Choosing a Commercial Real Estate Broker: What to Check First

The right broker is the one with recent leases for tenants of your size in your target neighborhoods, who will personally run your search. Check four things first: who does the work once the pitch is over, how the firm hears about subleases and unlisted floors, whether it prices every landlord offer on effective rent, and whether it can help with the buildout. Put two conflict questions to each firm: does it lease any building you might tour on behalf of the owner, and who pays it if you sign there. Firm size rarely affects your cost, because the landlord pays the commission in most New York office leases.

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Put these questions to a broker

Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

Start with the person, not the logo

The senior broker usually leads the pitch. Find out whether that same person joins the weekly call, walks the tours and negotiates the letter of intent, or passes the file to a junior team. Either setup can work. What does not work is discovering it after you have signed. Ask to meet the people who will do the work, and ask how many searches each of them is running right now.

National firm, regional firm or boutique

A national or global firm has research departments and offices in many cities. It is set up for very large requirements and for companies leasing in several markets at once.
A mid-size regional firm often combines a real research function with senior brokers who stay hands-on.
A boutique gives each client more of its senior people and knows a handful of submarkets closely. Its research bench can be thinner.

For a company taking a first or second New York floor, the useful question is not which kind is best. It is which broker, at which firm, closes deals for tenants your size.

The questions that sort brokers quickly

Which leases have you closed for tenants since the start of last year, near our square footage and in these neighborhoods?
Where do you hear about subleases and floors that are not publicly listed, and what share of your recent deals came from them?
Will every landlord offer reach us on effective rent, with free rent, the allowance and escalations priced in?
Does your firm lease any building on our shortlist for its owner, and will you tell us in writing if it does?
Who pays you on this deal, and under what agreement?

Clear, written answers are the standard. A broker who dodges the pay question has answered it. Our brokerage page answers each of these for Nomad.

Rankings, and when to run an RFP

Rankings of brokerage firms count volume, which rewards whoever handles the largest leases. They are a source of names and nothing more. A formal broker RFP is worth the effort for a requirement that covers several floors or cities, or where a board or a procurement team requires a competitive process. A first office for 10 to 50 people does not need one: send two or three firms one identical page describing what you need, and you will know enough to choose within about two weeks.

Hold Nomad to the same checks. Nomad Property Group is a licensed broker in New York. On a tenant's search it works for the tenant, and it also offers agency leasing and owner representation, so ask it the conflict question too.

The full guide

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

How many brokers should a company interview?

Two or three firms. With one there is no comparison, and past three the choosing becomes a job in itself. Give each firm an identical brief, insist on meeting whoever would actually handle your search, and phone two past clients of each firm you are still considering.

Does a bigger brokerage cost the tenant more?

Usually not. The commission in most New York office leases comes from the landlord, whichever firm represents you, so size does not show up in your costs. Size shows up in who is assigned to you and how well they know floors of the size you need. What a good broker changes is the deal itself, and how to negotiate an office lease shows where.

What are the warning signs of the wrong broker?

A shortlist dominated by one landlord with no explanation. Offers lined up by asking rent only. A long exclusive with no exit, put in front of you before you have seen a single floor. Silence about what the buildout will cost and how long it takes. And invented urgency: floors do get taken, but a broker who makes up a deadline is working against you.

Do we have to sign an exclusive agreement to start?

That depends on the firm, and the term and the exit matter more than the label. A short exclusive you can terminate cleanly protects both sides; a long one with no way out is the red flag. Nomad asks for no retainer and no exclusivity agreement. The tenant representation agreement explains each clause.

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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