A tenant rep engagement looks like a search for space. It is really a decision process you run for someone else: define the need, find every realistic option, test each against the same yardstick, make landlords compete, and protect the tenant's calendar. Skip a step and the tenant ends up negotiating the last four months of a lease with no alternatives.

A tenant rep is a broker who represents the space user, not the building. A landlord rep represents the owner (Lesson 4). NNN means the tenant pays its share of property taxes, insurance and common area maintenance (CAM) on top of base rent, so the quoted rent is never the full cost.

This lesson builds on Leasing as a Business and the spec sheet from Industrial and Retail Space Basics. Finding tenants is in Cold Calling Commercial Owners and Referral Networks. Rent math is in Lesson 5.

Getting engaged

Tenant rep clients usually arrive by three routes: a lease-expiration farm you built (calls 12 to 24 months before expiration), referrals from attorneys, accountants, lenders and contractors, and inbound inquiries from pages like Commercial Tenant Rep in Florida. In practice, industrial leads often come from contractors, distributors and light manufacturers, and retail leads from franchisees and local operators. The first call is discovery, not a pitch.

Ask	What it tells you
What is driving the move: growth, cost, operations, a lease ending?	Urgency and the real decision criteria
When does the lease end, and what does the renewal option say?	Your calendar and any notice deadline
Do you have a broker or a signed agreement with anyone?	Whether you may work with them at all
Who decides, and who signs?	Who must approve the criteria and the proposal
What can you spend all in, including NNN charges?	Budget in occupancy cost, not just base rent

(a) Situation: first call, lease ends in about 14 months "Thanks for taking the call, [Name]. I would like ten minutes of questions, and then I will tell you honestly whether I can help. When does your lease end, and what does the renewal section say? ... Here is what I suggest: I send a one-page questionnaire today, and we hold Thursday at 2 p.m. to review it."

Decline or pause when the situation cannot be served honestly:

Situation	Response
Tenant is under an exclusive agreement with another broker	Do not solicit. Follow the Realtor Code of Ethics and your broker's policy.
Tenant will not sign any agreement	Explain that you cannot spend weeks on work with no written terms
Your firm lists the building the tenant wants	Disclose in writing and get your broker's direction first
Tenant asks you to misstate facts to a landlord	Decline. That is a license risk.

The tenant rep agreement

Get the engagement in writing before you tour a single building. In most commercial leases the landlord side pays the commission, and the listing broker shares it with the tenant rep. That is a market practice that varies and is negotiable, not a rule, so state it in the agreement. Florida Realtors offers a commercial Exclusive Tenant Brokerage Agreement; use the current edition.

Term	What to put in writing
Role	Tenant rep, and whether you act as single agent (fiduciary) or transaction broker (limited representation)
Compensation	Who pays, the rate or flat fee, the base (rent scheduled or rent actually payable), and when it is due
Shortfall	Whether the tenant owes anything if the landlord pays less than agreed. Disclose it up front.
Term and exclusivity	Length and scope. One broker source quotes 6 to 12 months as typical, but it is negotiated.
Tail (protection period)	How long you are paid if the tenant leases a property you presented. Sources quote 30 days to a year, so negotiate it and attach a list of presented properties.
Renewals and expansions	Whether you earn a commission on them, and at what rate
Signatures and copy	Signed, with an expiration date and the fee stated, and a copy delivered promptly

Lesson 1 explains how commission structures work, Lesson 5 computes them on real deals, and Lesson 7 covers protecting the fee, including the lien act. Three points to carry into the engagement:

Write it anyway. We found no general statute requiring every commercial leasing commission agreement to be written, but the lien act needs one, proof needs one, and agreements that cannot be performed within a year fall under the statute of frauds.
The lien belongs to the broker named in the agreement, not to you as an associate. If the listing broker pays you, ask your broker whether you need your own written agreement with the owner.
Put your role in writing. Florida presumes a transaction broker unless a single agent relationship is set in writing, and a conservative reading is that the dual agency ban still applies to leases. Your commission always flows through your broker.

This is education, not legal advice. Confirm legal points with your broker of record and a Florida attorney.

Needs analysis

The needs analysis is a structured questionnaire that turns a tenant's story into a written requirement. Send it before the review meeting.

