Does your agent have a listing in your desired market? Or worse yet, several listings?

If your agent lists properties in the market or area you interested in, they have a clear conflict of interest in representing you as a tenant or buyer and should be immediately eliminated as an option to represent you.

This has nothing to do with the agent being a nice person or if they have helped you in the past… or maybe they are even a patient or close friend. This is paramount in order to protect your time, money and one of your largest assets, your practice.

The landlord or seller expects the highest price in the same way the buyer or tenant expects the lowest price.   The same conflict exists when negotiating free rent, build out allowance, build out period and many other concessions and business deal points. The bottom line is that your agent can’t fairly represent two opposing parties in any transaction where a negotiation is going to take place. Unfortunately, many uneducated or less savvy tenants and buyers don’t realize this truth until its too late.

While some agents will claim they can ‘default to a transaction agent/broker’, that simply means that neither party will receive any true representation, guidance or competitive advantage. Usually, that creates an environment where the agent becomes nothing more than someone who passes information back-and-forth but can’t legally provide any true guidance or give either party any advice that would lead to an advantage. So essentially, you are on your own and miss the opportunity for an expert to help you capitalize.

Someone who claims they can be a ‘dual-agent’, which is now only legal in a few remaining states, should be avoided at all costs. To keep things simple on this concept, if you hear the words ‘dual-agent’… run the other way and go hire an expert commercial real estate broker that will only represent your interests.

To put this in perspective further, if you were going to hire someone to help you negotiate a higher reimbursement for insurance, you wouldn’t hire an employee of the insurance company you were about to negotiate with. If you were involved in a lawsuit, you wouldn’t hire the opposing party’s attorney (and legally you couldn’t do so even if you tried). Real estate shouldn’t be any different.

As a healthcare professional, you want and need someone who truly understands your practice and industry, and who is committed to helping you maximize your profitability through real estate.

Before you hire an agent, ask them a few simple questions:

• Do you personally have any listings in the areas I am interested in?
• Does anyone in your company have any listings in these areas?
• If an owner asks you to list their property in these areas, would you take the listing?
• Have you worked for any of the owners in my desired areas in the past?

If the answers are yes on any of the above, thank that agent for their time and move on to another interview.

Just like medical professionals specialize, so do real estate agents. You wouldn’t refer a Dermatologist to give your patient braces.   The real estate agent who handles your transaction will impact the trajectory of your practice for the next 20 years in either a negative or positive way.  Choose wisely!

For questions and answers on this topic, visit our FAQ page.
To start a conversation with an expert agent, click Find an Agent

Click the button to begin the process of completing a free, no-obligation purchase vs. lease analysis to help determine the best course for your practice.

To hear more about why it is so important to have expert representation, watch the video below.

CARR Healthcare is the nation’s leading provider of commercial real estate services for healthcare tenants and buyers. Every year, thousands of healthcare practices trust CARR to achieve the most favorable terms on their lease and purchase negotiations. CARR’s team of experts assist with start-ups, lease renewals, expansions, relocations, additional offices, purchases, and practice transitions. Healthcare practices choose CARR to save them a substantial amount of time and money; while ensuring their interests are always first. carrusoldtheme.wpengine.com