Save Your Business Money with a Lease Audit by Cresa

At Cresa, we can save your company a great deal of money by examining your commercial lease.  We offer a Lease Auditing and Forensics service that will provide a deep-dive into the financials of a lease. Our team can determine the specific numbers that form the basis of our clients’ annual real estate expenses and find inconsistencies where they are being charged more than they should be.

Over the next few weeks landlords should begin providing tenants their operating expense reconciliations. The Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA) International, the most trusted source for best practices, guidance, and standards for landlords around the world, estimated that as many as 75% of escalation invoices contain errors.

To learn more about Cresa’s services, please contact me at 301-841-6542 or visit my website to start a conversation.

Conflict-Free Tenant Representation: it is the backbone of Cresa’s occupier-only business model, and what separates us from our competitors.

But how does this conflict-free approach present itself to our clients and prospects?

It starts with a robust set of tenant-focused offerings such as Cresa’s Lease Auditing and Forensics service.

Lease auditing is, as it sounds, a deep-dive into the financials of a lease. Our team of trained auditors will investigate the specific numbers that form the basis of our clients’ annual real estate expenses, looking for inconsistencies and places where they are being charged more than they should be. Whether it’s operating expense pass-throughs, capital expense exclusions, pro rata share calculations, or base-year calculation and application, there are many seemingly small details that, if calculated improperly, can cost a company tens of thousands of dollars per year.

Let’s say our auditors find out that you’ve been paying excessive operating expenses because your landlord miscalculated your pro rata share of your building (you occupy 5% of the building, but they charge you for occupying 7%). Knowing this, we can confront your landlord and demand that they pay back the balance retroactively. Thus, you’ll earn immediate savings, while also avoiding additional costs for whatever years remain on your lease. You’ll also have a leg-up in future negotiations, and oftentimes the opportunity to break your lease early should you so desire.

Seems like a great idea, but what about the cost of this service?

That’s the best part. This service is free. Cresa’s team provides a “desktop audit” of your lease for $0.00 upfront. We only get paid if we are successful in finding you savings, of which we take 25-35% of whatever we uncover. All it takes is providing us a copy of your lease and annual expenses, and we can perform this service each year to make sure that you’re not paying more than you should.

Why haven’t I heard of this before? Is this a new concept?

Nope. It’s simply common sense for any company representing their clients to the best of their ability.

So why don’t many of the largest commercial real estate firms provide the same service?

Simple. Because companies like JLL, CBRE, and Cushman & Wakefield generate nearly 70% of their revenue from representing landlords. Why take the fight to the landlord when you are the landlord?

Cresa is not the landlord, and we will never represent the landlord. We specialize in tenant representation only, so that we can provide the best possible service to our clients, bar none. We will always negotiate strictly on your behalf, and we will always do whatever we can to make sure that you are getting the best deal possible on your real estate transactions.

How Does it Work?

• Contact me at 301-841-6542
• Submit your lease and Cresa will perform a preliminary review at no-charge.
• Cresa will then propose an audit plan with engagement terms to determine the best course of action.
• Cresa will engage the landlord and negotiate recoveries with client support.

Benefits To Tenants

• Recover expense overcharges ranging around $1-$5+ per square foot on successful audits.
• Mitigate future overcharges with an ongoing reduction in charges that often reaches 10%.
• Contingency fees ensure that the lease audit pays for itself.

Don’t overpay your landlord. Make sure you are only being charged what you actually owe and have your reconciliation statement reviewed by a Cresa advisor today. 

If you have significant questions about your current real estate strategy, it may be time for a lease audit. Once we have done the audit, we can create a strategy to look at your business operations and current space and then craft up a plan to find something that is a great fit in the area. With the current vacancies and inventory, we will work with you to get the best deal. We represent tenants ONLY, so you can feel comfortable that we are working for your business 100%. If we can help you by being your tenant broker in the DC, Maryland, or Northern Virginia area, visit my website or call me at 301-841-6542. Make sure to follow all my social efforts by clicking on the links below.

 I specialize in providing comprehensive real estate services, 

exclusively representing corporate tenants on all commercial real estate needs.

Daniel Shapiro
Commercial Tenant Broker
2 Bethesda Metro Center, Suite 900
Bethesda, MD 20814

301-842-6542

Like me on Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

Follow me on LinkedIn

Follow me on Instagram

Visit my Website