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The Hunt for the Perfect Office

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As The Office Stylist, my day to day list of things to do and people to see, is beyond long. Recently, I had to tack on something new to my list:

Get a bigger office space

If any of you have had to look for an office space, then you know it’s not easy. It’s just like house hunting or apartment hunting; the perfect one is out there, you just haven’t found it yet. The good thing about hunting for a house is you have an agent that does the hunting for you. For offices that require more space and larger rent per month, you can do the same. However, if you’re like me and you need space for just 4 employees or less, then you’re on your own. So, if you can’t have an agent, where do you go?

Craigslist.

I live in LA and Craigslist actually has a great inventory of commercial listings from single offices to warehouses. I started here and entered my max price per month for rent. Then I selected images and also minimum square footage. For some reason, the listings aren’t being uploaded correctly because when I went back and un-selected those options, I found more of what I was looking for. The first office I ever leased I found through Craigslist so I thought I’d try Craigslist again. Here’s the thing, I had to sift through A LOT of listings. I had to call and find out what the listing didn’t include or go many offices that definitely were nothing like what I had in mind. When you talk to a leasing agent who shows you a storage closet, marked as an office, you begin to lose hope. If it wasn’t a closet the office was far too big or far too over priced. Come to think about it, the closet itself was overpriced.

In case you didn’t already know, office space hunting is exhausting

I saw offices that were too small, too large, no windows, grumpy managers, no parking, too expensive, not the right area and the list goes on. I started my hunt at the beginning of August with the hopes of moving into an office by September 1. This is something that can take months if you are being selective and even if you aren’t. Though the economy is in a state that there are plenty of office spaces around, you’ll still find that the perfect office space is hard to find. 

Did I find the office I was looking for in time? Yes. I did it by doing what I do with everything in business and in life: even when I thought the answer could be no, I asked anyway. 

Here’s how it happened:

After another day of searching through listings on Craigslist, I found an office that I didn’t want. I called them anyway because I thought the office building itself was pretty nice and I asked the manager if they had other spaces available. I described what I needed and he said that they had something they hadn’t even advertised yet because the lease wasn’t up until September 1. I set up and appointment walked in and knew I had found my perfect office space. It was the pefect size, perfect amount of rent, perfect location, it was the perfect office space and I had found it by accident. 

What I took away from my office hunt is a few things that will help any of you if you’re in a similar situation as most of you will be:

• Know what you want, down to every last detail
• Know what you will pay for it
• Call listings you don’t want because they may have an office you do want
• Use your time with the manager/management to get to know them too, since you’ll be dealing with them too
• If possible, get to know or see your neighbors and what other types of businesses are around you
• If you aren’t looking for a large enough space to use an agent, use Craigslist 
• Don’t compromise what you want because once you sign the lease, you’ll be there for a while

Have any of you had to go on an office space hunt lately? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below!

 

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