Research Your Real Estate Market Before Negotiating on a Dental Practice

There are so many important nuances to the negotiation of any dental practice lease or purchase. According to Brandy Keck, a Brockerage Liaison at Carr Healthcare Realty, it is imperative that dentists do their due diligence. This puts them in a powerful position when dealing with a potential landlord or seller. It also helps to avoid creating the uncomfortable experience of undercutting a landlord or seller with a lowball offer.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“Market research is the absolute key to negotiations. It’s all about a posture and a specific level of education to landlords or sellers. If a dentist is going into a negotiation and they don’t understand what they market is, they don’t understand what they should be saying to the landlord or what concessions they should be given. It’s not just about the rent rate on the property, but other factors come into play such as free rent, and tenant improvement allowance is huge. For dentists, the build out of a dental office is far greater than most other small businesses. The dentist really needs to understand what is available to them and what other landlords are willing to do. The more that they understand the market, the better that they are to come in and have a posture with that landlord.

RELATED: More Advice from Brandy Keck

· You’re Ready to Buy Dental Practice Real Estate. Now What?

· Know Your Dental Market Before Buying Practice Real Estate

· Market Factors for Buying a Dental Practice

The other piece of it is, if they understand the market, they aren’t undercutting landlords too much. If you ask for too many concessions or go too low on the rent rate, it’s almost insulting in the negotiation process, and they can hurt themselves in that negotiation. So they always need to make sure that they understand everything that’s available to them, lease and purchase options, and be able to go forward in any negotiation with the landlord or seller.”

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