Industrial topic	Ask	Why it matters
Operations and pallets	Storage, assembly or distribution? Pallet positions and racking plan?	Use, zoning, clear height (usable height to the lowest obstruction)
Trucks per day	Inbound and outbound count, trailer types, drop trailers	Docks, truck court, trailer parking
Dock needs	Dock-high doors (truck-bed height), drive-in doors (ground level), levelers	Door count decides fit before rent does
Power	Amperage, voltage, phase for the equipment list	Upgrades add cost and delay (three-phase power guide)
Headcount and growth	Shifts, staff now, and in three to five years	Parking, office share, expansion rights
Timing and budget	Occupancy date, all-in monthly budget	Build-out window and total cost
Lease expiration	Date, option notice date, holdover terms	Your critical dates

Retail topic	Ask	Why it matters
Concept and trade area	Format, customer profile, how far customers travel, demographics needed	Use clauses, exclusives. Verify demographics independently
Size and depth	SF range, minimum frontage	Inline, endcap or pad fit
Frontage and signage	Visibility, storefront, monument or pylon panel	Signage rights belong in the proposal
Drive-thru and parking	Queue length, parking per 1,000 SF	Zoning and site plan fit
Co-tenancy	Anchors or neighbors the concept needs	Rent relief or exit rights if they leave
Opening date and budget	Target open date, base rent, NNN charges, build-out	Delivery condition and rent commencement

Criteria and weighting

Split the requirement in two. Must-haves are pass or fail gates, such as a minimum clear height, a dock-high door count, or a drive-thru. A space missing a gate leaves the survey. Nice-to-haves are scored 1 to 5 and weighted so the weights total 100. The weighted score is the sum of each weight x score, divided by 100.

The decision-maker approves the weights before you score any space. Scores rank options rather than decide.

Market survey

A market survey is a written comparison of every space that could fit. Build it from four sources:

Listing platforms and the MLS, including Central Florida Commercial Listings and the map search
Your broker network: other tenant reps, listing brokers, your office's pipeline
Direct owner calls: buildings with vacancy but no listing, upcoming move-outs, sublease space (see the last-mile blog)
Driving the submarket: signs, empty bays, buildings with a dark unit

For each space record: address, RSF (rentable square feet) and its measurement basis, clear height, docks and doors, power, base rent and NNN estimate, delivery condition, available date, zoning, and listing broker. Present it as a table showing all-in year-one cost per SF, not asking rent alone. Mark every NNN number as an estimate.

Touring

Vet before you tour. Use the Lesson 2 spec sheet to confirm the gate items with the listing broker. Cluster tours, three to five a day.

On the tour, walk the physical fit, access, systems, and the rights and risks for each space. Industrial means clear height at the lowest point, docks, truck court, power, sprinklers and yard rights. Retail means frontage, sight lines, parking, drive-thru queue, grease and exhaust, signage panels, exclusives and co-tenancy. The full grid is the touring checklist in Lesson 2.

Bring the tour and site inspection checklist, and follow up within 24 hours with updated scores and the next date.

Proposals

An RFP (request for proposals) goes to several landlords at once with an identical form, so you can compare responses like for like. A letter of intent (LOI) goes to one landlord after the field narrows. Lesson 6 covers the LOI.

(b) Situation: RFP email to a landlord rep Subject: Space requirement, 25,000 to 28,000 SF, [submarket] "[Name], I represent a distribution user with a space requirement for [month year] possession. Please respond by [date] on the attached form: base rent and escalations, NNN estimate (marked as an estimate), TI allowance (the landlord's contribution to build-out), months of abated (free) base rent, delivery condition and date, renewal options, ROFR (right of first refusal) or expansion rights, security, and the commission agreement. I will review responses on [date]."

Leave sales tax off the response form for rental periods starting on or after October 1, 2025 (Lesson 7).

Timeline norms below come from broker and vendor guidance, mostly national. They are practice, not rules, and permit times vary by jurisdiction, so ask the local building department.

Stage	Industrial	Retail
Search to signed lease	One source says 60 to 120 days, or 30 for move-in-ready space	One source says 1 to 3 months to finalize after the LOI
Build-out or lease to opening	Build-out commonly 2 to 6 months	One national vendor blog quotes lease to opening of 5 to 9 months for specialty inline and 12 to 18 for quick-service with a drive-thru

Compare responses on one basis: year-one all-in cash first, then net effective rent, the average rent after free rent and TI (Lesson 5).

