Find a Commercial Real Estate Broker in Two Weeks: A Plan for a Manhattan Search

To find a commercial real estate broker for a Manhattan office search, write a one-page brief and send the same page to two or three firms. Ask each for a short response, meet the person who would run your search, call two references, and sign an agreement with an end date and a way out. The whole process fits in two weeks. To find the firms, ask companies of your size who represented them, and look at who publishes real floors with real asking rents. The floors below are a sample of what a good response to a 32-person brief contains.

Rather have a broker answer it for your team?Tell us team size and timing. A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours.

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Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

Days 1 to 3: the one-page brief, and where to find firms to send it to

The brief has five lines: how many people you are and how many you will be in 12 to 18 months, your move-in date, a monthly budget, the neighborhoods worth considering, and the must-haves. Keep it to a page.

For names, start with founders and operations leads at companies your size. Ask who represented them and whether they would use that broker again. Then look at what firms publish. A brokerage that shows addresses, sizes and asking rents openly is easier to judge before you call than one that keeps them behind a form.

Days 4 to 7: what to ask for, and what a good response contains

Send the same page to two or three firms on the same day and ask each for a short written response within the week. A good one has four parts.

A market read: what floors of your size are asking in your neighborhoods, and where a tenant has leverage.
Sample spaces: three to five real floors that fit, with addresses, sizes and asking rents.
Conflicts: whether the firm leases any building it has shown you for the owner, and how it would tell you.
Pay: who pays the firm on your deal, and under what agreement.

The floors below are sized for about 32 people. A response to a brief of that size should look like them: specific floors, with numbers.

Days 8 to 12: meet the person, call two references

Ask to meet whoever would run your search day to day, not only the person who presents. Ask how many searches that person is carrying. Then call two past clients of each firm still in the running, companies of about your size, and ask three things: how quickly the broker responded, what went wrong and how it was handled, and whether the broker who pitched also did the negotiating.

Days 13 and 14: what to sign, and what not to

Sign a tenant representation agreement that states the scope, a defined term, who pays the broker and the way either party can end it. Do not sign a long exclusive with no exit before you have seen the broker work, an automatic renewal, or a clause that makes you pay the commission whenever a landlord declines to. Have your attorney read anything you are unsure of. The tenant representation agreement entry goes through each clause.

How Nomad would answer the same brief

A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours, and a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours, with the address, size and asking rent of each floor. On conflicts: on your search, we work for you, and Nomad also offers agency leasing and owner representation, so ask us to name any building on the list that the firm leases for its owner. On pay: in most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee. On paper: ask us what we would want signed, then hold the reply to the day 13 tests above, exactly as you would another firm's. Nomad Property Group is a licensed New York real estate broker, and every floor it lists is in Manhattan. The brokerage page has the rest.

Floors that fit a team of 32

Live from our listings · 6 of the 18, smallest first

A team of 32 plans on about 5,600 square feet at 175 a person. 18 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 5,600 to 10,080 square feet, asking $43 to $125 per square foot per year on the 17 with a published rent.

Floors: 18
Sizes: 5,621-9,500 sq ft
Asking rent: $43-$125 / 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:

Is two weeks really enough to choose a broker?

For a first or second office, yes. The answers a good firm gives are ready before you ask, so a response takes days. If a firm needs a month to tell you how it is paid, that is the answer. The broker selection playbook covers larger requirements, where a formal process can be worth running.

Should we send the brief to more than three firms?

No. Past three, comparing responses becomes a job of its own and adds little. Two gives a comparison; three gives a tiebreak.

What if a firm will not answer the conflict question in writing?

Take it as information. Many brokerages lease buildings for owners as well as representing tenants, and there is nothing wrong with that when it is disclosed. New York allows a single broker to act for landlord and tenant on the same deal only when both have given informed consent, so a firm should be able to say in writing where that could arise.

Can we start touring before we have chosen a broker?

You can look, but be careful what you sign at a tour. A touring agreement can record that a broker or a landlord's agent introduced a space, which affects who is paid if you lease it. Choose the broker first; it only takes two 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.

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

Or call 646-688-3158