Checking an Office Tenant Brokerage's Track Record: The Reference Call

Whom to ask each finalist for

Be specific, or you will get the firm's three favorite clients.

• Two references per finalist. One can be an outlier. Two that agree are a pattern.
• Tenants at your size. A reference from a company five times larger describes a different service.
• Deals from the last two years, so the account is fresh and the same people are likely still there.
• If your space will need construction, at least one reference whose deal included a buildout.

The firm will choose clients who were happy. That is fine. The questions below work on happy clients too, because they ask for facts, not ratings.

The reference call: five questions for a brokerage's past client

• Who ran your search from week to week, and was it the person you met first?
• When landlords' offers arrived, how were they laid out for you to compare?
• What went wrong along the way, and what did the firm do about it?
• Did the buildout finish on the date and the budget you were given when you signed?
• Would you hire them for your next lease, and what would you ask them to do differently?

Fifteen minutes is enough. Listen for detail. A client who remembers the name of the person, the shape of the comparison and one real problem was well served.

Reading a published client story as you would a reference

A case study is a reference the firm wrote for itself, so check what can be checked.

• A named company. A name can be looked up and, if you like, contacted. An industry label cannot.
• A real floor. The neighborhood, the size and what was built should be stated.
• Something you can see. Photographs or a walkthrough of the finished office show the standard of the work better than a paragraph does.

Why the example floors are SoHo lofts

SoHo is where design-led and consumer brands usually look first: landmarked cast-iron lofts with high ceilings. In that kind of space the buildout carries the brand, because clients, press and candidates all walk through it. So this is the neighborhood where a past client's account of the construction matters most. The floors below are the ones we list there, and the SoHo guide covers the blocks.

Nomad's record, and what no reference can settle

Our client stories name the companies and show the finished floors. Behind them are 300+ offices delivered and 2M+ square feet leased. Ask us for references at your size, as you would ask any finalist.

What a reference cannot tell you is whether a firm has a conflict on your deal, because another tenant's shortlist was not yours. Put that to the firm directly: does it lease any building on your list for its owner? Nomad also offers agency leasing and owner representation. Ask us too. On your search, we work for you, and the brokerage page explains how a building we lease for an owner is handled.