What Real Estate Brokerage Firms Do Beyond Finding the Space

Four practices, and how one hands to the next

• Brokerage. The brief, the shortlist, the tours, the letter of intent and the lease.
• Construction management. Design, city filings, landlord approvals and the contractor, then furniture and cabling.
• Facilities management. Cleaning, repairs, pantry restocking, vendors and on-call support after move-in.
• Flex by Nomad. A furnished, serviced private floor, typically on a 12, 24 or 36 month term.

The handoffs are the point. The buildout estimate used to negotiate the lease is the one the construction team then builds to, and the people who built the floor are the ones called when something in it breaks. The services page sets out all of them.

Which practice a startup needs at which stage

• Leaving coworking for a first private floor: brokerage, and often Flex, since a furnished floor has no buildout to run.
• Signing a longer lease on space that needs work: brokerage first, then construction management.
• Moved in and tired of managing vendors: facilities management.
• Hiring past what the floor holds, or a lease nearing its end: brokerage again.

The block below holds our furnished and pre-built floors. They are where the first handoff is shortest, because a floor like these is usually ready for a team two to four weeks after the lease is signed.

Brokerage first: why tenants use a representative and do not search alone

A company searching alone ends up calling each building's listing agent. That agent is hired by the owner, shows that owner's space, and knows what comparable tenants paid when you do not. The result is a set of asking rents from people paid to defend them.

A representative works the other way. One brief goes to the whole market, including subleases and floors not yet advertised, and every offer comes back priced over the full term. The landlord has a professional at the table, and representation gives the tenant one as well.

How brokerage is paid for, and how the other three practices are

A leasing broker earns a commission when a lease is signed. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, under its own agreement with the brokers. A sublease is the usual exception: the company giving up its space normally pays. Ask any firm how it is paid on your deal before the first tour.

The other three practices are separate services. Facilities management, for instance, comes as standard on a Flex by Nomad floor and is added as a package by tenants on a direct lease.

What to weigh in the lease before the first handoff

• The cost across the whole term, once free rent, the improvement allowance and a yearly increase of about 2.5 to 3 percent are counted.
• What comes on top of rent: power at about $2 to $4 a square foot each year, the deposit, desks and cabling.
• The term against how far ahead you can forecast headcount.
• The way out: the right to sublet or assign.
• What the buildout will cost once the landlord's allowance is spent, priced before you sign.