3 Key Questions to Ask Potential Commercial Tenants

Qualifying commercial tenants can be a difficult process. Dealing with businesses that may have no history or individual business owners who may not have experience running a business can make it difficult to select tenants. Following are three questions a landlord needs to consider before leasing a commercial space to a tenant:

1.    Is the business owner serious about moving or expanding his or her business? Both established and new business owners have their own motivations for selecting a space to lease. Does the lease offer options for future expansion of the space? As the landlord, you want to ensure that the tenant is committed to the space for the term of the lease and perhaps even beyond.

2.    Is the business owner financially capable of supporting the lease? A thorough inspection of the prospective tenant's financial information is essential.

3.    Does the tenant meet the qualifying criteria? Every landlord will have slightly different criteria. He or she may consider only non-competing businesses within a retail plaza, or he or she may want to lease to businesses that will require minimal changes to the structure of the space. Regardless, the landlord needs to clearly identify and stick to his or her qualifying criteria.  

The difficult process of qualifying commercial tenants can be simplified if you know what questions to ask before negotiating a lease with a potential tenant.