Reasonable Payment to Broker
We visited with a broker friend about maybe relocating our office. We ended-up not moving, but want to compensate him for his time. We basically spent 2-3 hours looking at a couple other properties. I don't think he has a ton of time into all this but we want to be fair. What's a reasonable payment?
[{"id": "f3bs6kw", "text": "Dinner, maybe? Part of the deal when you work in sales. Given it is a friend, maybe a happy hour on you.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3btgww", "text": "Coffee", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3bvtm2", "text": "A bottle of scotch", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3bwdy2", "text": "You really want to thank him?  Send him referrals.", "replies": [{"id": "f3cp0mg", "text": "True.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "f3dy5s2", "text": "Yes!! More of this!!! tell everyone and anyone how he really sought to find the best option for your company and this time that meant staying put and not needing his services.  \n\nIf you have LinkedIn write a glowing recommendation and post a solid referral on your timeline while tagging him.  You never know who in your network might be his next check!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3bxkf7", "text": "I usually get paid on renewals, he didn\u2019t help you negotiate your renewal?", "replies": [{"id": "f3h7cuv", "text": "We have someone on staff that is rather familiar with the market and leasing. It was more to see what other options were out there.", "replies": [{"id": "f3hfh6c", "text": "There\u2019s a flaw in your statement, there\u2019s a person on staff that\u2019s familiar with the market but they don\u2019t know what other options are available. \n\nI feel like your firm left money on the table on the renewal. Why that is, usually for one of 3 potential reasons;\n\n Topic 1) Your firm thought it would not use a broker so that the landlord could pass those savings onto you... \n\nTopic 2)Your firm was being nice to the landlords broker, since they are so great to work with you didn\u2019t need an additional broker getting involved..\n\nTopic 3) You have someone internally that is pocketing the broker fee with their residential real estate license...\n\nAll three are flawed, for the following reasons\nTopic 1) the landlord doesn\u2019t pass along the savings, in fact that landlord knows you are working with limited information now and actually makes the deal more in their favor... there is more to a deal then rate and term.. you\u2019ve got renewal options, notice dates, tenant improvement dollars (even on renewals).. expansion clauses, cancelation clauses, right of first refusals, relocation rights, parking... the list goes on... without a broker I can guarantee you weren\u2019t asking those questions, thus the landlord has the upper hand in every one of those subjects.\n\nTopic 2) The landlords broker doesn\u2019t represent your interest no matter how nice they are, that bottle of wine they drop off every quarter, or the cookies and donuts or ice cream social they host... they are there to extract the highest amount of money from your pocket... if they didn\u2019t they would be fired.\n\nTopic 3)\nThis is really dumb, the person has no sense of the market, they usually rush through a deal and push to keep all current deal points the same as the last lease since it\u2019s worked out great so far. Their commission check is what they are after so the faster the deal closes and the less hiccups the better... funny part is they probably won\u2019t even ask for the right amount of commission on the deal.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3c3s0x", "text": "It would be nice to receive a 100 gift card at a nice restaurant.  I usually don't get that and I do a lot of 'consulting' for friends.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3caq8z", "text": "If it was me I\u2019d like a bottle of whiskey or dinner. \n\nBut as stated here referrals are what we live for.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3cfkqw", "text": "Referrals.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3chrag", "text": "Dinner / few nice bottles of wine seem appropriate.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3ck1xz", "text": "Your soul. Always reasonable compensation.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3euum4", "text": "I had a client give me a $100 amazon gift card for sitting down to chat about comps I pulled. I really appreciated the gesture.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f3pedbj", "text": "Make sure to use him if you do end up moving, and like people said before...Referrals.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]