Finding  restaurant space for lease is an exciting journey and involves many steps along the way. Many first time restaurateurs have operational experience, but lack the understanding of the complexity of commercial restaurant space selection and restaurant lease agreements.

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How to fundraise, getting co-founders and hiring software developers. I share all of these tricks with Startup Grind in Orange County who recently asked me if would share my experiences about these topics. I was so excited to participate and felt fortunate to have been asked. I am a huge backer of the OC tech startup community and shared everything we’ve experienced and know — without reservation.

Startup Grind videotaped the interview and thanks to them, I am able to share it with all of you. Funny side note, Natalie Riso, one of the writers at StartupGrind said that I answer everything with a one-liner and you can read about it here. It’s pretty funny 🙂

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I was honored to be asked to write a blog about one of my favorite and least favorite subjects that I had to deal with in my career. Operating expenses! Operating expenses are rent. Yes, there it is. What more can I say?

I can say plenty actually. There is so much to talk about on this subject and when I was asked by Andrew Bermudez to write this blog as a guest blogger, I was challenged. After 30 years in the industry (yes, that is 3 decades) and way too many operating expense calculations performed, I can tell you that operating expenses are about details and mastering those details so you are really collecting the full amount of rent due.

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Updated: January 23, 2019

How exciting that you’re trying to find office space for lease or sale. This means two things. Either you have enough sales that you’ve hired employees and outgrown the spare bedroom, or your Mom is kicking you out the garage (heheheheh).

In all seriousness, this is a very exciting stage of an entrepreneur’s career but it can quickly turn into a stressful one. Depending in the commercial real estate state of the market, either you will have a lot of options, or none at all. So let’s delve into it.

First thing you will jump on your favorite search engine (ours is Google) and type “find office space”. You’ll find hundreds of links, but what you quickly realize is that there are many sites, but none of them have all of the listings on one website. Why is this?

 Well, unlike residential real estate, there isn’t an MLS for commercial real estate. In fact, most of the commercial real estate listing websites are independent companies (some publicly traded) whose #1 asset that keeps them in business is the unique content they have on their website. If there was one company that had all the listings they would die.
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When you’re searching for commercial real estate and scouring through listings you’ll come across a ton of industry terms that are not very easy to understand. A popular commercial real estate lingo term that confuses a lot of tenants is, IG. You see this type of term a lot when looking for warehouse space or industrial space for rent.

What the Heck Does IG Stand for?

IG stands for, Industrial Gross rent. You will see the “IG” term next to the listed next to the rental rate or monthly rent amount of a commercial real estate listing you’re looking at. Unlike NNN Rent, the IG rent will cover some of the commercial property operating expenses you would normally have to pay on top of the Base Rent. Which means, the additional expenses you have to pay should be less than if you were renting a NNN rent property. Some of the expenses covered (included) in the Industrial Gross (IG) rent may include, but are not limited to, property taxes, exterior maintenance and insurance. In some markets, IG Rent is also referred to as Modified Gross (MG) rent.

For Example: Say the quoted IG Rent is $12.00 per square foot, per year and you’re leasing 5,000 square feet. Well, then you would be paying $60,000 in rent per year, or $5,000 per month. Continue reading

There are 3 things we eat, live and breathe at Digsy: Commercial Real Estate Technology, Office Space and Great Blogs!

Here are the best commercial real estate blogs from commercial real estate agents and techies that we absolutely love reading.

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If you’re searching for Commercial Real Estate, whether it’s Office Space, Warehouse Space, Industrial Space or Retail Space you’re probably wondering what the heck NNN next to the listed rent means.

Wonder no more. In this post, we’ll demystify what the heck NNN means next to all those Office, Warehouse and Retail Space listings you’re seeing online. Continue reading

Updated: January 23, 2019

Searching for office space for rent and commercial real estate can be as fun as cuddling with a rattlesnake. It finally all comes to an end when you’ve found your dream space and the landlord hands you a lease, right?

Sure…you think it’s over, but then you think to yourself, “how do you know if I’m getting screwed here or if I’m getting a good deal?”

Great question!

A good rule of thumb is to always consult a real estate attorney before signing an office space lease or commercial real estate agreement to make sure you’re covered from a legal standpoint. Not every business owner can afford to hire an attorney, so make sure to do as much research online before signing the office lease. On the other hand, to make sure you’re getting a good “deal” — you should connect with a local commercial real estate market professional like a Tenant Rep Broker or one of our free Digsy Experts.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that per Real Estate Law, we cannot provide legal or tax advice. We can provide you with some guidelines on business points to negotiate or look out for when a landlord hands you a lease. You should always seek legal counsel when it comes to legal documents in commercial real estate.

In my 12 years helping 100s of businesses sign commercial real estate lease agreements, here are some tips on things to look out for when signing a commercial real estate lease. Not all of the section headings below (ie. “Commencement Date”) will have the same naming convention, but as you read through, you should be able to identify similar headings in your lease.

Let’s get started:

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Updated May 01, 2020

Running a business is crazy demanding of an entrepreneur’s time, and having to search for commercial property is a dreadful time suck.

Thanks to the internet, we now have great online listing databases that you can search through to find the perfect space for your business. Your success with them depends on how much money you want to spend to access commercial space listings.

There are several commercial real estate listing sites online, but keep in mind that the best ones are usually only accessible by brokers. Examples of this are CoStar and Xceligent. These commercial space listing databases are amazing but can cost up to $1,000s of dollars per month for access (which we know some business owners won’t be able to afford), which is why they are mainly used by commercial real estate professionals and brokers.

One internet listing site that gives free access to commercial real estate listings to business owners is LoopNet.com. On LoopNet you can search for Office Space, Warehouse Space, Industrial Space and Retail Space — free of charge. However, their free access does hit a limit, and then you have to pay $100s of dollars to gain complete access. Businesses that cannot afford to pay for a subscription are forced to look elsewhere.

In order to make finding a free alternative easier for you without breaking the bank, we’ve put together a list of 9 different websites you can use to find Office, Warehouse, Industrial or Retail Space for your business.

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