We talk a lot about the importance of an RFP (Request for Proposal), and written about the top mistakes that tenants make. One mistake we see frequently is that tenants don’t check the RFP against the final lease.

A good agent will do this for you automatically.

Many agents will affectionately tell you that they are cowboys – their duty is to find you the best space, but once they do that, they’re gone. You look around and you’re left not truly knowing what everything means, and then, you’ve got all this information but no idea how to make sense of it or determining if it matches what was originally proposed.

If your agent is a “cowboy,” make sure you also hire an attorney who can make the comparisons for you. Or better yet, fire your cowboy and find a true tenant representative who will look out for you through thick and thin, a representative who won’t abandon you once the space is found.

Otherwise, you might find yourself between a rock and a hard place – or as we like to say, between an RFP and a lease.