Hiring a Full-Service Real Estate Brokerage Firm: Five Questions for a Startup

Question one: tenants, landlords or both?

Many full-service firms do both, and that is normal. What matters is how a conflict gets disclosed. If the firm leases a building for its owner and that building lands on your shortlist, one firm is on both sides of your deal. New York calls that dual agency and allows it only with the informed consent of both sides.

Ask for the disclosure building by building and in writing, not as a blanket consent signed on day one. Nomad's answer has two halves. On your search, we work for you. Nomad also offers agency leasing and owner representation, so ask which buildings on your list that touches.

Question two: who runs the search day to day?

The person who pitches is often senior. Ask who takes the weekly call, who walks the tours and who negotiates the letter of intent, and ask how many searches that person is carrying. Then meet them before you agree to anything. At a large firm a 20-person search can be a small file inside a big team, so find out where yours would sit.

How to choose a tenant rep broker has the full set of tests. This page keeps to the ones the full-service label raises.

Question three: what happens after signing, and with whose people?

This is the question that tests the label. Full service should mean the firm itself manages the buildout and then runs the office. Ask:

• Who coordinates design, filings and the contractor, and do they work for the firm or for a vendor it refers?
• Will you get a contractor's estimate on our test fit before we sign, so we know the allowance is enough?
• Who handles cleaning, repairs and vendors once we are in?

Nomad's answer is that the same firm runs construction management and facilities management, and offers Flex by Nomad for a company that wants a furnished floor with no construction at all.

Questions four and five: how it is paid, and whether it works at your size

Pay first. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, whichever firm you hire, so the fee is not what separates them. What separates them is what they ask of you up front. Some want a retainer or a long exclusive before showing a single floor. So put the question to every firm on your list, Nomad among them, and get the reply in writing. If a firm does hand you an agreement, the glossary entry on it shows what to read.

Then fit. A startup-focused firm differs in three practical ways: it knows small floors, it negotiates short terms as routinely as long ones, and it moves quickly. At Nomad a broker reaches out within the hour during business hours and a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours. The floors below are sized for about 20 people. Ask any firm you interview for its equivalent list.