How to Run a Competitive RFP Process — And Get Landlords to Compete for You

What an RFP Is and Why It Matters

An RFP is a formal request sent by your broker to a curated list of landlords whose properties are on your shortlist. It asks each landlord to respond with a written proposal — their best offer — for leasing their space to you. The request specifies your requirements: square footage, timing, desired lease term, and any specific conditions or deal points you want addressed.

The magic of an RFP process is that it creates a structured, time-bound, competitive environment. Every landlord on your list knows they're competing. They don't know exactly what the others will propose, but they know they need to put their best deal forward to stay in consideration. That dynamic produces better proposals than a bilateral negotiation where you're talking to one landlord at a time and no one is competing against anyone.

The RFP also creates documentation — a written record of what each landlord offered — which gives your broker a clear basis for comparison and counter-negotiation.

Step 1: Build the Right Shortlist

The RFP process only works if the shortlist is credible. Including properties you'd never actually lease doesn't fool sophisticated landlords — they know their market and they know when a tenant is using them as a stalking horse. Credibility requires that every property on your list is a genuine option you would seriously consider.

For most tenants, a list of three to five properties is the right number. Fewer than three gives you limited leverage. More than five becomes difficult to manage and dilutes the quality of your engagement with each landlord.

Your broker should be building this shortlist based on your requirements, market tour feedback, and a disciplined assessment of which properties are real contenders. The shortlist should reflect different landlord types if possible — an institutional owner, a regional private owner, and a newer development — because different ownership structures produce different negotiating styles and different levels of flexibility.

Step 2: Write a Specific RFP

The RFP itself should be clear, specific, and complete. Vague RFPs generate vague proposals. When you ask for "a proposal for approximately 10,000 to 15,000 square feet," you'll get proposals across that range with wildly different economics that are hard to compare. When you ask for "a proposal for 12,500 rentable square feet on the second floor, east wing, with term commencement no later than June 1," you get proposals that are directly comparable.

A strong RFP includes:

• Your company name and a brief description of your business and intended use
• The exact or target square footage requirement
• Your required lease commencement date and preferred term length
• Specific requests: TI allowance (request a dollar figure, not "landlord's standard"), free rent, parking included, renewal options
• Response deadline — give landlords 7 to 10 business days to respond
• A clear statement that you are evaluating multiple properties simultaneously and intend to decide within a defined timeframe

That last point is important. Landlords need to know you're running a real process with a real timeline. It signals professionalism and creates urgency without being aggressive.

Step 3: Evaluate Proposals Side by Side

When proposals come back, resist the urge to jump to the one with the lowest base rent. Base rent is one line item. The real analysis requires a side-by-side comparison of total occupancy cost over the full lease term.

Your broker should build a comparison model that includes, for each option:

• Total base rent paid over the full term
• Total operating expense / NNN charges estimated over the full term
• TI allowance value (as a credit against your total cost)
• Free rent value
• Net effective rent — the true average annual cost after accounting for concessions
• Any parking costs
• Total cost of occupancy per year and in aggregate

This model reveals the real spread between proposals. A building that quotes $2/SF lower in base rent but offers $20/SF less in TI and no free rent is often actually the more expensive option once the full picture is modeled.

Step 4: Narrow and Counter

Once you've compared proposals, identify your top two options. This is where most tenants make a critical mistake: they select a winner and stop negotiating. Don't do this.

Use the top two proposals to drive a counter-negotiation. Go back to both landlords with a counter that improves on their initial proposal. Be specific — "we need $5/SF more in TI and two additional months of free rent to make this deal work at your asking rent" is more effective than a general request for "better terms."

The landlords know they're in a competitive process. They don't know exactly what the other party offered. That information asymmetry, combined with their desire to win your tenancy, creates room for improvement that rarely exists in a one-on-one negotiation.

In many cases, the second counter pushes the two finalists to near-equal economic standing — and the final decision comes down to building quality, location, landlord preference, and intangibles. That's a much better position to be in than choosing based on the first proposal you received.

Step 5: Know When to Stop and Commit

There is a point of diminishing returns in a competitive negotiation, and experienced landlords know when you've crossed it. Tenants who keep going back for "one more thing" after a deal is agreed upon risk damaging the relationship before the lease is even signed — and they sometimes lose the deal entirely to a less demanding tenant in the building.

Once you have achieved the key terms you need — appropriate TI, free rent, meaningful options, and a net effective rent that works for your business — commit to a finalist, negotiate the LOI to completion, and move forward. Chasing the last dollar of improvement after a deal is 90% done is rarely worth the relationship cost.

What a Good RFP Process Looks Like in Practice

Here is a compressed example of how this plays out: A company needs 8,000 SF of office space. Their broker identifies four credible options and issues RFPs to all four. Three of the options respond with proposals. The initial proposals come in with base rents ranging from $27 to $31/SF and TI allowances from $35 to $55/SF. The broker models total occupancy cost and narrows to two finalists. A counter-negotiation round improves TI on the top option from $45 to $60/SF and adds two months of additional free rent. The final deal is meaningfully better than either landlord's opening proposal — and the tenant has confidence they have achieved market terms because they ran a real process.

That confidence is worth as much as the dollars saved.