A Broker RFP for a Manhattan Office: Contents, Scoring Sheet and Calendar

The RFP itself, page by page, in five pages or fewer

• Page 1, the requirement: how many people now and in 12 to 18 months, the day you must be in, the budget, the neighborhoods and anything the space must have. Add your own calendar: when replies are due, when you will meet firms, the day you will choose.
• Page 2, the market: ask for a short written read of what floors of your size are asking in those neighborhoods and where tenants hold leverage this quarter, plus three to five sample spaces with asking rents.
• Page 3, the people: which broker would handle your search each day, which one negotiates, and what else is on their desks.
• Page 4, conflicts and pay: which buildings the firm leases for owners, how it would disclose a conflict, and who pays it on your deal under what agreement.
• Page 5, proof: two or three references from tenants of your size, and how the firm supports a buildout.

The floors below, sized for about 75 people, show the detail a sample space should carry.

A scoring sheet out of 100, fixed before the replies arrive

Agree on the weights before anyone opens a response.

• Recent tenant deals at your size, in your neighborhoods: 30
• Who would do the work, and how much capacity they have: 20
• The market read and the sample spaces: 20
• Help with the buildout: 15
• Disclosure of conflicts and of the fee: 15

Do not score the size of the fee. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, so firms rarely differ in what they cost you; mark how plainly each one explains the arrangement. Have two or three people score separately, then compare totals.

A three-week calendar for a multi-floor requirement

Week one: issue the RFP to every firm on one day. Week two: written replies arrive and are scored. Week three: meet the two highest scorers, call their references, choose.

Where the requirement comes with a renewal decision, add a question on staying: how would each firm price your current floors against a move? Renew or relocate sets out that comparison, which works best when it starts 12 to 18 months before the lease ends.

Broker RFP, landlord proposal, letter of intent: three documents boards confuse

The names overlap, and two of the three are called an RFP. The broker RFP comes first and picks who represents you. Later, that broker sends requests for proposal to the landlords of the floors you like, and each landlord replies with a priced offer. The strongest of those offers is then written up as a letter of intent, a short document that settles the business terms before any lawyer drafts the lease.

Three ways a broker RFP goes wrong, and when to skip it

• Too long. A 30-page questionnaire gets answered by a marketing department.
• No scoring. Without weights set in advance, the decision drifts to the most polished pitch.
• Judged on the presentation. The meeting should test the written answers, not replace them.

Skip the RFP for a first office of 10 to 50 people where no procurement rule applies. A one-page brief, a meeting and two reference calls per firm produce the same information in about two weeks.