Your landlord has a broker. You should too.
Matt represents the business leasing the space, never the landlord on the same deal. One side of the table, so the person negotiating your rent, your term, and your improvement allowance works only for you.
Whose interests is the person negotiating your lease actually working for?
A commercial lease shapes your cash flow, flexibility, and operations for years. The terms are negotiated by professionals, and the side without representation is the side that pays for it.
Matt represents one side of any given deal, never both. On a lease, that side is yours. Every assignment starts with the economics, rent, escalations, TI allowances, options, and operating costs, not the surface-level asking rate.
If you own the building and need it filled, that is the other side of this work. Start at landlord representation instead.
Base rent is one line on a much longer bill
When you sign a commercial lease, your landlord is represented by an experienced broker whose job is to maximize their rent and lock you into the structure that favors ownership. Tenant representation levels the field, and it usually costs you nothing because the landlord pays the fee. The costliest mistake is focusing only on base rent, since operating expenses, CAM, TI allowances, free rent, and renewal options can be worth far more than a small rent reduction.
- Base rent and escalations, where 4% versus 3% a year compounds fast on a five-year lease
- Tenant improvement allowance to fund your buildout
- Free rent periods at the start of the term
- CAM charges, expense caps, and audit rights
- Renewal and expansion options that protect you years out
- Assignment and sublease rights if your plans change
A market survey, not a building tour
Most tenants start by calling the number on a sign. That hands the deal to the landlord before it begins. The sequence below is the one that keeps competition alive, and competition is what moves terms.
Requirements and economics first
Square footage, layout, parking, timing, and the total annual number your business can carry. Not the rent rate, the all-in occupancy cost including CAM, utilities, and the amortized cost of your buildout.
A survey of the whole market
Every qualifying option across the submarket, on and off market, priced side by side. A curated shortlist with the economics normalized, not a data dump of every listing that matched a filter.
Tours run in a block
Buildings are seen close together so they compare cleanly, and so every landlord knows you are looking at alternatives. Landlords price differently for a tenant with options.
Proposals from more than one landlord
Written proposals requested from the finalists at the same time, then countered. This is the step that produces free rent, a larger improvement allowance, and a softer escalation, and it only works while there is more than one building in play.
Lease review before signature
The business terms get agreed in the proposal. The lease document is where CAM caps, guaranty language, holdover penalties, and restoration obligations show up. Matt reviews the deal points and coordinates with your attorney, who reviews the law.
Three terms that cost more than the rent rate
None of these show up in the asking rate. All three show up in what you actually pay over the term.
The automatic renewal
Landlords count on tenants renewing on autopilot at asking terms because moving is disruptive. A renewal run as a competitive process, with real alternatives priced out, is where tenants tend to recover the most. Start twelve to eighteen months before expiration, not sixty days.
Uncapped CAM
Common area maintenance is billed as an estimate and reconciled after year end. Without a cap on controllable expenses and the right to audit the reconciliation, your occupancy cost can move every year in a direction you did not agree to.
The personal guaranty
A full-term personal guaranty puts your house behind your lease. It is negotiable. Burn-off provisions, a capped dollar amount, and a limited number of months of exposure are all common outcomes when they are asked for early.
The buildout you paid for twice
An improvement allowance that lands short of the real construction number becomes rent you pay in cash on day one. Price the buildout with a contractor before the allowance is agreed, not after.
Your tenant rep advisor
Guided by Matt Bingaman
Matt represents tenants across retail, office, industrial, medical, and flex space in Sacramento, Roseville, Folsom, El Dorado Hills, and Placerville. New space, relocations, expansions, and renewals. On any single deal he works one side only, so there is no question whose outcome he is paid to protect.
Every assignment is built around your economics, with a curated survey of the market rather than a data dump, and access to the eXp Commercial national network for multi-market requirements.
The landlord already has a professional negotiating this lease. The only question is whether you do.
Common questions
Tenant representation means the advisor works only for the business leasing space, not the landlord. Matt negotiates rent, term, improvement allowance, and concessions on the tenant’s side of the table. The landlord already has a broker working their interests. Tenant rep puts an equal negotiator on yours.
In most Sacramento commercial leases, no. The landlord pays the commission and it is split with the tenant’s advisor. That fee is already priced into the deal whether or not you bring your own representation. Going unrepresented does not save you money. It just removes your advocate.
Base rent is one line. The larger dollars sit in free rent, the tenant improvement allowance, the CAM or NNN cap, renewal options, and the personal guaranty. On a five-year lease those terms often move more total money than the rent rate itself.
Before you tour space or contact a listing agent. Once you have engaged a landlord’s broker directly on a building, you can lose the ability to be separately represented there. Early representation also lets Matt run a full market survey across Sacramento, Roseville, and Folsom instead of reacting to a single option.
Both. A renewal is a negotiation, not a formality. Landlords count on tenants renewing on autopilot at asking terms. A renewal run as a competitive process, with real alternatives on the table, is where tenants tend to recover the most.
Leasing space for your business in Greater Sacramento? Call or text Matt at (916) 513-0217 or book a 15-minute consult at calendly.com/bingamanrealty/15-min-consultation.
Guides, the other side, and the markets.
If you own the space rather than lease it, landlord representation is the page built for you.
Looking at space, or facing a renewal?
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation. Bring the address, the square footage, and the date your current lease ends. We will start with the economics that actually move your outcome.