4 Things You Need to Know About Your Practice Real Estate (and how it can help you get more New Patients)

Today we are thrilled to welcome a guest on New Patient Marketing Tips! We have invited our friends at Crown Tenant Advisors to share some of their unique dental / medical real estate knowledge in an Q and A format. Enjoy!

A: The first step in the process is to understand the type of practice that the provider is opening.  Are convenience and visibility important to the practice’s success, such as an urgent care practice?  If so, perhaps a retail location would be ideal.  Medical office buildings are great options for providers seeking a full service lease option and to be around other medical offices for possible referral sources.  It just depends on the type of practice.   We use 2 different data sets to narrow down a location.  The first data set analyzes the demographics of an area to ensure the practice could be successful in that area.  For example, understanding there are a growing numbers of families and children in an area is ideal for a pediatric practice.  Secondly, we develop a competition and referral source map.  We identify the competition and referral sources in a prospective area and place on a map to easily identify areas.   This allows the provider additional data points to make a decision as we analyze a prospective areas.

A: 12-18 months from lease expiration is the ideal time to begin discussions on restructuring a lease.   It is very important to hire a commercial real estate broker who specializes in healthcare to leverage the market and generate cost savings and cost avoidance.   Time is the biggest leverage in the negotiation process so we need as much time to understand the practice’s needs and determine the best course of action for restructuring of the lease.  At Crown Tenant Advisors, we perform a complimentary lease review to identify the critical points that will need to be addressed in a lease restructure.

A: We all make mistakes.  But there are 2 big mistakes that we see providers make that could cost themselves a lot of money.  First, the belief that if they hire a real estate broker it will cost them more money, so they try to do it themselves by directly working with the Landlord.  This is a myth.  Your broker’s job is to get the best possible terms for the project by leveraging the market knowledge they possess.  Landlords and owners have factored commissions in lease rates and purchase prices.  Your broker will take a portion of that commission.  When a Tenant’s broker is not utilized often the Landlord’s broker will take a larger portion of that commission.

The second mistake we see is when providers call listing real estate brokers off of signs.  They will unknowingly give away critical pieces of information that can harm the negotiation process.  It is best for your broker to handle these conversations so that sensitive information is not divulged.

A: Previously built-out spaces can be a great option for practices in terms of saving some capital expenditures.  Keep in mind that often, built-out spaces still need a lot of work to bring them up to date and out of the 1990s.  A qualified commercial real estate broker who specializes in healthcare should be able to help identify these locations due to their specific market knowledge relative to the healthcare market.  At Crown Tenant Advisors we keep a data base of identified second generation spaces in good locations.

A: We are happy to provide a complimentary lease review to any of your readers to identify if there are ways to generate some cost savings or cost avoidance.   Please contact Amanda Riepe at Crown Tenant Advisors at 770-649-8036 or email at amanda@crowntenantadvisors.com to get further details.

Practice Success,