Questions to Ask a Commercial Real Estate Broker
For business owners, tenants and investors deciding which broker to work with. Twenty questions on deals actually closed in your submarket, who the broker represents, how they are paid, the term of the agreement they want signed, comparable rents, concessions, and references.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Which submarkets do you work in, and how many deals did you close in mine last year?
Why ask it
Total career volume is easy to recite and tells you little. Deals closed in your specific submarket in the last twelve months is the number that predicts whether they know the landlords, the vacancies, and what buildings are really trading at.
Which property types do you spend most of your time on?
Why ask it
Industrial, office, retail, and multifamily behave differently enough that experience does not transfer cleanly. A broker who lists all four equally is usually describing what they will take rather than what they know.
Do you represent tenants, landlords, or both, and which side are you on in my deal?
Why ask it
This determines whose interests the broker owes duties to, and it is the single most consequential answer in the conversation. A clear one-word answer is a good sign. Hedging usually means the arrangement suits them more than it suits you.
If you also represent owners in this submarket, how do you handle that conflict?
Why ask it
Brokers who list buildings and also represent tenants in the same area face a real tension: your leverage comes from the buildings they are trying to fill. Ask which properties they are conflicted on and get the answer in writing before you tour anything.
How are you paid on this, and who pays it?
Why ask it
Commission structure quietly shapes the advice you get. Ask whether it is a percentage of total rent, whether it is paid by the landlord, and whether a longer term or a higher rate increases their fee, because that tells you where the pressure will come from later.
What is the term of the agreement you want me to sign, and what happens if I want to end it?
Why ask it
Representation agreements often run a year and carry a tail that entitles the broker to a fee on buildings they showed you, sometimes long after. Ask for the length, the tail, and the exit, and read that clause before the market conversation goes any further.
Will you be running this yourself, or will someone else handle it day to day?
Why ask it
Pitches are made by senior brokers and executed by junior ones, which is not automatically bad, but you should meet the person who will actually return your calls. Ask what the senior broker's involvement looks like once the agreement is signed.
What does the process look like from now to a signed deal, and how long does it usually take?
Why ask it
Ask for the sequence and the elapsed time: tours, a shortlist, a letter of intent, lease negotiation, permits, build-out. Businesses most often get caught by the build-out period, because a signed lease is not a place you can occupy.
What have comparable deals actually settled at in the last six months?
Why ask it
Asking prices are published and settled terms are not, which is most of what a broker is for. Push past the rate to the whole package, and treat inability to produce recent examples as a signal about their deal flow rather than about the market.
What are owners here giving away right now besides the rate?
Why ask it
Concessions carry the real value in a soft market: free months, improvement allowances, parking, moving costs, an early termination right. A broker who negotiates only the headline number is leaving the part landlords are most flexible on untouched.
What is vacancy in this submarket, and what new space is coming?
Why ask it
Supply arriving in the next eighteen months affects your leverage more than current vacancy does. A broker who knows what is under construction, and who is pre-leasing it, is watching the market rather than repeating a report.
Which clauses in a standard lease here cost tenants the most later?
Why ask it
The expensive surprises are rarely in the rent: operating expense pass-throughs, holdover penalties, restoration obligations at the end, relocation rights. A broker who can name the usual traps in local leases has read them alongside a client before.
What do you put in the letter of intent, and what do you leave to the lease?
Why ask it
Anything left out of the letter of intent gets negotiated later from a weaker position, once you are committed and running out of time. A broker with a considered answer here is protecting your leverage rather than hurrying to a signature.
If I am buying, what assumptions are in your underwriting?
Why ask it
Ask about the rent growth, vacancy, and exit assumptions behind the numbers, and how they would change the answer. Projections that only work under optimistic inputs are the most common way a deal that looked fine stops working.
Who else needs to be involved, and when should each of them start?
Why ask it
Most deals need an attorney, a lender, sometimes an architect, an environmental consultant, or a permitting expediter. A broker who names the roles and the timing has done this before. One who says they will handle everything is overreaching.
What happens when a deal starts to fall apart?
Why ask it
Deals collapse over financing, inspections, permits, or a landlord retrading terms. What you want to hear is a specific recent example and what they did, because a broker's behaviour in that week is what you are actually hiring.
When you disagree with a client, do you say so?
Why ask it
A broker paid on closing has an obvious reason to endorse whatever you want to do. Ask for a time they told a client not to proceed. Nobody who has worked long enough is short of an example, and having none is its own answer.
What did you get wrong on a recent deal?
Why ask it
Everyone in this business has misjudged a timeline, a landlord, or a market. Willingness to name one, without blaming the client, is the closest thing to a reliable character reference you will get in a first meeting.
What would you tell me about this if you were not being paid on the transaction?
Why ask it
This asks the broker to step outside their own incentive, and the answers are often surprisingly direct: wait a quarter, renew where you are, take less space. Anyone who cannot separate the two positions has told you which one governs.
Who from your last three closed deals can I call?
Why ask it
Ask for the last three rather than three references, because the difference is between a sample and a selection. Then ask those clients about the difficult stretch of the deal rather than the outcome.
Choosing and Using a Commercial Broker
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before You Sign Anything
Settle Who the Broker Works For
Get the representation arrangement in writing before you tour a single building. Touring with a broker who lists property in the same submarket can affect who owes a fee later, and that is a much more expensive conversation to have after the fact.
Read the Term and the Tail
Look for the length of the agreement, the notice needed to end it, and how long after it ends the broker is still owed a fee on buildings they introduced. Those three lines decide how much freedom you keep.
Interview More Than One
Two or three conversations tell you which parts of the market picture are shared and which are one person's opinion. The disagreements are the most useful thing you will take from the process.
Verify the Track Record Yourself
Ask for the addresses of recent closings rather than a list of clients. Ownership and lease records are largely public, and a broker who is comfortable with you checking is telling you something worth knowing.
While the Deal Is Live
- Get an attorney involved before the letter of intent, not after it
- Ask for the full economics of every option side by side, including concessions and expense pass-throughs, not just the rate per square foot
- Keep your own timeline for build-out and permits, since occupancy dates slip more often than lease dates do
- Put every negotiated point in writing on the day it is agreed, however informal the conversation was
- Ask what the landlord has said, in their words, rather than accepting a summary of their position
- Decide your walk-away terms before the final negotiation, and tell your broker what they are
Common Pitfalls
Touring Buildings Before the Relationship Is Defined
Walking into a property with an unrepresented interest can compromise your position and your fee arrangement later. Define representation first, even if it delays a viewing by a week.
Negotiating Only on Rate
Improvement allowances, free rent, expense caps, renewal options, and termination rights often carry more value than a small reduction in the rate, and landlords part with them more readily. A deal judged only on rate usually leaves money in the room.
Taking More Space Than the Plan Supports
Growth projections are optimistic and leases are long. Ask what happens if headcount stays flat, and what your options are for subleasing or handing space back before you sign for the larger footprint.
Assuming the Broker's Interest Matches Yours
Most brokers are honest, and nearly all of them are paid at closing. Read advice about timing, term length, and how hard to push with that in mind, and get a second opinion on the decisions that are expensive to reverse.