CRE Broker, Explained: Who a Commercial Real Estate Broker Works For

The tenant's seat, and the other names it goes by

Tenant rep, tenant broker, tenant advisor and office space broker all describe the same seat: a licensed commercial broker whose client is the company moving in. Advice from this seat is meant to serve the occupant: the right fit, the lowest cost over the term, and the freedom to grow or leave.

A broker in this seat compares buildings from many owners, because none of those owners is the client.

The owner's seat: the listing or agency broker

Every building has someone whose job is to lease it. That person is the listing broker, or agency broker, and the client is the owner. The assignment is to fill that building on the best terms the owner can get.

This is a legitimate role and often a helpful one: nobody knows the building better. But what you say to a listing broker about budget, deadline or how much you like the space is information for the other side.

One broker in both seats: dual agency in New York

Many New York brokerages, large and small, do both kinds of work. That is normal. It turns into a conflict when the firm advising you also leases a building on your shortlist for its owner. In New York, one broker acting for both sides of a deal needs the informed consent of both, which means it has to be disclosed. How that consent is given and recorded is a legal point, so have your attorney confirm it on your deal.

Ask early, before you share a budget or the terms you would walk away at:

• Does your firm lease any building on my list for its owner?
• If it does, when will you tell me, and will you put it in writing?
• Who pays you on this deal, and is your pay different from one building to the next?
• Who at your firm acts for that owner, and how is what I tell you kept from them?
• Will you show me a space on which your firm earns less, if it suits us better?

How to choose a tenant rep broker explains what good answers sound like.

Which seat Nomad sits in on your deal

Nomad Property Group does tenant brokerage, and it also offers agency leasing and owner representation. On your search, we work for you, and our brokerage page describes how.

If a building Nomad leases for an owner ends up on your shortlist, that is dual agency, and it goes ahead only with the informed consent of both sides. Ask us which buildings that applies to, and put the five questions above to us as you would to anyone.

How to tell on a first call which seat a broker is in

• A broker who calls about one particular address is usually that building's listing broker. A broker who asks about your company before naming any building is usually pitching for the tenant's seat.
• Ask one plain question: on this building, who is your client? A broker in the tenant's seat answers without hesitating.
• Ask how they would be paid and by whom. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee for both seats, so the answer alone will not tell you the seat, but a broker who refuses to give it has told you enough.