By Jack Riazzi
Something happened recently that we couldn’t ignore. Two of our advisors, Jack Riazzi, senior vice president in Charlotte, and John Jarvis, managing director in San Diego, sat down within weeks of each other and independently wrote nearly the same warning to tenants. They never compared notes. They landed on nearly the same title. That kind of coincidence tells you how strongly we feel about this, because it’s the thing we see every day and can’t stop talking about: the information gap between landlords and the companies who lease from them. In this piece, Jack takes the psychology: what your landlord already knows about you before you ever sit down, and the pressures on their side that you can’t see. John’s companion piece takes the other half, the mechanics of the lease itself. Same table, two coasts.
Six things the other side of the table is hoping you don’t know
Most tenants we meet want to talk about the same number first, the rate per square foot, and landlords are perfectly happy to let them. It’s the one term they worry about least, because landlords know the real economics of a lease live almost everywhere else. That’s the first thing they understand that most tenants never learn.
The biggest advantage a landlord holds isn’t experience, it’s information. They know how transactions are structured, where the flexibility is hiding and how to create leverage at exactly the right moment, while most tenants only ever see a fraction of that picture. Below are six things they know, and are hoping you don’t.
1. Your Representation is Already Paid For
The most common reason a company hesitates to bring in an advisor is the worry that it’ll cost them, and we hear some version of this all the time. If we bring someone in, won’t that make the deal more expensive or harder to close?
Landlords know that hesitation, and they are quietly counting on it. What they won’t volunteer is that commissions are already built into the economics of the building, a cost that exists whether you have someone advocating for you or not. Choosing to go without representation doesn’t save you a fee. It simply means the only experienced people in the room are working for the other side.
2. The Asking Rate is Bait
Asking rates aren’t offers, they’re anchors. They’re there to start the conversation in the landlord’s favor and to leave room to look generous later while giving up very little that matters.
A tenant who fixates on talking that headline number down a few dollars is playing exactly the game the landlord wants to play. The concessions that actually move the cost of a lease are sitting in the terms most tenants never think to ask about, which brings us to the part of the deal that matters most.
3. They’re Negotiating Your Leverage, Not the Market
Tenants love to ask whether now is a good time to sign, and from a landlord’s perspective that is the wrong question entirely. They are not really negotiating against the market, they’re negotiating against your leverage, and they can read it quickly.
Leverage comes from a few specific places: the number of real alternatives you have in play, the runway before you have to make a decision, and your genuine willingness to walk away. A tenant with options and time creates competition, and competition is the only thing that reliably moves a landlord. A tenant with no alternatives and a looming deadline has already told the other side everything it needs to know, often without saying a word.
4. Their First Proposal is Built to Move
Landlords expect to negotiate, and their opening terms are written with that expectation already baked in. The mistake tenants make is treating that first proposal as though it is close to market, when it rarely is.
Real improvement usually only shows up after three things become true. Credible competing options enter the picture, the timeline gets real and the landlord starts to believe the deal could actually slip away. Until those signals are on the table, there’s very little reason for anyone to sharpen a thing, and the landlord knows exactly how to wait you out until you hand them one.
5. The Lease is Won in the Details
Rate gets all the attention, but the structure is what actually determines the outcome. There are far more moving parts in a lease than most companies realize going in, and each one can shift the cost, the flexibility and the risk of the whole deal.
As you can see, beyond base rent, the list runs long:
- Annual escalations
- Tenant improvement allowances and how they are funded
- Free rent and when it applies
- Renewal and extension options
- Expansion rights or rights of first refusal
- Contraction and flexibility provisions
- Assignment and sublease language
- Guarantee structures
- Operating expense pass-throughs and how controllable they are
- Expense caps and audit rights
- Maintenance and capital expenditure responsibilities
- Delivery conditions and timing
- Default and cure provisions
- Early termination or buyout rights
Each of those can quietly turn a deal that looked competitive on rate into a poor one when the rest of the document is left unnegotiated. Landlords understand this better than anyone, because the structure is where they earn back whatever they conceded on the headline number.
6. They’ll Trade Real Money for Certainty
Here’s the one most tenants never use to their advantage. Certainty is worth money to a landlord because it lowers their risk, which means a strong financial profile, a longer commitment and a clean and straightforward deal structure all carry real value on the other side of the table.
A tenant who understands this can trade that certainty for concessions deliberately, offering the landlord something it genuinely wants in exchange for something that matters more to you. A tenant who does not understand it tends to give the very same certainty away for free.
The Bottom Line
Landlords aren’t better negotiators because they’re smarter. They have the advantage because they live in this every day, are fluent in the nuances, know the pressure points and understand the places where flexibility quietly exists. Most companies negotiate a lease once every few years, and that imbalance is exactly what landlords rely on.
Going without representation doesn’t make the process simpler. It just means walking in with far less information and experience than the party sitting across the table.
At Hughes Marino we work for occupiers of space, not landlords, which means the whole perspective we bring to your real estate negotiations belongs to you. Our job is to give you what the other side has always had: a clear view of how landlords think and where the real opportunities are. Because once you understand what the other side knows, every decision changes, and you negotiate accordingly.
