DIY NNN lease creation tips, advice, etc (in Connecticut)
Owner of a vacant auto body shop in CT. 0.6 acres, 3500sq ft building in a “restricted business” area. 

Renting it out for a set price per month over 10 year period w 2% increase each year. Seems straight forward enough to use eforms or rocketlawyer standard template, but considering a lawyer as its my first time doing this in commercial space. 

Wondering best practice in terms of collecting the non-rental portion of the bills. Ie yearly taxes and/or property insurance sent as a “13th invoice” vs adding it into monthly rental payment, transferring all utilities to new tenant, etc
[{"id": "ixz4dq7", "text": "Hire a local attorney to draft the lease.  Attempting to create a lease from templates is not ideal and will leave you liable for clauses and terms the template is not aware of.  A typical Landlord/Tenant attorney will charge $200-300 for a standard commercial lease.  They'll also include local and state laws templates will miss.\n\nRequest it in .doc format.  You can reuse it in the future or for other properties.  Your lease is your Bible.  Don't try saving a few dollars on a document that is use in court.  My standard commercial lease is 50 pages.  National credit Tenant leases are 80-90 pages.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ixz559z", "text": "I would absolutely get an attorney involved. As someone who has represented both tenants and landlords, I\u2019ve seen a lot of small time landlords try to create their own lease template and it\u2019s awful, especially in terms of CAM. Good luck!", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ixzfaq7", "text": "Get an attorney or in a few months a situation will arise that isn't covered by a free downloaded template lease and it'll cost you even more than the $500 to draft a lease now.\n\nMy simple lease is over 40 pages.\n\nFor the \"13th month\" payment, estimate the amount and collect it at lease signing.  Take out whatever you need at the end of the year and send an account statement to the tenant with a bill for the next year estimated amount.\n\nDefinitely transfer all utilities to the tenant.  Most utilities have a \"leave lights on for landlord\" program where if the tenant closes their account or the services are to be shut down the landlord immediately gets the gas/electric bills put into their account.  Saves a lot of hassle and time for re-connections and it will be an indicator of serious problems with your tenant.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ixzyibs", "text": "Using a cheap online form, especially on a 10 year lease, will all but guarantee you shoot yourself in the foot and best case end up with a weak lease. Don\u2019t just hire any lawyer, get a reputable commercial real estate attorney and spend the $500 or so to get a decent document. I\u2019ve been doing this for 12 years now and can say it\u2019s a terrible idea to do this yourself.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iy042o2", "text": "I\u2019m in mass, on Webster lake, the CT border. I consult on this, and I have a template lease you can use, and will provide you a spreadsheet for the annual true up on the nets like taxes and insurance, but you should be forecasting those charges up front, billing monthly in the form of additional rent, so when your accounting is truing up at the end of the year your not left with a huge balance a tenant could fight, instead your checking to see if what you collected was enough or if you were short, they owe you the balance. If you were over, you owe them a credit. \n\nI can walk you through it all. \n We aren\u2019t allowed to advertise here but if your interested message me. Not a lawyer. 13 year commercial property manager and asset manager with specialty in lease administration. \n\nWay less expensive then a lawyer, too.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iy0vxfa", "text": "Don\u2019t be a mad man, hire an attorney.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iy3afqz", "text": "I hate attorneys... You need to hire an attorney", "replies": [{"id": "iy3aqeq", "text": "Or... Find you a broker. That's a member of the commercial board and has access to their forms and use them", "replies": [{"id": "iy3dfh1", "text": "Maybe I\u2019m working with the wrong brokers, but I find they give great advice when in LOI stage, but not so much when comes to lease itself", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iy3e9fk", "text": "Everyone here says hire an attorney, but make sure that attorney has experience in commercial real estate leases/transactions, not just any attorney. Another good source would be reputable commercial real estate brokers.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]