The commercial office real estate market in many ways has come to resemble a summer’s day picnic where ants and other assorted scavengers scramble to grab the remaining crumbs and scraps left behind during the afternoon’s repast.

Just as these critters move into territory unknown to them, foraging for food, so it is in today’s office market where landlord leasing representatives and other operatives are trying to move into markets they are not equipped, by experience or expertise, to handle.

The decline in the supply of leasable office space has resulted in landlords firing their brokers and turning over what little leasing activity there is to in-house representatives or property managers. The displaced landlord representatives as well as other operatives are now trying to pass themselves off as experts in the only remaining market function that’s viable — representing office tenants.

In recent weeks, many seasoned but displaced landlord agents are manning phone banks to cold call tenants — “dialing for dollars” — much the same way telemarketers pester families at home every night during the dinner hour. And, they’re not all that particular about who and what the tenant’s business is, where it’s located, and other information that would be critical to serve the tenant.

Add to this nonsense the fact that some leasing agents are trying to lure major office tenants who have complex and large space needs to do business with them by giving them autographed footballs, golf outings, and Lord only knows what else. At a time when tenants most need help from experienced and professional leasing representatives, we find the market place filling up with agents who only a few months ago couldn’t have cared less about what office tenants need or worse yet, don’t have a clue about the marketplace.

I’m all for free market competition in which highly skilled and dedicated leasing professionals compete for available business. There’s plenty of business for those who fit that description. However, the number of outright incompetent and out-of-touch agents who are infesting the marketplace has risen to the level that it requires some attention. People who lease office space are going to get hurt if they’re not careful about selecting professionals who can handle their leasing needs.

Here are three important qualifications office tenants should look for when selecting leasing representatives to help them with their office space needs.

First, leasing agents need to know their geography. They need to be experienced in the market area where the tenant office space is located. There is no such thing as a “San Diego office market.” Our city and surrounding region is broken into several submarkets: downtown, UTC, Mission Valley, I-15 corridor and north coastal, to name but a few. These submarkets are different from each other; they have distinctive characteristics and dynamics, so much so that no one leasing professional can accumulate enough experience to be proficient in all locations. For example, my geographic experience is in downtown San Diego and the UTC area. Our office includes a team of leasing professionals, each of whom specialize in specific submarkets throughout the county.

Second, leasing agents who can truly help office tenants should know and understand the needs of the tenant’s business or industry. Law firms are different from biotechnology companies, which in turn are different from high-technology firms, and so on. It should come as no surprise to anyone that they all have different needs in terms of space requirements, location and contract details. Tenants who forego such expertise in favor of toys, trinkets and being introduced to old football players are cheating themselves out of the expertise that is available by selecting agents who know their business and industry.

Market expertise is the ultimate premium any leasing professional can provide an office user.

Last, tenants should insist on experience in general. There’s no substitute for experience and dealing with people who have been and continue to be active. Deal with leasing agents who are really busy and well accustomed to being successful. They are the most organized, the most current on office market conditions, and they are most able to get things done in the shortest amount of time for their clients. Tenants who fall prey to the notion that new or semiactive agents “will appreciate me more and work harder” are, in effect, submitting themselves as guinea pigs. There’s no substitute for direct and active experience. Let your competitor try out the newcomer or old hand who’s trying to carve out a new market.

Being an office tenant in today’s commercial office market is risky business. Far too many landlords are treating tenants as hired help and even worse. As leasable space continues to be in short supply, the problem of finding competent help continues to grow. Tenants need to select leasing professionals as if their very existence and survival depended on it. It truly does.