3 Most Common Challenges with Commercial Lease Management
Last Updated on February 9, 2023 by Morgan Beard
Commercial lease management is an ongoing challenge for companies that are leasing multiple properties — whether they’re in the same state, across the country, or around the world. Today, the process looks very old-school and ad-hoc, when it definitely doesn’t have to be. If you think about it, commercial leasing might be one of the biggest biggest line items on a company’s annual budget, so the problem should definitely be approached in a more modern, organized way.
Here’s what we see as three of the top challenges for commercial lease management, along with some modern ideas on how to solve them.
Challenge 1: Spreadsheets and Email
While much of the work world has embraced modern, cloud-based collaboration tools like Slack and G-Suite (a whopping 91 percent of businesses use general-purpose collaboration tools like messaging apps), commercial lease management seems to have been left in the dark ages. Commercial real estate executives may find information about their leases scattered across a number of desktop folders, or in spreadsheets and emails that aren’t connected to one another. After all, the process of tracking existing leases and upcoming deals has been the same for a decade, so why change?
The issue is this approach leaves a lot of manual work to the internal real estate team at the company, not to mention a major margin for error. A single system of record, to contrast, could consolidate all of the information from their existing portfolio and active deals into one place, making it much easier to track in real time. This approach would ensure that nothing slips through the cracks if an email goes unanswered or an old-school spreadsheet falls out of date.
Challenge 2: A Lack of Collaboration with Brokers
A commercial real estate team at a mid-sized to large company may work with several (or even dozens of) different brokers at a time, to execute on the active deals in their respective markets. Today, there’s no good way to collaborate directly with all of these brokers in a single place, so phone calls, text messages, and emails are exchanged to convey the latest information about deals.
Unfortunately, this approach can lead to a lack of accountability on the extended real estate team (including both the internal team and brokers), missed deadlines or opportunities to communicate, and — in the worst case scenario — lost deals. If both brokers and internal real estate teams were collaborating within the same platform, everyone would be able to track key deadlines, documents, and more — and know exactly where each deal stands.
Challenge 3: Visibility Into Opportunities
Commercial real estate is all about seizing the opportunity — or making the best possible deal for a new space or lease renewal. Ultra-competitive markets tend to favor the landlord rather than the tenant, so it’s critical that the broker and internal real estate team can quickly negotiate and seal the deal (before the next company does.) Today, it can be difficult for internal real estate teams to understand the full breadth of opportunities available to them, especially if they’re operating across multiple markets or balancing a larger portfolio.
With lease, deal and comp information available in a single system, commercial real estate teams can better evaluate their opportunities and make decisions based on all of the facts. This level of visibility could mean the difference between setting up in a prime business district and attracting the talent you want — or being left in the dust.
Ready for Modern Commercial Lease Management?
Occupier provides a platform that brings tenants and brokers together to make the best possible commercial real estate decisions. Instead of archaic processes and tools, Occupier provides a real-time, single system of record for all commercial lease and active deal data, so teams can collaborate and never miss an opportunity.