Renewal timing and holdover

Start a renewal or relocation process 12 to 18 months before expiration. Leverage disappears late because the landlord knows the tenant cannot move in time.

Months before expiration	Action
18 to 24	Review the lease, option notice dates and expansion rights
About 15	Assess the market and moving costs
12	Open talks with the landlord and send the RFP
9 to 6	Option notice windows often close here. One source says 9 months is common for office and 6 for retail and industrial. Read the lease.
Under 6	Little leverage. Renew on the landlord's terms or hold over.

Holdover means staying after a written lease ends. Most leases set their own holdover rent, and 150% to 200% of the last monthly rent is often quoted. That is negotiable market practice. Lesson 7 covers Florida's fallback rules.

Confidentiality and ethics

Do	Do not
Keep the tenant's budget ceiling, timing pressure and lease expiry private	Tell a landlord the tenant has no alternatives
Label every comp: asking or signed, NNN or gross, date, condition	Present asking rents as signed rents
Verify clear height, power, docks, SF and traffic counts yourself	Repeat landlord numbers as fact

A single agent owes full confidentiality. A transaction broker has limited confidentiality but may not disclose a party's motivation or willingness to accept different terms unless that party waives it in writing (F.S. 475.278). Misrepresentation and concealment are grounds for discipline (F.S. 475.25).

A worked example (illustrative tenant, invented numbers)

Assumptions (invented, not market data and not MaxLife results): Harbor Line Supply LLC, a distribution user, leases a building in Orange County that expires in 14 months. It needs 25,000 to 28,000 SF within 20 minutes of its workforce. Gates: at least 28 ft clear height, four dock-high doors, 800A 480V three-phase power.

Survey table (four different buildings, separate from the Lesson 5 deal; year-one all-in is base plus NNN estimate, before free rent and TI):

Space	RSF	Clear height	Docks	Power	Base + NNN ($/SF)	Year-one all-in
A	25,000	28 ft	4 + 1 drive-in	800A	$10.50 + $2.60	$327,500
B	27,500	32 ft	6	1,200A	$11.25 + $2.40	$375,375
C	25,000	24 ft	3	400A	$9.50 + $2.80	$307,500
D	28,000	30 ft	5	800A	$10.00 + $2.50	$350,000

Arithmetic: A is $13.10 x 25,000 = $327,500, B is $13.65 x 27,500 = $375,375, C is $12.30 x 25,000 = $307,500, and D is $12.50 x 28,000 = $350,000. Space C fails three gates and drops out despite being cheapest. It is scored below only for contrast.

Criteria matrix (weights approved by the client; scores 1 to 5):

Criterion (weight)	A	B	C	D
Clear height (20)	3	5	1	4
Dock doors (20)	3	5	2	4
Power (15)	3	5	2	3
All-in occupancy cost (20)	3	2	5	4
Truck court and trailer parking (10)	3	4	2	5
Workforce and highway access (15)	5	3	4	3
Weighted score	3.30	4.00	2.70	3.80

Sensitivity: if the client weighs clear height 10 and cost 30, B falls to 3.70 and D is 3.80 (40 + 80 + 45 + 120 + 50 + 45 = 380). D wins, which is why the client approves weights first. Send the RFP to B and D, and keep A as leverage.

Calendar: search to lease takes 2 to 4 months and build-out 2 to 6, so plan for 4 to 10 months. At 14 months out, the slow case leaves 14 - 10 = 4 months of cushion. Starting 5 months out runs 10 - 5 = 5 months past expiration.

Holdover cost: monthly rent is $9.50 x 25,000 / 12 = $19,791.67. At an invented 150% holdover rate, each month costs $9,895.83 extra, about $49,479 over five months.

Key takeaways

Get the tenant rep agreement in writing before touring: role, compensation, shortfall, tail and renewals, all negotiable
Use a written needs analysis, split must-haves from weighted nice-to-haves, with client sign-off on weights
Build the survey from platforms, your network, owner calls and driving, and vet with the spec sheet before touring
Send one RFP form to several landlords so responses compare like for like
Start renewals 12 to 18 months out, and never reveal the tenant's budget or deadline

Next: Lesson 4 covers the landlord side: winning the listing, pricing, marketing, and qualifying tenants.

The Tenant Rep Process