Guides
Part of Why an office of the same size can hold very different headcounts
An office space search splits into four jobs: here is who does each one
Office space services sorted into four jobs, how each adviser is paid, a scorecard for their answers, and a trial task to run before you appoint anyone.
Nobody can rank office services for you, because the useful ones are judged on how they behave in your deal, not on a list. What you can do is work out which kind of help you need, find out who pays each helper, and test them before you rely on them.
That is the whole method. The rest of this page fills it in.
What to take away
- There are four different jobs herefinding space, providing space, building it out, and planning how you use it. Hire for the job, not the label.
- Ask every adviser who pays them and how. The answer explains most of the advice you will get.
- Give a candidate a small real task before signing anything. An hour of their thinking tells you more than a pitch.
Four kinds of help, four different jobs
A tenant representative searches the market, shortlists, runs the negotiation and manages the timetable. Their value is in knowing which buildings have space that is not yet listed and what landlords have recently agreed to. Their limit is that they get paid when you sign.
A flexible workspace operator sells you a finished, serviced room on a short agreement. That is a product rather than advice, and it suits a team that needs to be working next month. The trade-offs are covered in coworking space.
A project manager or fit-out contractor turns an empty floor into a working office. The best ones argue with you about the schedule early, because the schedule is where fit-outs fail.
A workplace consultant or space planner works out how much space you really need and in what shape. This is the one people skip, and it is the one that most often saves the most, because a smaller and better-shaped requirement changes every later number.
Notice that none of these is a lawyer. A lease is reviewed by a lawyer who does commercial leases regularly, and that is a separate hire.
There is also free help, and it is worth using as a check on everybody paid at signing. The SBA's resource partners give general small business guidance with nothing to sell.
Follow the money before the advice
Ask each adviser three plain questions and get the answers in writing: who pays you, when, and does it change with the outcome?
Who pays each adviser
Adviser
- Representative
- Landlord at signing
- Operator
- Sells serviced product
- Contractor
- Value of works
- Planner
- Hour or fixed fee
Paid by
- Representative
- Closing any deal quickly
- Operator
- Vendor comparison bias
- Contractor
- Works growing
- Planner
- Fewest conflicts
Conflict to check
- Representative
- Operator
- Contractor
- Planner
- A representative paid by the landlord at signing has a reason to close a deal, any deal, quickly. Good ones manage that conflict openly. Ask what happens to their fee if you renew where you are, or take a short term, or walk away.
- An operator selling a serviced product is a vendor. Treat their comparison of their product with a lease the way you would treat any vendor's comparison.
- A contractor paid on the value of the works has a reason for the works to grow. Ask how change orders are priced and approved before you appoint them.
- A planner paid by the hour or by fixed fee has the fewest conflicts, which is one reason to start there.
None of this makes any of them dishonest. It tells you which parts of their advice to check yourself. The mechanics of who pays for what inside the lease itself are set out in commercial leasing.
The scorecard
Use the same tests on every candidate, and write down the answers so you can compare them later rather than from memory.
Scorecard for every candidate
- Recent workcomparable deals, dates
- Conflictsstates who pays them
- Requirementasks how team works
- Schedulewhat usually slips
- Leaseclauses clients regretted
- Referencesa deal that went badly
- Handoverwhat happens after signing
A good answer
- Recent work
- Names comparable deals in your size range and area, with dates
- Conflicts
- States who pays them and what they do about it
- Your requirement
- Asks how your team works before quoting any area
- The schedule
- Tells you what usually slips and why
- The lease
- Knows which clauses their clients regretted
- References
- Offers a client whose deal did not go smoothly
- Handover
- Explains what happens after signing and who owns it
A weak answer
- Recent work
- General claims about market share or years in business
- Conflicts
- Changes the subject to service quality
- Your requirement
- Asks for a headcount and multiplies
- The schedule
- Promises a move-in date on the first call
- The lease
- Says the lease is standard
- References
- Offers only happy testimonials
- Handover
- Goes quiet after the deal closes
The requirement question matters most. An adviser who begins from headcount is going to size you the way office space warns against, and the extra area then carries through every rent, service charge and fit-out estimate.
Give them a trial task
Before you appoint anyone, ask for a small piece of real work.
Trial task by adviser type
- Representativecritique a listing you found
- Plannersketch your team on a floor plate
- Project managerlist approvals and timings
- Lawyername three clauses to open first
- Planner or designercheck entrance and restrooms
You are not buying the answer. You are watching how they think, whether they ask before they assert, and whether they say "I would need to check" when that is the truth.
Signs to walk away
- They cannot say clearly who pays them.
- They quote an area or a rate before they have asked what your team does all day.
- Their references are all from deals that went perfectly.
- They dismiss a question with "that is standard" rather than explaining it.
- They have no view on what could go wrong with the timetable.
- They are unwilling to put their advice in writing.
Common questions
Do I need a tenant representative for a small office?
Not always. For a short term in a serviced building you can shop directly. For a conventional lease of any length, a representative who knows the local landlords usually pays for themselves in terms rather than in rent, provided you know who pays them.
Should the same firm search and then manage the fit-out?
It can work, and it removes one handover. Judge the fit-out side on its own record, ask how the two fees interact, and keep the right to appoint someone else for the works.
What is the first adviser to hire?
Usually whoever will answer the question of how much space, in what shape, for how long. Everything after that is cheaper once that number is right.
How do I check a reference properly?
Ask what went wrong and how the adviser handled it. A reference who cannot name a single problem has not been through a deal with them, or has been chosen carefully.
