A Commercial Property Tour in NYC: What Happens Before, On Site and After

Before a commercial property tour: the shortlist and the route

It begins with three details from you: team size, move date and what you can spend each month. Once those arrive, a broker reaches out within the hour during business hours, and a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours. From that list you choose the floors worth an hour of your day, and we book them into one afternoon, grouped so the walk between buildings is short. Every stop gets its floor plan and the same key numbers, so each space is judged on the same footing.

On site: how the visit to each floor runs

Each floor is seen in the same order.

• The lobby and elevators come first: how visitors are received and how long the ride takes.
• Then the floor itself, walked with the plan: where teams would sit, where a guest would wait, how the daylight falls at that hour.
• Then the questions only the building can answer, such as air-conditioning hours, internet providers and freight rules.
• Photographs and a short video before leaving, because floors blur together by evening.

The landlord's agent answers questions about the space and the building. Your broker holds the conversation about terms until later, when it can be had with every floor in view.

Touring furnished and prebuilt floors: ask what is included

On a startup-ready floor the fit-out is finished, so the tour is closer to taking an inventory.

• What stays: desks, chairs, meeting tables and pantry appliances, and who owns them when the lease ends.
• What is wired: data cabling, Wi-Fi equipment, screens and cameras in the meeting rooms, and whether an internet circuit is already live.
• What can be changed: paint, signage, a wall or a booth, and whether the landlord would want it put back.
• When it is free, and whether the photographs match its condition now.

Pre-built space explains the labels landlords put on these floors. The block further down this page shows the furnished and prebuilt floors we publish.

Who to bring to a commercial property tour

Two people are essential: whoever signs the lease, and whoever will manage the office from day to day. Add one skeptic whose task is to find the problem everyone else is too pleased to see. Keep the group small enough to share an elevator, and save the whole team for a second visit. The office tour checklist has the full list of things to check.

After the tour: notes, a comparison, a second look

Nomad follows the tour with a side-by-side comparison of what you saw. You rank the floors while they are fresh, and the best of them get a second visit before any landlord is asked for a proposal.