How and Where to Find Commercial Real Estate Listings

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When you own or manage a business at some point you will to need to find commercial real estate listings for lease or sale. Depending on the city you are in finding commercial real estate can be difficult especially in large metropolitan areas where there can be multiple thousands of commercial buildings and spaces.  For example there are over 3,000 Austin commercial real estate property listings with over 6,000 spaces. If you need help finding commercial space in Austin give us a call 512-861-0525.

Most companies that need business space fall into one or more of the categories below:

• Local Start up or new business needing space for the first time
• Existing local company that needs to expand and/or relocate
• Out of town company looking to open a satellite office in a new city
• Out of town company looking to relocate head quarters to a new city

If you are not familiar with the city you need space in you may not know where to find commercial real estate listings that are right for your business. Of course you will see for lease signs on every street corner however how do you know if those particular buildings have the size, layout, and pricing that meets your needs? The only way to find out is if you call and email every commercial real estate listing agent, which can take many hours of your time.

How to Find Commercial Real Estate

1. The best way to find commercial real estate is to hire a local commercial real estate agent that specializes in the type of space that you are looking for. A tenant representative or buyers rep can save you a ton of time and their services typically don’t cost you anything as they split a commission that is already being paid to the landlord agent. Their fiduciary duty is to help you ask all the right questions, find the right space, and negotiate the best deal. Once you tell them about your companies space needs they will do all the work to find commercial space which would include calling all of the landlords in your desired area to ensure that what they have listed is still available, confirm pricing, gather floor plan, schedule tours, etc. They will then present you information on only those spaces that meet your ideal location, size, timing, and budget.
2. Search on your own or have one of your employees search for space by driving around calling on for lease signs or searching the internet. You can certainly go this route however keep in mind the time and effort that you will be spending doing this on your own. Especially if you are not familiar with the area or not sure what questions to ask the landlords. 

Where Can I Find Commercial Real Estate Listings

Over the past few years there have been a lot of online commercial real estate listing sites pop up that are basically lead magnets. The data is almost always outdated or they leave out important listing details like whether a property is full service or a triple net (NNN) lease which causes a lot of confusion for tenant and buyers. They can sometimes be a good place to start however don’t assume the data is correct until you confirm it with an agent. Below are a few of these websites. 

• Loopnet
• rofo
• 42floors
• thesquarefoot
• realmassive
• suitedeals
• cityfeet
• officespace . com
• craigslist office and commercial
• commercial search . com

If you plan on searching online for listings then Loopnet is probably your best bet. However keep in mind the data can be misleading. I once had someone tell me they found a great retail space on Loopnet that was only $35 sf in downtown Austin. Not until after they signed a lease they found out that in addition to the $35 sf they also had to pay $15 sf for the operating expenses or NNN. This was a costly mistake that cost them thousands.

If your going to do this on your own make sure you do your homework and ask all the right questions to ensure you don’t make costly mistakes. Otherwise consider hiring a commercial real estate finder that will listen to your needs, find you the right space, help you negotiate the best deal, and ensure you avoid making costly mistakes.

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