Office Sublets For Attorneys
Now is a good time to rent individual offices in law firms, and we've got a great inventory of office sublets in a variety of firms in different cities. Our primary market for shared legal office space is Manhattan, NY. You can click here to view our NYC Listings for professional office space for attorneys. The listings are all paid advertisements from principals and there is no charge for you to contact the advertiser directly from their ad.
We have seen a recent increase in demand for this type of commercial space because many small to mid-size law firms have decided that many of their attorneys will only come to the office part time or alternately might work predominantly from home. This constitutes a larger group of firms interested in acquiring subtenants to rent fallow rooms and share the amenities that make a law firm "tick".
Small and Solo lawyers are used to "do it yourself" task resolution and the LookingForSpace website is the perfect venue to investigate "for rent by owner" listings. You'll get the full contact information including the advertiser's name, phone, firm name and email access and you can contact them as is most convenient for you. (Sub-lessors learn more)
Because the majority of our clients are interested in less than 1000 sq. ft. of space, they have already found that the brokerage community isn't all that interested in servicing this corner of the business because the commissions are too small to be worth their time. This means that there is an unsatisfied need for brokers to be able to offload the small stuff while still seeing that their clients get adequate service - as well as a large group of small, solo and mid size firms that have no representation in this side of the market. That's where we come in offering help to both sides of the equation. (Brokers learn more)
In this article we're going to offer a few tips for both sides of the transaction.
If you are looking for space, the first thing you should remember is that after you look at 3 or 4 availabilities, they will start to blend together in your memory. It is a good practice to take a few photos on your phone as well as jot down some notes so that when you are reviewing the information later you'll have a solid understanding of what the attributes and offering was at each location you visit. Most of our "renters" look at between 3 to 6 opportunities before they make a decision.
Here are a few basic questions you should have answered about each unit:
- Is it furnished or unfurnished?
- Is the phone system included?
- Is internet included?
- Is conference room use included?
- Are the phones answered in your name?
- Is there any signage / identification available for your firm?
- Are there any shared legal services or publications available to subtenants?
- Is the transaction memorialized by a sublease or license? (Is Landlord approval required?)
- And most important - Is good coffee included?
You should set up a chart answering these questions for your "top 3" and leave a space for your other observations. Now, you can compare them side by side and you'll find this is a very useful component of the process. Of course, more heavily weighted than the quality of the coffee has to be your gut feeling about the person that controls and manages the space. Trust your first impression - they are usually correct in these circumstances.
If you have extra offices in your firm and you want to rent them to other practicing attorneys, you can advertise them on our website and make direct contact with other principals who are looking for exactly what you are offering. One benefit of listing on LookingForSpace.com is that most of the leads we provide are "warm", because of the large amount of details and specifications we provide. Most respondents aren't just fishing - they will predominantly be pretty interested in what you've got from the start.
The average time to conclusion is about 3 months. Sometimes sooner and sometimes not. Last year, for example, a NYC Law Firm rented 4 windowed offices to another firm on the second day the advertisement was running. In this case the firm paid us $346 for their ad and they ended up saving themselves a commission that would have been in excess of $25,000. Now you might think that is a pretty unbalanced value proposition for us, but our business is based on volume across a lot of different cities and it has always been our firm belief and understanding that attorneys are completely qualified to negotiate these transactions on their own behalf, and that once they have seen 3 or 4 spaces they have a fairly firm understanding of market values. Plus, success on the second day is the exception rather than the rule, but over the years we have seen it happen consistently.
The other side of the coin is that we have some listings that have been posted for more than 6 months. Why, you might ask, do they continue paying for the service if they haven't concluded a transaction after 6 months? For the most part they will tell you that the reason is that they are getting good inquiries from viable firms - but for one reason or another they just haven't "clicked" yet. As long as they see activity they continue until conclusion.
Along with providing "warm" leads, we honestly don't serve up a huge number of inquiries because our process eliminates the "chaff". Many times over the past 8 years I've gotten calls from advertisers saying "I've been advertising for 4 months and we've only gotten 6 calls..." At which point I grimace waiting for a potential complaint, but to my surprise the end of the sentence is: "...and we rented all 3 offices - thank you very much". Literally, this has happened on numerous occasions over the years we've been providing this service.
We distinguish ourselves by providing these solutions primarily for legal professionals - but we frequently see offerings in different businesses where the atmosphere and perception is appropriate for this use. Being distinguished doesn't always guarantee top of page results on Google because we find other real estate operations use the same "key words" that we do online - and more often than not it is an international executive suite or publicly traded REIT with oodles of cash to pay for online advertising...but if you're searching on Google with any of the following term examples, you'll always find us well located in the organic (natural unpaid) results:
law office sublease
office sublets
offices for attorneys
shared law office space
...and so on. You get the general idea. We are recognized as experts in the niche.
One last thought about our business - the phones are staffed by human beings well versed in this market. Whether you're a "seller" or a "buyer" we can provide free advice to help you maximize the efficiency of your search for rooms or for subtenants. We help both sides of the coin and we're only a phone call or Email away. (212) 986-9100
Accordingly, most lawyers can handle "For Rent By Owner" situations - and though it might be more proper to say "For Rent By Sublessor" we always felt that the "By Owner" moniker expressed pretty well the position of our advertisers. You want to dispose what you control - which makes you the owner! And that makes us the perfect vehicle for your disposition and we can prove it with years of success stories from happy customers.
