The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally reshaped the commercial real estate industry.
But after a volatile year, leasing deals are starting to pick up. It’s time to take advantage of the gradual return towards post-pandemic life.
To close deals in commercial real estate’s new normal, brokers can’t follow old playbooks. In a down market, alleviating tenant concerns, closing deals, and outpacing the competition requires agility more than ever before.
We have five ideas for brokers to close more commercial leasing deals and win big during the tail end of COVID-19.
1. Visualize Expiring Leases
In 2021, even the most in-demand properties face unprecedented vacancies. While no one can stop remote workforce trends and ongoing pandemic concerns, you can be proactive in keeping vacancies short.
It’s easy for vacancies to sneak up fast, leaving brokers scrambling to market a space.
How can you stay one step ahead?
Start by finding tools that give you full visualization of expiring leases. Building Engines offers this functionality.
If you deal in smaller properties, you can track this data in a Word document or Excel sheet. But doing so manually is laborious and hard to follow.
A modern space management solution gives you dynamic views of how much square footage is rolling over, when it’s happening, and will even segment the information by building, floor, or tenant.
This adds valuable time to kick your marketing into gear ahead of schedule.
2. Provide Flexible Terms
According to the report “US Commercial Real Estate Re-Occupancy Plans and Priorities” by Building Engines and Kingsley, a Grace Hill Company, 54% of office tenants reported a decrease in revenue since COVID hit. Signing a standard three to five-year lease in this climate can seem daunting.
In a down market, brokers need to get creative-and more importantly, flexible—to fill vacancies.
One way to entice tenants is to work with landlords to offer less restrictive terms like short-term leases, subleasing rights, and early termination clauses. This flexibility can be the extra nudge some prospects need to sign on the dotted line.
3. Offer Interactive Space Visualization
As the commercial real estate industry evolves, new technology is becoming ever more important to success.
Exhibit A: With Covid-19 disease transmission still rampant, some prospects will be uncomfortable with in-person walkthroughs. Others might simply be too far away to make the trip.
You can address both groups of prospects using virtual test fits of different layouts to show them the possibilities.
Sending static PDFs back and forth usually takes a few rounds. Services such as Building Engines’ Real Access accelerate the process by empowering your team to provide fast, customizable 3D space visualizations.
4. Improve Team Organization
Being disorganized wastes a lot of time. If your team keeps resources all over the place in digital files or file cabinets, it can take hours to find what you need. This means less time spent tracking down leads and closing commercial leasing deals.
Cloud-based space management solutions house resources a central hub, offering the most efficient way to access floorplans, leasing contracts, images, and videos, which your team can access from anywhere. Given how many teams work from home this also avoids inadvertently working off disparate or outdated plans.
5. Don’t Wait for Architects
When working a prospect, every minute counts.
When tenants request floorplan modifications, teams traditionally enlist architects to make changes. Since architects tend to prioritize new construction over existing projects, this can take weeks, opening a window for prospects to fall in love with competitor properties.
A software solution such as Real Access, from Building Engines, lets your team retrieve and edit floorplans yourselves, closing that window. This allows you to quickly show prospects how flexible their spaces can be – a major draw during re-occupancy.
Conclusion:
The leasing landscape has changed dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But amid the turmoil, there are opportunities for leasing teams able to adapt.
According to our recent survey, 33% of tenants expect to have 80%+ occupancy by June 1, 2021. Some report they’ll need even more space post-pandemic.
As the market heats up, commercial brokers need space management tools that convert leads faster and stay ahead of the competition.
Real Access, from Building Engines, simplifies commercial leasing with stacking and floorplan tools that enable quick what-if edits, modifiable floor plans, and key marketing materials all in one place.
Schedule your personalized demo now for an easier way to manage, market, and lease your spaces.
