With the new year quickly approaching, now is a great time to look at your commercial real estate needs. Below are a number of questions for you to consider as you plan for the future. Many of the questions are specific to a single location. However, others work for a company with multiple locations.

It is most important for an business to have a proactive approach to its real estate. Typically your 2nd highest operating expense, your space is a critical component to your business planning.

Future Planning – Multiple Locations:

1. Do your business units each have a plan for rapid changes in market conditions?
2. Exactly how many leases do you have across your entire organization and what does that represent in square feet and annual occupancy cost?
3. Precisely how many leases do you have across your entire organization and what does that represent in square feet and annual occupancy cost?
4. Can you tell the current state of your global portfolio in real time?
5. What accurate ways of measuring the performance of your portfolio do you utilize?
6. Are metrics in place to evaluate the cost effectiveness of your facilities management?
7. Does your business focus too much on your facilities and not enough on your operations?

Questions for Any Location:

1. Do you know when you’re likely to run out of space, and do you have a plan to keep that from happening?
2. Does your space fit in with your business strategy?
3. If you need 200 new seats in the next 30 days, do you know what you’ll do?
4. Is your current location conducive to a productive workforce?
5. Will your future growth be facilitated by the skills of your current workforce?
6. Do you have the tools you need to evaluate alternative labor markets?
7. What are the critical notification dates and actions required in the next six months? How about the next twelve?
8. How much do you save through annual cost audits?
9. Owning property may or may not be within your company’s core competency. Are you sure?
10. Could capital currently invested in real estate be better used elsewhere in your business?
11. Is a custom facility a requirement, but you don’t want to own it?
12. Do your facilities have backup systems in place to handle emergencies?
13. Who in the company is responsible for the “uptime” of your facilities?
14. Are you getting the information you need to monitor your operating costs?

Aren’t sure about the answers? Give us a call. Learn how Found Advisors can assist you with your real estate needs.