Over the last decade, full-service brokerage firms, many of which are publicly traded and must complete and bill as many transactions as quickly as possible maintain profits/dividends for stockholders, have grown in size, geographic reach, and breadth of services. These Landlord-focused brokerage and management firms have expanded their tenant representation capabilities primarily by acquiring national, regional, or local “Tenant-Only” firms as additional profit centers.
Unlike real estate management fees paid monthly from Landlords to public brokerage companies and tenant lease renewal fees paid from Landlords to public brokerage companies which are pre-scheduled in leases, fees for tenant representation work should not be “scheduled” to keep up quarterly profits of public brokerage companies. Renegotiations of tenant leases to make lease assets for the tenants must be unrestricted and able to occur at the most beneficial time for the tenant. An example of this unrestricted brokerage consulting to benefit a tenant was the House of Sweden on the Potomac; seven (7) renegotiations over four (4) years with up to twenty (20) years remaining on the Embassy of Sweden’s Lease and only three (3) brokerage fees paid (all by the landlords).
