defines each one.

How can I check a firm's claims without industry contacts?

Use what is public. See whether the firm publishes floors with addresses and asking rents, whether it names companies it has placed, and whether you can find the individual brokers. Then call two founders it has worked with. Nomad Property Group is a licensed New York real estate broker; on your search we work for you, and since we also offer agency leasing and owner representation, put the whose-side test to us too.

Talk to a broker

Want this answered for your team?

Tell us three things: team size, timing, budget. A first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours, with the asking rent on every floor that publishes one.

Within the houra broker reaches out during business hours, no automated triage
On your sidewe work for you on your search, and the landlord usually pays our fee
Open pricingasking rent published for 46 of 49 floors, size and address for all
300+ officesdelivered in New York, 2M+ sq ft leased

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