About Greenstead Consulting Group
Our Story: Why We Do What We Do
The Greenstead Consulting Group is a collaborative group of subject matter experts with over 200 years of combined experience to assist you with your commercial real estate needs. We are passionate about helping entrepreneurs get the same level of commercial real estate (CRE) expertise as large companies. We are here to level the playing field for you.
Our Commercial Real Estate Lease Pros work with small to medium sized businesses to provide you with the best lease outcome possible via our lease wording negotiation service. We then support you through the entire span of your lease with our subscription lease management service, and al la carte lease advisory services.
We are there to guide you during the time of your lease providing reminders of important milestones, such as the window to exercise an option to renew. Here is Sam’s story:
Sam owned a very successful multi-million dollar retail fashion location. One day, well before his lease was to expire, Sam got a call from his landlord telling him he missed his option to renew by JUST ONE DAY. He was told the lease wasn’t going to be renewed because the landlord combined his space with others for a larger tenant. There was nowhere else for Sam to go, so he lost this highly successful location. He lost over $2 Million in annual sales, $400,000 in net profit, and all the improvements he put into the location because of just one day.
“I was focused on the daily running of my business. Your subscription lease management service would have saved my location and untold profit” – Sam
You will never miss an important deadline – like Sam did – when you subscribe to our lease management service.
It gives you the best return on your investment because the subscription is only about $2 a day.
Ask us how we can protect your business.
Rob had a really big problem. He signed the lease his landlord gave him for his medical practice without negotiating anything beyond the basic financial aspects of the deal, such as term, and rent.
When his landlord sold the property they asked Rob to sign an estoppel certificate that affirmed the lease, even though Rob and the landlord had verbally agreed to different terms. When the new landlord took over they increased Rob’s rent to the point that it would cost him his practice.
Rob called us. Not only did we solve the initial problem, but in the process Rob got a new lease with 200 changes that reduced his ongoing lease cost and risks to his business.
Using our lease advisory services we negotiated the lease wording and solved a tricky situation for him.
“You made changes I didn’t know could be made to the lease” – Rob
Rob only hired the expertise he needed at the time, also saving him money.
Anytime Fitness, one of our long term clients, asked us to review the Operating Cost Reconciliation for one of their corporate locations. We found that the Landlord did not characterize expenses in accordance with the Lease terms, previously negotiated. As a result, the Landlord overestimated the contribution by Anytime Fitness by over $10,000 in this one year. We discussed the matter with the Landlord and obtained the reduction. As a result, we saved our client over $100,000 over the term of the Lease as compared to the error not being caught. That is a significant return on our client’s investment in our services.
But before you think that was a one-off savings, remember that it has been estimated that over 50% of all Landlord billings to tenants are incorrect for one reason or another. Often, when it comes to reconciliations the Landlord takes the position of putting the onus on the Tenant to review the validity of the billing, trusting most tenants will simply pay the invoice. You cannot afford to let that happen to you. Ask us how we can help you.
Return on Investment
You forget an important milestone like Sam. You have a lease issue and you don’t know what to do, but it could cost you your business. What could this mean to your business, your livelihood, your family?
There is a lot to your investment: the cost of building the location, the lost sales, the lost profit, the cost to find and build a new location, soft costs (franchise fees, time lost, permits, etc.), loss of brand and marketing potential, inventory write down, etc. etc. etc. If our lease management system sent you a timely, important reminder for an option notice that saved your lease rights, what would be your savings? What would it mean to you personally?
Consider the ongoing costs of operating your business. If our proprietary list of lease wording changes saved you just 10% per year on your lease costs, what would that mean to your bottom line over the life of the lease? Tens of thousands of dollars, or more?