How Early Should a Startup Hire a Commercial Real Estate Broker?

Hiring a commercial real estate broker should happen before a startup feels it needs one: about a quarter ahead of the move-in date if a pre-built floor will do, and six months or more if the office will be custom built. Count backward from the day desks are needed. A team that decides quickly needs six to eight weeks between its first tour and its desks when the floor is pre-built, and four to six months when the office is built to order, and the broker has to be working before that tour. Starting early does not change the fee arrangement: in most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee.

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Plan my move-in timeline

Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

Count backward from the day the desks are needed

Take the date the team must be seated and subtract.

Pre-built or furnished floor: six to eight weeks from the first tour to desks, for a team that decides quickly. Allow about two weeks in front of that to choose the broker and settle the brief. Call it a full quarter.
Custom buildout: four to six months from the first tour, since construction alone typically takes 10 to 16 weeks after the lease is signed. With the same two weeks in front, the broker should be on board at least six months out.
A date that cannot slip, such as a lease expiry: begin planning 9 to 12 months ahead.

How long it takes to get an office breaks each stretch into its phases.

Three triggers that tell a funded startup it is time

A term is ending. A coworking agreement or a sublease with under a year left has set the deadline for you.
A round is closing. Tour before the money lands and sign after it does, so the first funded quarter is spent hiring into desks that exist.
Headcount is passing 15 to 20. Around that size a private floor usually starts to cost less per person than coworking desks.

Any one of the three is enough. Two at once means the search is already running late.

What a 15 to 30 person startup needs from its broker

An established tenant renews a footprint it knows. A startup leases for a company that does not exist yet, and that changes the broker's work.

A term matched to how far you can forecast. If the plan is solid for two years, a ten-year lease is the wrong tool; landlords will lease a private floor for as little as 12 months, and two or three years is more usual.
Room to hire. At 175 square feet a person, a team with hiring ahead generally leases 15 to 25 percent above what the current roster requires, or secures a right to expand.
An honest buildout schedule. A broker who works alongside a construction team can say before you sign whether the floor will be ready by your date.

Planning an office between Series A and Series B covers sizing for a team that will double.

What a startup should have ready before the first call

Four things make the first conversation useful: headcount today and the figure the plan shows 12 to 18 months out, the date, a monthly budget, and two or three neighborhoods you would accept. Bring the hiring plan the board approved, not the hopeful one. With those in hand, a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours. The block below shows the kind of floor that fits about 25 people.

Floors that fit a team of 25

Live from our listings · 6 of the 24, smallest first

A team of 25 plans on about 4,375 square feet at 175 a person. 24 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 4,375 to 7,875 square feet, asking $44 to $135 per square foot per year.

Floors: 24
Sizes: 4,900-7,500 sq ft
Asking rent: $44-$135 / 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:

What does it cost a startup to hire a broker early?

The same as hiring one late. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, and the lease terms decide it deal by deal. What an early start does raise is the question of term: ask how long an engagement the broker wants, and how either side can end it.

We just closed a round. Is it too late to start?

No, but the clock is now visible. A team that begins touring the week the round closes can be at desks in about two months on a pre-built floor. If the plan calls for a custom office, expect the first funded quarter and part of the second to pass before move-in, and consider a furnished floor as a bridge.

Can we hire a broker before we know our headcount?

Yes. A range is enough to begin. Give the low case and the high case from the hiring plan, and the broker can show what each would need in square feet. Seeing the two footprints side by side often settles the question faster than another planning meeting.

Our coworking agreement ends in four months. What is realistic?

A pre-built or furnished floor is realistic; a custom buildout is not. Four months covers choosing a broker, the search, the lease and a move into space that is already built. For a custom office, extend the coworking agreement or plan a short bridge, because the buildout alone typically runs 10 to 16 weeks.

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.

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