It’s been a tough 12 months for many, but on reflection our clients have enjoyed some great successes. Looking back over our clients’ journey, it often starts with questions.
I’ve picked out the 3 questions that we are asked the most and these are.
In number one spot.
How much money can you save us?
This is quickly followed by how much do you charge?
and then thirdly, do I also need to appoint a solicitor?
Looking at the first question – how much money can you save us? The normal response is it depends.
It depends on a wide variety of factors, but to answer the question at the time of recording, over the past ten transactions our clients have saved £723,000.
That’s £723,000 that our clients have kept in their pockets.
Imagine what could be done with that £723,000. It could be used to help finance the move, fit out or be invested into the business.
Whilst these visible savings are easily identifiable. It’s the deals that we negotiate below the quoting rents and prices and also takes into account incentives such as rent free periods.
There are also some significant hidden savings. By getting the lease structure of a deal right, our clients have generally greater flexibility, security and are protected from unexpected or unforeseen costs.
One of the savings our clients also benefit from by bringing us on board as their trusted property adviser, is savings in their time and as we know time is money. As an MD, CEO or FD, what value would you put on your time. Typically projects will run from 25-33 hours and in some cases longer. With us on board guiding your property journey, what could you do with those hours?
Straight after the first question of how much money we can save, then comes the second most frequent question, which is how much do you charge?
This is another it depends answer. It depends on the complexity of the project and also the size of the property, but as a rough rule of thumb, the fee typically equates to between 7 and 12% of one years rent or 1 to 1.5% of the purchase price.
We provide a fixed fee quote at the start of each project and get paid when certain milestones are completed, meaning that the fees are performance related, reducing risk for you.
In terms of value for money, clients will look at the investment to the return. So taking the last 10 client deals, where the savings were £723,000 our fees were dwarfed by the savings negotiated (and this doesn’t even reflect the added bonus for our clients of the hidden savings that were mentioned earlier, in terms of the lease structure and savings in time). So what does this mean, it means that our clients benefit from our property experience and save money in the process.
The third most frequent question is that if we engage with the lease negotiator do we also need a solicitor? The answer is absolutely. Without either party, you run the risk of the lease falling short and this inevitably leads to lost financial opportunities or cost. Either way you could be out of pocket.
Leases are complex, binding documents. I was reviewing one this week which was 95 pages.
Having spoken to many solicitors, they say it is not their role to negotiate the lease terms for you, but to translate what has been agreed into legal text. There is a very fine divide, but as a business owner, I would have thought that you would want the best possible outcome for you and your business.
Therefore as a business owner, it’s ok not to have property expertise, it takes years of education and training and it is something that you don’t need to specialise in, but it is absolutely critical that you get the right advice from the right person, when you are looking to move or negotiate a lease.
The past 12 months have been difficult. Out of difficulty arises opportunity.
So if you are looking to move or negotiate a lease, pick up the phone, give us a call and let’s see how much money we can save you.
