What is The Most Important Role of a Leasing Consultant?

Leasing Consultant/Agent, What Can They Do For You?

Leasing Consultant/ Agent is a professional who has specific knowledge about commercial and retail leasing. These Leasing Consultants may work freelance or working for big organizations who are experts in real estate or construction.

How and Why should you hire a Leasing Consultant?

Most of the Leasing Consulting firms will be able to assist you with any matter related to the Lease Contract. Having a professional who thoroughly understands the Lease contract will help you navigate through the process easier and avoid all of the unexpected surprises ahead.

Leasing Consultant can be found at most of the Agency/ Consulting firms who handle leasing in both commercial and retail spaces. An important note to understand is that a Leasing Consultant may have the knowledge and experience in dealing with Leasing but is not a Commercial Lawyer. At the moment, it is an option for a professional, commercial Leasing Consultant in Sydney to hold a specific degree in law or business.

What is the difference between a leasing consultant and agent?

There is no difference between the terms, they are used interchangably.

What is the most important role of a leasing consultant?

A leasing consultant plays a crucial role in a transaction as a communication bridge between the Landlord and the Lessor. Commercial Leasing Consultant normally is the point of contact and handles all of the bits and pieces in the process. Let us take a look at what they do in detail.

Firstly, they are the source of information for the Landlord and the Lessee. If you need to rent a space for your business, where would you go? To a real estate agent. In the same way, the Landlord will contact the Leasing Consultants for their sites to be listed on the market.

Then, the Leasing Consultants will handle all preliminary communications, site inspection, basic questions and answers and all of the information packs.

Following by the mix and match, a good Leasing Consultant is also a matcher who will be able to propose the right site to the Lessee to their best fit and ensure the Landlord is comfortable with how the premises is used and operated.

Next is the negotiation phase. In a normal course, the Leasing Consultant is likely to act for one party of the transaction, advise the current market snapshots and  what the reasonable deal looks like. Now, this is where they become crucial. Both the Landlord and Lessee want to have a fair deal and are unsure all of the rights are met before entering the Lease contract, having a professional and experienced Leasing Consultant will allow both parties to have peace of mind and ensure the transaction goes through smoothly.

Most of the negotiations happen over phone calls or emails. After both parties agree on the basic terms, the Leasing Consultant will then issue the Lease Offer and Disclosure Documents.

It  depends on each State and Territory as to how these documents are structured. The Lease Offer can also be called a Letter of Offer, Lease Proposal Letter. In some cases, an Expression of Interest will be sent out before the Letter of Offer by the Commercial Leasing Executive to give and collect basic information of both parties such as entity name, contact person, contact details, site details, basic costs involved and the shop drawing for fitout purpose.

After the Lease Offer and Disclosure Document are signed by the Tenant, the Lease will then be issued by a solicitor. By signing the Disclosure Document the Lessee is bound legally with the deal, again this requirement is specified by state and territory. The Draft Lease will be sent for the Lessee’s legal representative to review and discuss before the final is issued. It is important that both parties have a copy of the fully executed Leases in hard or soft copies. As soon as the Lease is signed, the Lessee can obtain the key to start on the Fitout and trading.

Commercial and Retails Leasing executives are the bridge of communication and the source of information to all relevant parties in a transaction. Contact Brydanwoods Consultant today for assistant with your Leasing related enquiries.